Is It True That Your Hs Gpa Of Your Three Years Not Including Senior Yr. Is Only Counted 4 College Admission?
February 2, 2010 by Rob
Filed under College Admissions
i have a 84 average willing to bring it up in my next semester of my junior year and senior year if colleges count my senior year
Yes and no.
High school GPA’s are used not only for college applications but scholarship applications as well. Don’t I know it. My oldest sister was a member of California Scholarship Federation, a high school group or club that supposedly looked good on transcripts and was supposed to help members get scholarships for college. My sister had 1 “B” on her transcript in Geometry, and she received ZERO scholarships because of it. When college admissions people and scholarship applications people have more than 20 application papers in front of them, they automatically pull out all the 4.0 GPA’s and send them to the front of the line. They consider 3.9′s and 3.8′s, but will accept 3.5′s only if they have space left over. So at the awards ceremony, the Chinese kid with 4.0′s in honors classes was handed scholarship after scholarship like candy, while my sister received nothing, not even a grant. I was a freshman at the time, I already had a “B” in history, I saw the writing on the wall. I never pushed myself to do better in school after that when I knew that one “B” still only got me accepted into community college.
Speaking of which, community college is an often overlooked route by kids who don’t get accepted into their “dream” school. Community college, while I hated it the first time around, actually was a great and sooo much cheaper way to get my General Ed classes out of the way. Admissions people look at community college transcripts with much more favor for transferring students. Colleges and universities like community college transfers because they have college credits and experience already. SAT’s and other tests are designed to help admissions people choose between 4.0′s and find that rare underachiever in the pile, but community college transfers are looked upon with more favor because of their college experience. I got in to the University of Southern California on my community college transcript alone.
So if you are thinking about bring up your grades, do so but with an eye on simply improving towards getting better. Some smaller colleges accept 3.0′s and higher due to their being small and not as popular as the big guys. Many smaller colleges end up having really interesting programs that beat the big schools because of their small size. Moorpark College in Southern California, for example, has a wonderful Agriculture program and horsemanship program that allows you to bring your own horses to school with you. (So does Merced Comunity College and Cal State Humboldt, I believe) Many students studying Landscape Horticulture at Modesto and Merced Community Colleges work in greenhouses and plant labs on campus, many go off to further their degree at the greenhouses and landscaping program at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (Gorgeous neighborhood). Long Beach City College used to offer classes in rock climbing at Joshua Tree National Monument, Orange Coast College in Huntington Beach offers classes in sailing and seamanship. Steven Spielberg actually got his degree from Cal State Long Beach. So look into smaller schools for programs you are interested, rather than focusing on getting in to the big guys.
They will not count your senior year grades when they accept you (though they will look at your senior year courses). Wherever you decide to go will receive a final transcript when you graduate; if there’s a significant downtrend in your grades, they can revoke your admission.
Yes, depending on when you apply. Say you send in your application sometime over the summer before your senior year or sometime during the first semester of your senior year. They can’t count it because you don’t even have those grades in yet.
To be honest what counts more is your ACT or SAT score. Of course for higher ranked schools and scholarships they will look more deeply into your transcript.
I have heard that they count everything since 9th grade but that may depend on the individual school.