To: Bella Wong, Jason Medeiros, Eleanor Burke, Sandy Crawford, and Leslie Patterson
Unweighted GPAs are Unfair to LS Students
When my oldest daughter began the college process the guidance department at LS assured us that colleges want to see students taking the most difficult classes they can, even if they only earn a C. They assured us the although LS does not weight GPAs the colleges themselves do. They assured us that the school’s profile would explain the philosophy of the school and the nature of the different levels of classes at LS. They assured us that the college admission counselors know LS, know our students, and that we did not need to worry about the fact that we submit unweighted GPAs. We believed them. We were wrong.
In reality, many of the colleges and universities we’ve talked to do not reweight GPAs. In reality, as a result of the common application colleges and universities are getting record numbers of applications and are using GPA to determine the first wave of cuts. They have to. According to the MEFA representative that spoke to parents of juniors in February 2014 at LS, Northeastern University received over 49,000 applications in 2013. Also according to her, students should be taking the level class where they can achieve mostly A’s.
In reality, the school profile sent to colleges and universities is only looked at after a student has passed the first wave of cuts based on their GPA, especially if the student is applying to a large university or a university outside the northeast or without a long history with students from LS. In reality, the school profile does not do a good enough job delineating the differences in class levels. http://www.lsrhs.net/sites/info/files/2013/09/LSRHS-PROFILE-2014.pdf
While LS remains an excellent high school that well prepares its students for college, our students are at a disadvantage. They compete with other students from top MA high schools for coveted university admission. Most of these high schools reweight GPAs, including Wayland, Weston, Wellesley, Natick, and Needham. Many rank their students. Our high school does not. Our students have the opportunity to take high level challenging classes, but their grades are not reweighted to reflect the rigor of the work, so on first pass many top students are deferred or denied admission to universities for which they are well qualified. Some students even drop levels in classes simply to boost their GPA in hopes of gaining admission to a preferred university. This is counterintuitive.
In addition, merit scholarship that is based solely on GPA and test scores in many universities remains out of reach because our students are submitting unweighted GPAs. The schools have a formula for this aid, and they will not reweight. In the case of my daughter, she would have been automatically eligible for $24,000-48,000 based on her test scores, if her GPA had been appropriately weighted to reflect the rigor of her courseload. Her test scores more than met the standard. LS would not submit a reweighted GPA, and thus she was denied the aid.
Unwieghted GPAs are unfair to LS students. It makes them less competitive, forces some to take less challenging coursework, and makes them ineligible for merit scholarships. For all of these reasons we ask the administration of LS to begin to reweight GPAs to appropriately reflect the challenging course work many of our students choose. Our students deserve to be competitive with their peers from other similar MA communities, and our students and should not be forced to overpay for their college educations.
In reality, many of the colleges and universities we’ve talked to do not reweight GPAs. In reality, as a result of the common application colleges and universities are getting record numbers of applications and are using GPA to determine the first wave of cuts. They have to. According to the MEFA representative that spoke to parents of juniors in February 2014 at LS, Northeastern University received over 49,000 applications in 2013. Also according to her, students should be taking the level class where they can achieve mostly A’s.
In reality, the school profile sent to colleges and universities is only looked at after a student has passed the first wave of cuts based on their GPA, especially if the student is applying to a large university or a university outside the northeast or without a long history with students from LS. In reality, the school profile does not do a good enough job delineating the differences in class levels. http://www.lsrhs.net/sites/info/files/2013/09/LSRHS-PROFILE-2014.pdf
While LS remains an excellent high school that well prepares its students for college, our students are at a disadvantage. They compete with other students from top MA high schools for coveted university admission. Most of these high schools reweight GPAs, including Wayland, Weston, Wellesley, Natick, and Needham. Many rank their students. Our high school does not. Our students have the opportunity to take high level challenging classes, but their grades are not reweighted to reflect the rigor of the work, so on first pass many top students are deferred or denied admission to universities for which they are well qualified. Some students even drop levels in classes simply to boost their GPA in hopes of gaining admission to a preferred university. This is counterintuitive.
In addition, merit scholarship that is based solely on GPA and test scores in many universities remains out of reach because our students are submitting unweighted GPAs. The schools have a formula for this aid, and they will not reweight. In the case of my daughter, she would have been automatically eligible for $24,000-48,000 based on her test scores, if her GPA had been appropriately weighted to reflect the rigor of her courseload. Her test scores more than met the standard. LS would not submit a reweighted GPA, and thus she was denied the aid.
Unwieghted GPAs are unfair to LS students. It makes them less competitive, forces some to take less challenging coursework, and makes them ineligible for merit scholarships. For all of these reasons we ask the administration of LS to begin to reweight GPAs to appropriately reflect the challenging course work many of our students choose. Our students deserve to be competitive with their peers from other similar MA communities, and our students and should not be forced to overpay for their college educations.
Why is this important?
In a time when record numbers of students are applying for admission to colleges and universities, LS students are at a disadvantage due to the school's policy of not reweighting GPAs to reflect the rigor of coursework offered at the school. Students are less competitive with their peers in many neighboring communities that do reweight their GPA, and they are often ineligible for merit scholarships that are based soley on GPA and test scores. Its time to give our students the recognition they deserve for the rigorous coursework they complete in high school. It's time to reweight GPAs.