This is a question I am asked a lot each year. It’s an important question because a student’s high school GPA is the most important factor when it comes to being admitted to a college. A student’s GPA is a culmination of their hard work in the classroom over 3 years. I say this because for college admissions, the grades earned in 9th-11th grade are what colleges guarantee they will evaluate. Mid-semester senior year grades are also very important but whether a college evaluates these grades for admission depends on the college, when the student has applied, and/or how the student has performed academically.
I can also understand the questions about a good GPA because here at DC we utilize a weighted 5.0 GPA. There are many different grading scales and ways that high schools calculate GPA. What is most important to colleges is that we are clear in communicating how we calculate our GPA because students are only evaluated in the context of their high school. Students here at DC are not compared to students from another school that has a different grading scale.
What is an average GPA?
The National Average GPA is typically around a 3.0 (unweighted). When comparing that to our 5.0 grading scale here at DC, this would be around a 3.6 (weighted on a 5.0 scale). The average GPA here at DC from year to year ranges between a 3.7-3.9. Both a 3.0 on an unweighted scale and a 3.7 on a 5.0 weighted scale is a B average.
A student with a 3.8-4.0 (unweighted) GPA or a 4.5-4.9 (5.0 weighted) GPA is typically expected to be admitted to colleges who have a 25% or less admission rate. However, this is only 5% of the four year colleges in the country. The majority of colleges in the United States have a 50% admissions rate or higher. Something that gets overlooked is that there are great colleges that have over a 50% admission rate. To be accepted to a school that has over a 50% admission rate, you could have a weighted GPA in the 3.0 range. However, there are still options for students whose weighted GPA is in the 2.0 range but they are fewer. The concrete numbers are less important than your individual experience and the details of how you earned your GPA, which I will discuss below.
Determining a good GPA is based primarily on three different factors.
1. Your School Overall
Each year, we update our school profile which we send to colleges with senior transcripts. This profile provides each college with all of the academic information it needs to evaluate a senior from DC in the context of what we do. This information includes the honors and AP courses we offer, graduation requirements, grading scale, SAT and ACT scores, AP scores, information about electives, SAIL, colleges that our students have been accepted to over the last 5 years and more. You can click on the link above to view the 2017-2018 school profile.
Two students who have similar GPAs could be evaluated differently because one student has taken mostly honors and AP classes and the other has taken mostly college prep level classes. Colleges will consider the student who takes higher level classes to be more qualified. Even though both students are earning As, one is earning them in more rigorous classes.
When using a weighted GPA, it may mean the student taking more rigorous classes is earning Bs and the student in the college prep level classes is earning As. In this situation, colleges will still look more favorably on the student in higher level classes who is willing to take on a more rigorous course load. The point is that a better GPA doesn’t necessarily mean a higher one; you should challenge yourself with your coursework first and foremost. Don’t drop down a level in a course so you can get a A. This won’t fool colleges into thinking you’re a more qualified applicant.
2. Success and Your Classes
What is success? This is a very tricky question. Ultimately, success is utilizing the gifts, abilities and resources you have been given by God to bring glory to Him and lead others to know Him more. We grow up thinking that success is being the best, getting everything right, “checking off all of the boxes”, going to a “good” college, getting a good job and making a lot of money. This may be how the world views success and if we do achieve these things we may consider ourselves more “successful”. It’s difficult to separate our intentions from this worldly view of success. Nevertheless, as believers in Jesus Christ, we have to. God made each of us unique with different gifts and talents. We need to utilize these gifts and talents in all of the various ways that we can. Alex Chediak says that “vocation equals passions plus gifts”. As believers, it’s our responsibility to put in 100% effort as well as use the natural gifts we have been given. If we do this, God will provide opportunities for us to succeed in a vocational area He has prepared for us.
How does this view of success impact the classes I take? First, you should be putting in 100% effort. Just understanding this and showing teachers that you are willing to work hard through adversity will open up more opportunities to take more challenging classes. If you do not do this then you will miss out on opportunities to take more challenging classes. One phrase I really struggle with when I hear it is, “they haven’t worked hard up to this point but they have a lot of potential”. As you approach your junior and senior year of high school, if you haven’t worked hard, you do not deserve to be in the more rigorous classes.
You should be taking the appropriate level classes in high school that match your natural giftedness. As students get to their junior year in high school, it becomes more clear that students are more English/History or Math/Science students. This is a natural separation. Now, there are a handful of students that excel in all four (or five if you add World Language) but this is rare. Take the classes that you know you have a natural giftedness for and if you put in 100% effort, you should be able to get a B in the class. You do not want to kill yourself with stress, but if there’s a subject you’re really interested in or think you might want to pursue as a major in college, try and push yourself to take the higher level class. Even if it brings your GPA down a bit, it will demonstrate that you’re a driven student who is willing to take risks to gain a better understanding of the subject. Taking progressively more challenging classes throughout high school, even if it doesn’t raise your GPA, makes your GPA “better” in the eyes of admission officers because it is hard-earned.
3. Your Goals for College
Do you want to attend a Christian College? Do you want to attend a larger state university? Do you want to attend a smaller private college? Do you want to attend an Ivy League school? These are all good questions that need to be answered because the GPA you may need to have for each of these will be different.
What are you looking to pursue as a major? If it is specific to math and science or the humanities then this could play a factor in how they evaluate your GPA because they may be looking more specifically at how much you challenge yourself in specific classes that pertain to that major.
You will need to take a look at the average GPA for incoming freshmen at your colleges of choice to get a sense of where you need to be. You should also use tools like the Scattergram feature in Naviance which shows you the GPAs of other students who applied to these schools from DC and whether they were accepted or not. Other important numbers to consider as well are the overall admission rate, whether you are applying early decision or early action and what your SAT or ACT scores are because each of these factors could have an impact on how closely they will consider your GPA.
Conclusion
In the end, what is expected of us is our best. Sometimes our best doesn’t get us an A in a class (or even a B) and that is okay! How did you respond? Did you grow and mature through a difficult time? These are also very important lessons that will greatly benefit us as we get older and face more adversity. Your GPA doesn’t define you! It is just a number that is evidence of your hard work over the course of four years (four more if you count college) of your life. I don’t want to belittle its importance at all because it is still a number that colleges will evaluate closely, but it is not the only thing colleges will see. If you work hard, put in 100% effort, respond well to adversity, seek the advice of wise counsel (teachers, parents, coaches, etc.), serve others, stay involved in activities outside of school that you have a giftedness in and strive to grow closer to God, He has a great plan for your life and he will make it apparent in His time.
