GPA calculations... What courses count?

FatherOfFive

FatherOfFive

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Does anyone know what courses count toward the GPA the academy(s) use?

My son takes mandatory classes in Religion and Latin. His school transcripts use these courses to compute his G.P.A. And he may have at some point have taken an elective along the lines of underwater basket weaving.

Q: Do the Academies take the school's word for it when it comes to G.P.A or do they look at the courses taken and recompute a new G.P.A?

-FoF
 
They take the school's word for it...but they do note if the gpa is weighted or unweighted and take the classes into account...also whether they are honors, AP, CP, etc. My son went to a Catholic school and took religion for four years...that is not an issue I don't think. Good luck.
 
courses for GPA

I don't think the academy actually recomputes the GPA, but they will look separately at the grades in math and science. The grade one receives in calculus is extremely important.

As the previous poster stated, there is a fair precentage of mids that attended religous schools-- my son being one of them.
 
Yea... they look at the core courses I believe... my daughters West Point MALO told the kids in a meeting that West Point basically throws out the non-core courses and recalculates the GPA from the core courses......I would think the Naval Academy has a similar process. As a parent who has already sent two kids to college all the selective colleges all have a method with dealing with the GPA.


Whether they actually recalculate it in reality doesn't really matter. But the GPA doesn't mean anything without the transcript and the Academies know that. Every High School makes their own rules on how to calculate a GPA, what constitutes and "A" and how and what courses to weight. I wouldn't worry too much about religion and Latin...tho of course you wouldn't want a D- in them!
But high schoolers should know that they will not get away with "padding" their GPA with "easy" A's. BTW..... they also look at the level of core courses taken in context with what is offered at the high school..... if a student has a choice between College Prep Algebra II and Honors Algebra II, they better be taking the Honors Algebra II..... likewise with AP classes, esp in the senior year.
 
It sounds like some of the SAs do it differently. USNA is not overly concerned with GPAs. They look at class standings which are similiar but different in subtle ways. USNA also looks at the ranking of the school attended. Science courses, especially chemistry, taken at the highest level the school offers, is important, and obviously, math, through calculus, with the same criteria.
 
USNA69 ... Can you tell us a bit more of the chemistry thing? My son has taken several advanced chem course from an outstanding teacher, and I'm most interested to hear why that (as opposed to bio, physics, other sciences) may be scrutinized.

Thanks.
 
Several different types of learning skills are required to master chemistry. These same skills are required to succeed in a technical education.
 
I think they utilize whatever is on your transcript if your school weighs it in.
 
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