Staying Qualified Through Senior Year

G

goforwestpoint

10-Year Member
5-Year Member
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Feb 25, 2009
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Hey everyone!!

I received an appointment to West Point this Saturday and I am thrilled! :biggrin:

I am wondering though, in order to keep my appointment, what kind of grades should I maintain?

I am currently enrolled in 3 AP and 3 IB classes and my GPA is about 3.6 unweighted. Is it enough to keep a B average throughout senior year?
 
Congratulations on your appointment. What a relief to have that settled so early in the process. Aim for A's; if you hit a few B's you are still in good shape. Maintain excellent study habits so you do not lose the momentum. West Point is academically challenging. The best way to prepare for that is to continue to challenge yourself up until graduation.
 
You are in - now focus on prep. Those AP classes will really help you there. Even if the going gets tough in them, stay with the hard classes. You will be glad you did next year. Congratulations!
 
I'm not sure what you need to "keep your appointment," but just enjoy senior year. Don't completely slack, but have a good time. I think I took one AP class second semester, took classes I knew I'd enjoy (which included no science), and got mostly Bs, and USNA didn't care one bit. I assume USMA is probably the same. Don't stress it. As long as you don't get arrested, get expelled, or do something equally stupid, it's not worth getting worried about.
 
Sorry to dredge up this old thread, but would getting one C and having all other grades be typical be a cause for concern?
 
BeatNavy said:
Sorry to dredge up this old thread, but would getting one C and having all other grades be typical be a cause for concern?
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Erm, I wouldnt know what West Point would look for in appointed seniors, but I would do my best to not let anything drop below a B. I mean, I doubt they would withdraw your appointment for one C, but just to be safe, try your best not to let it happen.
 
I talked with my admissions rep at West Point, and last year they withdrew 2 offers of admission to people who had had LOA's.

Moral of story, they want people taking hard classes and TRYING, and if you don't get the subject, go in for the extra help, because your admissions rep can still help you keep that offer as long as you tried as hard as you could, i.e. don't slack!

M19
:cool:
 
11BRAVO said:
How would a 4.2 High School GPA be considered at WP?
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The problem with this is knowing what it's based on. Many schools have a 4.0 as the highest possible scale, and many colleges require your submitted GPA to be on this scale (meaning if your school weights any grades, you need to calculate them as unweighted - an A being the highest at a 4.0). I never realized until being on these boards how many different ways there were to do this. My son's school weights AP classes as a 5.0, but we figured out that even if you took all of them possible, you still wouldn't end up above about a 4.17.

Other schools weight both honors and AP on a 5.0. Some schools put AP at a 6.0 and honors at a 5.0. So saying a 4.2, which must be weighted somehow, obviously means a lot less in the last example than at my son's school. I know that at AF they recalculate your GPA based on an unweighted one, also figuring in the difficulty of your school and your classes. Obviously a 4.2 sounds good, and if it means you got nearly all A's, then it probably is. But they'll still look at the school/class difficulty as well.
 
Chockstock said:
Erm, I wouldnt know what West Point would look for in appointed seniors, but I would do my best to not let anything drop below a B. I mean, I doubt they would withdraw your appointment for one C, but just to be safe, try your best not to let it happen.
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Yeah I was kind of worried about it. I realize its no excuse but the class is real hard and its not like im just not trying at all. I should probably be able to get a B minus for the semester but I was just a little worried.
 
In our system an AP class with a 98-100 average is worth 5.0. A regular class with a 98-100average is worth 4.2.
A student that gets 98-100 in every class throughout HS with no AP classes could have a 4.2 GPA. Throw in some AP courses and I've heard your GPA could be as high as 4.6. Our school system has a very limited number of AP classes. Most AP classes are for Jrs and Srs but some are available to younger students with permission from admin.
I'm not sure if an AP course worth 5.0 is considered weighted. I would say a class worth 4.2 for a 98-100 is some sort of weighted system. It can get rather confusing when trying to compare.
 
Honestly, I don't think the academy is very concerned with GPA. It is very specific to the school. They look more at class rank and teacher evaluations to determine academic performance.
 
That makes sense...it's not apples to apples in every situation. So being ranked #1 or #2 is good provided the class size is not under a hundred.
 
Being ranked one or two is superb, even if the class size is under 100.
 
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