GPA/ Class Rank

[HSClassof2017]

I am a sophomore in high school. I take all honors/ AP classes that are offered to me. However, my high school does not weight my GPA, so it is a 3.71. This means that people that take "general" or low-level classes and get slightly better grades than I do in hard classes, while they are in easy classes, are ranked above me. I go to a private school, 99% of graduates go to college and about 1000 kids are in the school. Will USMA understand and recognize this, or will it be my downfall due to an unnecessary school rule?

 

[ca2midwestmom]

Admissions will ask your counselor for a school profile, which will show how many students go on to college, whether those colleges are Ivy, State or community, how many AP classes are offered in your school, etc. Admissions may adjust your gpa to reflect AP classes if your school doesn't weight.

West Point will take into account the more difficult (honors/AP) classes you take and your grades. Don't worry about this part -- focus on getting A's in those honors/AP classes and scoring as high as possible on the ACT/SAT. It's not too early to starting taking those tests.

 

[TotheTop]

HS, I would absolutely not worry about this. West Point looks at a lot more than just your grades and they also consider how difficult your classes were. I will give you this bit of advice (coming from an '09 graduate of West Point) that if your sole focus is on academics, you have to get a little more diversity. You may have fantastic grades and really hard classes, but if you aren't playing sports and being a leader either on a sports team or some other organization (debate team or something) then this will be your downfall well before your grades. You have to prove before you get to West Point that you can handle many different things at once, just not academics, and that you are willing to be a leader. Keep that in mind as you continue on your journey towards the academy!

I'm excited for you, West Point was an awesome time, it totally changed my life (it was tough though!). Give it everything you got.

Feel free to ask more questions. If you get a chance, check out this one website, its cadettraining.net. It is kind of a new site, but it has a lot of good articles on being a cadet, it could probably give you a good perspective on West Point.

Take care