GPA Consideration

tholcomb

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Joined
Aug 5, 2020
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My son is in the candidate stage at this time. He attended a rural public school and has had to take academically challenging courses by participating in dual enrollment and advanced placement courses. His high school did not calculate his GPA based on a 5.0 scale for these courses. Additionally, he took a college level chemistry course during the spring and this class moved to online (including the lab) due to covid and he received an A- which brought his GPA down to a 3.98 and his class rank down to a 7 out of 86. Do you have any recommendations as to how to explain this to the admissions office so that this scenario can be taken into consideration? Thank you
 
Weighted grades are useless. Every school weights differently so an unweighted score no matter the scale is appropriate.If he has a 3.98/4 and is in the top 10% of his class, he is looking good. He should look to confirm his ability by scoring high on the ACT or SAT.

All the other applicants have had to deal with Covid as well. I am not sure why you think there is something to explain. If he has strong test scores, demonstrated leadership, involvement in school or community, etc, he looks competitive.
 
Agree that there doesn’t seem to be anything to explain. SAs put more emphasis on the transcript than on GPA, which is highly variable from school to school. They look to see if you’ve taken the hardest classes your school has to offer — especially in STEM — and excelled in them. You’re not punished for not taking a course that your school doesn’t offer. If you supplemented with college courses, more power to you.

As for CV19 hurting your grade? The pandemic affected everyone. Many saw their grades decline, but some rose above it all and drove their grades higher. Trying to explain it away would seem to me as defensive and not your best foot forward.
 
I agree with what has been said above... assuming the GPA is on an unweighted 4.0 scale, a 3.98 is excellent (way higher than mine!) and should not need any “explanation.”
 
The transcript with school profile will explain it. No needs to justify an A- along with all other As. Your particular example seems to demonstrate consistency, competitiveness, and thus answers the question - does this person have the capacity to thrive academically at USAFA? If similar to the last cycle, USAFA will recalculate the GPA to lower, equal, or higher than 3.98, (which can be over 4.0).

Save any written space to show who you are. I say show, not tell. Just about everything up to now as you are applying - is relatively fixed, set. Even recommendation letters. Your child won't do something in the next week that will make recommenders change their mind. The only thing you DO have control over now are the essays. Don't waste space justifying Covid! Everyone will have something that isn't optimized, only satisfied. But what you can optimize, OPTIMIZE especially in this cycle! That's the CFA. And writing essays that tell USAFA about YOU, not about Covid, nor all the cliches that will pop up in thousands of other essays. You are from a rural public high school? Less than 90 in the class? I'd be very interested to hear some of his experiences! Sounds interesting! See, that is a much better story than "Why this or that because of Covid".
 
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