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  • J

    Jessica HuebnerMay 10, 2010 at 1:07 pm

    I agree – the GPA boost can be deceiving and should be reevaluated.
    I’m in AP Micro/Macroeconomics, and I know that there are a lot of students who are in it only because it increases their GPA. With the AP exams in full swing this week, those students are probably experiencing the consequences of their lack of dedication to the class.

    AP classes are made to challenge students that are most likely already very intelligent. If someone joins an AP class without being adequately prepared for the workload, they more often than not fall behind. Since it’s an AP class, though, they end up getting a deceiving GPA. Plus (as was mentioned in the article), colleges can ask for unweighted GPAs, which show a student’s true grade point average.

    I also agree with your solution; it would really be more beneficial to everyone if students only receive the weighted GPA if they score a three or higher on the AP exam.

  • E

    EvanApr 26, 2010 at 4:00 pm

    AP classes have been, and will continue to be the symbol of RB’s identity crisis.

    This proposal, however, further complicates the issue and makes the entire AP situation more biased and less egalitarian. Offering weighted GPAs to students who pass the tests jeopardizes a bevy of students. For example, two students with two different teachers are very likely to have a different level of preparedness for the exam–thus, a student taking a class with a first-year AP teacher is much less likely to score a 3 or higher than a student with a veteran AP teacher. In short, there are just too many confounding variables for your proposal to work.

    Don’t be fooled. As you said, college admissions officers look at unweighted GPAs and the ballooned RB GPAs and make the appropriate judgements. This is also why class rank is still a critical identifier; while a 4.0 GPA looks great on paper, at RB that student is probably 100th or so in his/ her class.

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Weighted GPA should require merit