Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Weighted GPAs

Sue, I concur. Having been through that step of "processing" with my child, I have to say that I never though that was the sort of scaffolding that I'd find myself doing.

It was both eye-opening and sobering. You truly cannot expect to win on merit alone anymore-- because so many of those around you will stop at pretty much nothing. So if you intend to live within your own code of ethics, it may come at some cost. Choose wisely, yes-- but also make peace with the possible consequences of that choice.

Thanks HowlerKarma. If you don't mind my saying - I read eagerly about your child's progress and it often gives me hope. Whatever you did - you did a great job!

ETA - I guess more properly, "are doing a great job"! It's never really "done", right?

Sue

Could they not just base the GPA on the core subjects.

What would be core subjects?

This is one of the reasons our school DOES NOT RANK students based on GPA. Because of the shenanigans that some students would do to get that extra point. Our school doesn't give ANY freshman, honors or not the extra point. Extra points only start in H. Pre-Calc for math. And only two classes sophomore year count for the extra point. The school honors all seniors in top 3% of the students. And instead of a valedictorian, anyone in that 3% is allowed to submit a graduation speech and there is a selection processed for who gets to speak at graduation.

In addition all kids must take PE that doesn't get weighted. And most top students try to stay UC eligible and to do that you needs to take an art or music class. Top GPA's that one can possibly get at our school is about a 4.38. Last our school provides 3 GPA's on their transcript. Total GPA, Academic GPA, and Weighted Academic GPA. In our case Band is considered in the Academic GPA but marching band & PE are not. Classes that are included in the academic GPA are those that are "UC Eligible".

Continue to encourage your daughter to take band. The benefits to this will by far outweight ranking above the kids who didn't take music or art.

A unified voice from the gifted community might be one which states that GPA is just one measure of an individual's education, and encourages talking up the value of a diverse array of accomplishments, roles, and experiences.

It seems that many college admissions offices already value diverse criteria and credentials, but the message is somehow lost at the high school level. Possibly due to high schools striving for their own ratings and rankings, over and above managing the expectations of the students.

One thing here is that there is no honors for language levels I and II. But Spanish an d other languages are honors automatically at level III. I wish there was a regular and an honors Spanish I...my son would like it to be harder.

The OP implied that that her daughter and the others did six subjects the same but her daughter did an extra. I would take core subjects to be anything that isn't an elective. English, maths, science, second language if required.

By this definition the GPA for core classes wouldn't accomplish what I think the original poster was suggesting. Foreign language wouldn't be included nor any math after Geometry. The label our H.S. uses is 'Academic GPA'. Academic is any class that is approved for college entrance at the state university systems. Thus for us PE wouldn't be included and some art, music classes are included while other are not.

Many university calculate their own GPA for entrance weighting and counting only the classes they are interested. So this is not really as much a factor for college entrance as it is for some invisible ranking.

Different system I guess. We don't really have such a thing at high school.