Anonymous wrote:DD just accepted to Smith!

FCPS weighted GPA 4.1, 1520 SAT. So excited for her!

Anonymous wrote:DD just accepted to Smith!

FCPS weighted GPA 4.1, 1520 SAT. So excited for her!

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Anonymous wrote:GPA 4.3 from FCPS (weighted, rigorous courseload), SAT 1420, White female, no particular hooks
In: UVA (in state), W&M (likely postcard), VT, UMd-CP (oos), Pitt

Why are all these schools so close?

because people in VA think there is VA and then the world. narrow

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Anonymous wrote:That’s just recalculating. It is not the same thing as using the high school’s weighting.

Exactly. They don’t use the high school weighting. They use their own.

Well I have yet to see any student under a 4.0 get into UMCP this year on college confidential unless their weighted was above 4.0. I highly doubt the kids admitted here are smarter than these top schools with lower GPA averages. Something doesn’t add up here.

Looking at average GPA here:

UMCP 4.3

Penn 3.9
Brown 4.0
UC Berkeley 3.8
Harvard 4.1
UMich 3.8
MIT 4.1
Wisc 3.8
Notre Dame 4.0
BU 3.6
Georgetown 4.0
USC 3.7
Williams 4.0
UVA 4.1

If you’re using College Confidential as your data source you’re doing it wrong.

This data may come from Common Data Sets, though, which comes directly from the colleges. What I've seen is publics like UNC Chapel Hill may have higher GPAs than any top private. (UNC-CH also has higher GPAs than UVA and W&M, BTW.) This may just mean those states have grade inflation at the high school level.

Colleges are permitted to submit GPA data in their common data set as they see fit. Some reports contain unweighted, while others have weighted, recalculated, or no GPA data at all. The UMCP average GPA is obviously weighted and is pretty worthless considering all of the MCPS kids with ridiculously inflated GPAs in the mix.

Oh good lord, why do people have such a hard time understanding this? If the colleges weren't recalculating GPAs to ensure they're comparing apples to apples - which they all do - then a school district should just change its grading system to a 6-point scale. Most kids would have a 5.0 or higher and could get in anywhere they applied!

I don't think you understand. You can recalculate weight. So yes, MCPS gives a whole point just for honors classes and a whole point for AP's. They can recalculate that. What they can not recalculate are the fact that everyone but remedial kids in MCPS take honors and AP's and that is not the same in other districts or privates. And most importantly, they can not recalculate the games given the kids. MCPS does not post number grades, just letter grades. They have a system that no matter that an A+B will ALWAYS (ALWAYS!!) equal an A. They also no longer make kids take final exams. They also curve grades, they allow retakes of tests and don't combine the grades, just take the highest one. They give participation points as extra credit as well. These are things that UMCP can not recalculate because they do not know.

If Sally gets a 79.5 and an 89.5 and gets an A for her final grade. Not a B, not even an A-. An A. How do you differentiate another kid in the same school that got a 95 and a 98 for final grades, which also equals an A? They look EXACTLY the same on paper. There is no way to differentiate kids in MCPS. And then when you have other counties and private school kids getting lower GPA's, they are in the first cuts. It isn't like UMCP decides to take a few from every school. That isn't how it works. And if you think UMCP actually doesn't have 1 or even 2 rounds of non-holistic cuts to lower the number of apps before looking at anything else, I have a bridge to sell ya. They received over 40K applications this year. You think they did the "26 step process" on all of them? Yeah right. GPA is the first thing state schools look at. Always have and always will.

This is exactly right about MCPS, but my son (in state), who goes to private high school and had a 4.12 GPA (low by MCPS standards) got into UMCP and was Banneker Key scholar. A friend of his at a top MCPS high school with a 4.5 GPA and similar test scores got admitted to honors college but did not get Banneker Key. So they must look at other things beyond the test scores and GPA data.

Last, you are a snore. You are one person repeating the same stats about one kid in private, which ironically has weighted grades. There is no point

You have options to act on: 1. Don't apply to UMCP, 2. Talk to your school district and get them to change the grading system, 3. Move your kid to MCPS to take advantage of all the things you mentioned MCPS does. Options 1 and 3 are totally in your control while option 2 depends on your power of persuasion. Good luck.

The PP said you can not differentiate kids within MCPS against each other. Why would she want to be in that school district? It sounds terrible.

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Anonymous wrote:That’s just recalculating. It is not the same thing as using the high school’s weighting.

Exactly. They don’t use the high school weighting. They use their own.

Well I have yet to see any student under a 4.0 get into UMCP this year on college confidential unless their weighted was above 4.0. I highly doubt the kids admitted here are smarter than these top schools with lower GPA averages. Something doesn’t add up here.

Looking at average GPA here:

UMCP 4.3

Penn 3.9
Brown 4.0
UC Berkeley 3.8
Harvard 4.1
UMich 3.8
MIT 4.1
Wisc 3.8
Notre Dame 4.0
BU 3.6
Georgetown 4.0
USC 3.7
Williams 4.0
UVA 4.1

If you’re using College Confidential as your data source you’re doing it wrong.

