Showing posts with label gpa-college. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 5, 2017
What Role Do Coursework and GPA Play in College Admissions?
To understand how colleges think, it's important to put yourself in their shoes. I explain this in much more detail in my Getting into Harvard guide, but in short, colleges want to admit students who are going to change the world.
But how do you predict who's going to change the world when applicants are just 17-18 years old? By using their past achievement as a predictor of future achievement.
Admissions offices at colleges do a lot of research studies on what types of students they admit and how to predict students who are going to be most successful. Often in these studies, high school coursework has one of the strongest correlations with college grades.
The former Dean of Admissions at Harvard said:
We have found that the best predictors at Harvard are Advanced Placement tests and International Baccalaureate Exams, closely followed by the College Board subject tests. High school grades are next in predictive power, followed by the SAT and ACT.
The Dean of Admissions at Lawrence University said:
In the majority of studies, high school grades have the strongest correlation with college grades. The SAT and ACT have the next strongest correlation, but this too is not surprising because they have a strong correlation with high school grades.
This is not surprising - it takes a lot of skill and effort to excel with a high school courseload requirement. The qualities that lead to success in high school education, motivation, hard work, good planning, time management, and control over your psychology - can lead to academic success. And career. These are all the qualities we will mention in this guide.
Therefore, your high school subjects are one of the most important parts of your college application. In terms of spending time, where you will spend the most time, more than 2,000 hours per year (180 school days * (7 hours a day at school + 4 hours homework). This is equivalent to a full time job.
Learning is your job. But instead of building a house, you're building your future.
Finally, just to beat a dead horse, here are quotes from admissions offices from top colleges on importance of coursework to your college application.
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gpa-college
Sunday, March 5, 2017
How to Figure out Your College GPA?
In many ways, figuring out your college GPA (grade point average) is actually easier than figuring up your high school GPA. If you know your letter grades and credit hours (a unit of measurement to reflect your weekly time in the classroom), you should be able to find your GPA for a term. You can also use this information to calculate your overall college GPA.
Write down your grades. Write down a list of what classes you took during the term. Next to each class, write down the grade you earned. Don't worry about writing down a percentage, just note the letter grade that you got. For example, your list may look something like this:
- Biology: B
- Calculus: A
- History: A
- Spanish: C
Use a grading scale to note how many points each letter grade is worth. Use your school's grading scale to determine how many points each letter grade earns. For example, you'd build on your list like this:[1]
- Biology: B (3 points)
- Calculus: A (4 points)
- History: A (4 points)
- Spanish: C (2 points)
List how many credits each course is worth. Once you've made your list, look in your school's course catalog to determine how many credits each course is worth. Sometimes, seminars or labs may be worth fewer credits so it's important to calculate how many credits you took in a term. Write down how many credits each course is worth. For example, your list may now look something like this:[2]
- Biology: B (3 credit points) at 3 hours
- Calculus: A (4 credit points) at 4 hours
- History: A (4 credit points) at 3 hours
- Spanish: C (2 credit points) at 3 hours
Determine how many grade points (credit points) you earned for your courses.For each course on your list, multiply the credit for your grade by the number of hours the course was worth. Once you've done this for each course, you can add up all of the grade points (credit points) to calculate your total grade points (credit points) for the term. Your list may look like this:[3]
- Biology: B (3 credit points) at 3 hours = 9 credit points
- Calculus: A (4 credit points) at 4 hours = 16 credit points
- History: A (4 credit points) at 3 hours = 12 credit points
- Spanish: C (2 credit points) at 3 hours = 6 credit points
- Total = 43 credit points
Need help forecasting your GPA? The GPACalculator is a great online tool. This calculator uses the website: https://gpahub.net
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gpa-college
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