A high school student action plan includes the understanding of the college admissions standards, specifically the Grade Point Average (GPA) which is the needle by which colleges measure eligibility.
Overall, colleges accept a B average as a minimum GPA , but some higher selective colleges evaluate applicants with B+, A–, and A averages. Still, other schools may have other weight factors that that many apply.
The 4.0 system is the standard at most colleges, and many high schools. A letter grade is translated into a scaled score and this score is multiplied by the amount of credits the course is worth. That is used to determine a cumulative (total) GPA.
Other variables are taken into account when considering college admission requirements. For example:
• some schools don’t give plus and minus letter grades
• Some schools include non-academic courses, such as physical education, in the calculation
• advanced courses can give students extra credit for taking challenging classes. •some independent schools use a letter grading system, but don’t convert grades to a 4.0 system or supply a cumulative GPA. Other schools maintain a percentile-based grading system whereby students receive grades on a 0-100 point scale.
• some college admission officers may those factors to un-weight and then re-weight your GPA as per their prerogative.
Translating your GPA scale
If you’re looking for college admissions assistance with comparing your GPA, here is a common method for translating grades from one scale to another:
• A+ = 4.0 = 97-100
• A = 4.0 = 94-100
• A– = 3.7 = 90-93
• B+ = 3.3 = 87-89
• B = 3.0 = 84-86
• B– = 2.7 = 80-83
• C+ = 2.3 = 77-79
• C = 2.0 = 74-76
• C– = 1.7 = 70-73
• D+ = 1.3 = 67-69
• D- = 1.0 = 64-66
• D = 0.7 = 60-63
• F = 0.0 = 0-59
(Excerpts from the Greenes’ Guides to Educational Planning series By Howard and Matthew Greene, authors) (Other sources: Perterson’s College Search)
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