This data may come from Common Data Sets, though, which comes directly from the colleges. What I've seen is publics like UNC Chapel Hill may have higher GPAs than any top private. (UNC-CH also has higher GPAs than UVA and W&M, BTW.) This may just mean those states have grade inflation at the high school level.

Colleges are permitted to submit GPA data in their common data set as they see fit. Some reports contain unweighted, while others have weighted, recalculated, or no GPA data at all. The UMCP average GPA is obviously weighted and is pretty worthless considering all of the MCPS kids with ridiculously inflated GPAs in the mix.

Oh good lord, why do people have such a hard time understanding this? If the colleges weren't recalculating GPAs to ensure they're comparing apples to apples - which they all do - then a school district should just change its grading system to a 6-point scale. Most kids would have a 5.0 or higher and could get in anywhere they applied!

I don't think you understand. You can recalculate weight. So yes, MCPS gives a whole point just for honors classes and a whole point for AP's. They can recalculate that. What they can not recalculate are the fact that everyone but remedial kids in MCPS take honors and AP's and that is not the same in other districts or privates. And most importantly, they can not recalculate the games given the kids. MCPS does not post number grades, just letter grades. They have a system that no matter that an A+B will ALWAYS (ALWAYS!!) equal an A. They also no longer make kids take final exams. They also curve grades, they allow retakes of tests and don't combine the grades, just take the highest one. They give participation points as extra credit as well. These are things that UMCP can not recalculate because they do not know.

If Sally gets a 79.5 and an 89.5 and gets an A for her final grade. Not a B, not even an A-. An A. How do you differentiate another kid in the same school that got a 95 and a 98 for final grades, which also equals an A? They look EXACTLY the same on paper. There is no way to differentiate kids in MCPS. And then when you have other counties and private school kids getting lower GPA's, they are in the first cuts. It isn't like UMCP decides to take a few from every school. That isn't how it works. And if you think UMCP actually doesn't have 1 or even 2 rounds of non-holistic cuts to lower the number of apps before looking at anything else, I have a bridge to sell ya. They received over 40K applications this year. You think they did the "26 step process" on all of them? Yeah right. GPA is the first thing state schools look at. Always have and always will.

This is exactly right about MCPS, but my son (in state), who goes to private high school and had a 4.12 GPA (low by MCPS standards) got into UMCP and was Banneker Key scholar. A friend of his at a top MCPS high school with a 4.5 GPA and similar test scores got admitted to honors college but did not get Banneker Key. So they must look at other things beyond the test scores and GPA data.

Last, you are a snore. You are one person repeating the same stats about one kid in private, which ironically has weighted grades. There is no point

You have options to act on: 1. Don't apply to UMCP, 2. Talk to your school district and get them to change the grading system, 3. Move your kid to MCPS to take advantage of all the things you mentioned MCPS does. Options 1 and 3 are totally in your control while option 2 depends on your power of persuasion. Good luck.

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Anonymous wrote:GPA 4.3 from FCPS (weighted, rigorous courseload), SAT 1420, White female, no particular hooks
In: UVA (in state), W&M (likely postcard), VT, UMd-CP (oos), Pitt

Why are all these schools so close?

because people in VA think there is VA and then the world. narrow

this is funny to me, because I'm the above poster and we're recent transplants and have no particular allegiance to the state --moved here from NYC 4 years ago for a job transfer. But in-state VA tuition is attractive (we don't qualify for aid), the schools are good and we haven't heard from other out-of-state options. DC also applied to UMD because there was a chance we were going to move there and wanted another in-state option if that happened. Pitt was because it was rolling admissions so it eased her stress. W&M is her top choice at this point.

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Anonymous wrote:36 ACT 4.2 WGPA 3.89 UW

Accepted:
Notre Dame (invited to scholars and merit semifinalist)
BC
Villanova
Fordham (Dean’s Scholarship)
UMCP (B/K Scholarship)

Denied:
UVA

Let the record show that UVA reject kids with perfect ACTs and only 1 or 2 Bs on their high school transcript.

Shocked by this! Are you in-state?

Anonymous wrote:I find that very disappointing about Haverford, PP. If your high-stats kid from DC proper didn't get in-- sheesh.

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Anonymous wrote:GPA 4.71
SAT/ACT 1590/36
Acceptances
Texas A&M
UMCP
ND
YALE

Waiting
Harvard
Princeton
Brown
Duke
Vandi

Nice! Any outstandingly extracurriculars?

Nothing really impressive. 3 sports, 3 clubs president, NHS,etc.

Troll.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:GPA 4.3 from FCPS (weighted, rigorous courseload), SAT 1420, White female, no particular hooks
In: UVA (in state), W&M (likely postcard), VT, UMd-CP (oos), Pitt

Why are all these schools so close?

because people in VA think there is VA and then the world. narrow

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:GPA 4.71
SAT/ACT 1590/36
Acceptances
Texas A&M
UMCP
ND
YALE

Waiting
Harvard
Princeton
Brown
Duke
Vandi

Nice! Any outstandingly extracurriculars?

Nothing really impressive. 3 sports, 3 clubs president, NHS,etc.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:GPA 4.71
SAT/ACT 1590/36
Acceptances
Texas A&M
UMCP
ND
YALE

Waiting
Harvard
Princeton
Brown
Duke
Vandi

Nice! Any outstandingly extracurriculars?