I read an article in a newspaper about a ps high school student with a 4.5

[74Heaven]

To tell the truth, I haven't thought much about honors classes or weighted gpas, etc.

 

How will a college admissions officer (such as at a state university or medium-tier (lower tier?) Christian Bible college) compare a student with a homeschooled 3.5 to 4.0 gpa with a 4.5 gpa ps graduate with (I assume) honors classes? and the higher gpa.

 

Is a 4.5 gpa is roughly = a 4.0 student who took honors classes? Does a college admissions care much about 4.5 (etc) gpas **if** the SAT and/or SAT subject scores are comparable for someone with a 4.0 gpa and no honors classes.

 

Should I be paying more attention to gpa and honors classes? I think my second dtr (just 9th grade now; taking 11th gr courses) maybe able to do some honors classes but I am hoping I have 2-3 years to figure this out?

 

Thanks for any advice.

Lisaj, mom to 5

[Chris in VA]

If you put your grading scale on the transcript, and include a very brief but to the point description as a second page to your transcript, you can cover your "honors" bases all right.

 

Yep, those weighted classes drive me nuts, but every school is so different--pay attention to what you call your child's classes. Instead of English 9, for example, we "fancied it up" a bit by calling it Great Books of The Ancient World.

[Jane in NC]

Several participants on these boards have noted that admissions officers may toss out the weighted scales. One admissions officer at a competitive school told us that he does not put any weight on a homeschool "honors" course. This is probably one of those cases where it is best for you to check with the college.

[Michelle in MO]

a private school this past fall, I put an asterisk on their transcript for the one class which we did which I thought might fall under the category of "honors", but I did not weight the grade. I added a note on my home-generated transcript and essentially left it up to the guidance counselor as to whether or not to consider that class as honors.

 

The weighted grade thing drives me nuts, too, and I've also read that many colleges change those upon admitting students.

 

For example, here's one college that I really like which does look at AP, IB (International Baccalaureate), and honors classes, but they still adjust the GPA upon entrance:

 

"We will compute a new GPA based on this core academic coursework, as well as on other AP or IB classes that do not fit into the categories above (e.g., AP Music Theory). A strong applicant will have an adjusted GPA greater than 3.75, and the vast majority of our admitted students will have an adjusted GPA of at least 3.3."

 

I think it's good to have documentation for all classes which you would consider to be AP, honors, etc., but be aware that many colleges will readjust all of those grades. I saw a transcript of a girl who had been homeschooled whose parents generated her transcript with the grades and a designation "BW" ("before weighting") by each of those that they considered to be honors, AP, etc. They then assigned her a GPA before weighting and after weighting, and left it up to the colleges to decide. Since the girl scored a 1360 on her SAT's (out of 1600; this was before the newer scale of 2400) and had taken a number of outsourced classes, she had no trouble getting admitted to the college of her choice.

[MyThreeSons]

Around here, they publish the All-Academic Team after a given public school sports season. I frequently see students with 4.6 to 5.2 (!) GPAs, ranked in the top 1% to 5% of their class, and a 1050 or 1100 on the SAT. I know some folks just aren't good at standardized tests, but those GPAs ought to go with something more like a 1300 to 1400 on the SAT at least, I would think. Oh, and then these outstanding athletes with academic excellence don't even go to a top college .....

 

All this to say that I think that admissions officers look at the package as a whole, with a lot of weight on SAT or ACT scores.

[Moni]

 

lot of weight on SAT or ACT scores.

 

.

 

This is my understanding also.

It really seems to be about the scores.

 

:seeya:

[Beth in SW WA]

. Great Books of The Ancient World.

 

Chris, I'm SO stealing that line!

[Michelle in MO]

Around here, they publish the All-Academic Team after a given public school sports season. I frequently see students with 4.6 to 5.2 (!) GPAs, ranked in the top 1% to 5% of their class, and a 1050 or 1100 on the SAT. I know some folks just aren't good at standardized tests, but those GPAs ought to go with something more like a 1300 to 1400 on the SAT at least, I would think. Oh, and then these outstanding athletes with academic excellence don't even go to a top college .....

 

All this to say that I think that admissions officers look at the package as a whole, with a lot of weight on SAT or ACT scores.

 

not all honors (or AP or IB, etc.) courses are created equal, which is why college admissions officials generally adjust the GPA's of incoming freshmen to a regular 4.0 scale.

 

Our local p.s. has a really unusual scale, something like 11.00 (????), with the possibility of some kids getting GPA's of 15.00 and 16.00. It seems almost absurd! I would think this would be terribly confusing for admissions people---which is why they adjust the GPA's to a standard 4.0 scale--something that everyone can understand.

 

When I created my daughter's transcript (the oldest, in particular), my GPA for her first two years was very consistent with the grades she's making now in private school. I was delighted to see that these grades were also consistent with her PSAT and ACT scores.

[bettyandbob]

An article my local paper a few months ago interviewed several admissions officials from my region. They all said they just look at unweighted GPAs and the courses the student took. They all like to see AP and IB classes on transcripts. A homeschooler cannot designate a course AP or IB. IB courses are monitored by that organization and the AP folks put requirements for their approval of what could be called AP recently. However, anyone can sign up for and talk an AP exam so it doesn't matter if you call the course AP, if you take the exam and have a score to back up your work.

 

I personally wouldn't bother calling a homeschool class "honors". What does that mean anyway. Every school system and individual schools have differing levels of requirements for honors courses. So, the term means nothing. I think on a homeschool transcript an "honors" notation can only look like padding and be viewed very dubiously. I think having good scores on SAT II tests and some AP scores backs up the homeschool transcript.

[mcconnellboys]

I think with weighting, the highest a student could currently earn is a 6.0. Many, many colleges are beginning to throw out weighting and recalculate grades as unweighted in order to even the playing field for students coming in from different schools.

 

Another good way to show higher level accomplishment in a particular area of study is to take the AP test for that course. A good grade (4-5) on this test, which includes a good deal of writing, is generally considered meaningful to most colleges. More and more schools are no longer accepting CLEP testing, which is only multiple choice type questions.

[Sharon in MD]

They told us that they take the gpas of the applicants and basically recalculate them to put the applicants all on the same scale for their admissions committees to review. That way if a kid goes to a school that uses a straight 4.0 scale they will not be at a disadvantage when compared to a student whose gpa might look better, but not really be any better, KWIM?

 

We just used a straight 4.0 scale and made it clear that the grades were not weighted. It has not hurt him at all. He has been accepted to three of the four schools so far and been offered merit aid by all three. He has a 4.0 and his SAT were pretty good, but not stellar....660 M, 630 CR, 610 WR.