Many college admissions counselors nationwide, including AU's admissions directors, are recalculating their applicants' GPAs to make the GPAs more comparable because of the inconsistencies in high schools' grading scales across the country.
AU recalculates a student's GPA to a standard, unweighted 4.0 scale, using only academic core subjects, including English, math, social studies/history, foreign language and science, said Sharon Alston, director of admissions, in an e-mail.
Once they have a standardized GPA, admissions representatives can compare students.
"Because we recalculate each applicant's GPA, this allows us to take 'apples, oranges, bananas, etc.' and look at everyone equally," Alston said in the e-mail.
Alston said GPAs are a good indicator in predicting performance in college.
"We have found that the student's academic performance in high school, used in combination with other information, such as standardized test scores, rigor of program, etc., turns out to be a very good predictor of the student's performance/success at AU," she said in the e-mail.
Kelly Reyes, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences, said GPAs reflect a student's work ethic.
"I think that GPAs are really important. Your SAT scores show how good of a test taker you are or how much you practice for the SATs, while a GPA will show how much effort you put into a class or put into your work," Reyes said.
Samantha Kramer, a sophomore in CAS, said she thinks GPAs are not as important as other admissions factors.
"I think that GPAs are really just an easy way for admissions to eliminate students. I don't think they're really the most useful," Kramer said. "[Admissions] should be looking at the different aspects of the student other than GPA."
Some schools and many students who are home-schooled do not have GPAs, but these students are not negatively affected in the admissions process, Alston said.
"There are also a number of schools that also do not use a GPA but instead use a written evaluation (course by course)," she said in the e-mail. "We read these very carefully and make our decision on that basis."
Kramer participated in the Phaedrus Alternative School, a program for juniors and seniors at Edgemont High School in Westchester, N.Y., that uses in-depth evaluations instead of a GPA grading scale.
"The in-depth evaluations force administrative people to actually look at the students and not just their GPAs," Kramer said.
Alston said she would like to "emphasize that while most students think that all an admissions officer does is reduce them to two numbers, GPA and SAT (or ACT) score, the evaluation process is much more than that."
AU is holistic in its review of applicants but is most interested in the applicant's high school performance, Alston said in the e-mail. AU reviews the students' courses, the level of rigor of those courses, trends in performance and areas of strength and weakness.
Admissions also reviews standardized testing, the application essay, letters of recommendation and qualitative factors such as extracurricular involvement and willingness to pursue a challenge, Alston said.
