The GPA / class rank combo

The start of another school year has some students and parents once again hyper-focused on their GPA. However, in a recent tweet, a college admissions officer at a top 40 university reminded us that a GPA provides no useful information without proper context. Not to say it isn’t helpful, but the GPA by itself doesn’t say as much as some think it does.

First of all, GPAs aren’t standardized. Some schools award the typical A=4.0, B=3.0, etc., while other schools may have an A- at 3.67 or a B+ at 3.33. In addition, some schools provide bumps in individual courses such as IB, AP, or honors, and even that isn’t consistent across high schools in the same city or state, or between states. Some high schools indicate they have a 4.0 GPA scale, but recent graduates have accumulated a 4.7 GPA by taking numerous AP classes. In that situation, someone with a 4.0 isn’t actually at the pinnacle of their GPA range, but instead has a 4.0 out of a possible 4.7, about 85% of the GPA of the highest achiever, which, by some accounts would be a solid B.

The GPA has to be taken in context with the individual high school and the student’s course list. A 4.0 by a student taking no honors/AP/IB classes is very different than a 4.0 earned by a student enrolled in honors and/or AP classes. Is a “B” earned in an AP class better than an “A” earned in an honors or standard class? Grade point-wise, they may be the same, but colleges could look at them very differently.

Add to this the recent surge in “A” grades given out during the last 15 months of remote learning. A high school student I tutor who is currently struggling in their math class admitted that they (and many, many others, they assured me) cheated their way through last year with straight A grades by remote-cheating and that they remember nothing from last year’s math course. Is an A in an AP math class different from an A in a standard math class? Yes. Is an A from an AP math class from someone who cheated different from an A in an AP math class from someone who didn’t cheat? Not on the transcript it isn’t. And according to a high school teacher, the number of A final grades given last year in his department went from about 40% of all grades to around 75% of all grades.

Class rank is also a sticky issue. A high school freshman with straight A grades in regular and honors classes was ranked just outside the top 10% (61st out of about 500). However, after transferring to another school in the same district, her rank shot up to top 10 - not top 10%, but top 10 overall (out of a class of about 450). Same student, same school district, vastly different rankings. Another high school senior showed me her transcript with straight A grades in all three years of high school, with honors, AP, and IB classes. They are ranked 21st out of about 440. Never a B grade. Great grades in challenging courses, yet not in the top 20 in their class.

What’s the point of all this? As much as students and parents love to brag about high GPAs and class ranks, they’re become somewhat subjective (same student, same school district - changes high schools and goes from outside the top 10% class ranking in old high school to top 3% in their new school) and overly inflated. At a recent graduation from a school with over 400 graduating seniors (from a school with a “4.0 standard grading plan”), 22% graduated with over a 4.25 GPA.

Here’s some advice: take challenging courses, do your best, and become well-rounded. Stop worrying about the numbers.