Why GPAs Don't Drive Admission Decisions at UVA

It's pretty common to hear students say "I don't want to be a number." However, a lot of people cite a GPA when they approach admission officers and expect us to gauge a student's chances of admission. This is why we try to explain why the numbers don't drive our decision. Let's go over two major points to remember...

GPAs aren't standardized. 

Most schools these days have weighted GPA methodologies. They'll explain how they calculate the statistic at their school on a document called a high school profile that the school counselor submits along with the transcript. If you've never seen a high school profile, you can usually find it on your school's website or in the counseling office. It goes over the curriculum offered, restrictions when it comes to registration, how grading works, and how any statistics like GPA and rank are calculated there. 

Methodologies for calculating GPAs varies by district/school. Here are some snippets from school profiles I read 

This GPA distribution chart shows the high school data on the left and the county on the right. 

Some profiles aren't super precise.

GPAs don't convey coursework or trends.

Details are impactful in a highly selective admission process. We look at all of the courses and grades on the transcript to understand a student's academic preparation. GPAs can't give that level of detail and they don't convey trends in course rigor or grades. 

If you have questions, feel free to put them in the comments or join me for my next live q&a, this Thursday at 3 PM on Instagram. 

Scattergrams and GPA Data

I just finished my first week of high school visits in Fairfax County, Virginia. This is one of our most densely populated areas in Virginia and we have a lot of students at UVA from the many high school in the area.

The GPA attempts to summarize your academics, but it's not a very reliable number in my world. GPA methodologies vary a lot (and this is fine with us...each school/district uses the method that works for their students). The GPA doesn't tell us the full academic story, though. We need to see four years of course selection and grades to understand that. Trends are also important and aren't conveyed in the GPA.  Resist the urge to fixate on GPA alone. GPAs just don't provide the details we need to make a decision in a selective admission process.

Some may suggest that high school-specific GPA data is more reliable and use scattergrams to estimate admission chances. The scattergram is a feature of a student information system that many high schools use. Scattergrams plot past admission decisions on a chart using GPA and testing as the variables.

A scattergram I found online. This is NOT for UVA.

If you have access to them, remember that scattergrams are plotting the results of an elaborate application review process on a chart with just two factors, one of which is no longer required in our process. They show how our decisions correlate to those pieces of data, but they don't tell you how admission officers made their decisions. 

Keep in mind that there are some issues with scattergrams. Schools often rely on students to report their admission decisions to make the scattergrams. There may be missing or incorrect data for your school. In addition, testing is optional for applicants to UVA and about 40% of our pool didn't submit them last year.

There are times when someone may have a high GPA, but have some holes in their program (remember, we want to see classes taken in each core subject all four years of high school), a lopsided program, or a grade trend that is of concern. The details matter in this process!

We have to talk about GPAs again

For longtime readers of the blog, this post is going to be pretty familiar. If you tune in for my q&a sessions every Thursday on Instagram, you will probably be able to hear my voice as you read this. 

We have to talk about GPAs, but I want to point out two companion posts that might help you understand how we get an understanding of an applicant's academic preparation.

Course Rigor is Not a Number 

UVA AP Requirements (and Why They Don't Exist)

Now, let's talk about those GPAs.

1. GPAs are not standardized.

In Virginia and many other states, grading scales and GPA methodologies are determined by individual schools and districts. This allows school officials to consider what system works best for their specific population. People often ask admission officers what they think of various grading scales, but I really don't have an opinion on that front. As long as I get a school profile that explains how things work at your high school, I'm happy.

There are some states where grading and GPA calculations are standardized. If you're in South Carolina or Tennessee, for example, and this first point seems odd, it's because your state has a uniform grading policy. 

2. GPAs don't show trends.

Trends are important in the admission process. Most people know that admission officers want to see strong coursework and good grades on transcripts. That doesn't mean we are only admitting students consistent records. Lots of students have rough patches during high school. If a student has a stumble or a slow start, grade-wise, we want to see a rebound or an upward trend. The transcript will tell us that story. The GPA can't.

3. GPAs don't give us the details we need.

We obviously want to see students who are taking advanced coursework when it is offered at their high school. Students are preparing for a big step up to college work and we want to make sure they have a solid foundation from which to make that jump. What's more, we want to see that foundation across your core subjects (here's another gentle suggestion to read the "Course Rigor is not a Number" post if you haven't yet). 

We need to see the full transcript to understand your academic preparation. A GPA just can't convey that information. 

4. This is Virginia.

If you aren't from Virginia, you might not know that we have a lot of government and military workers in our state. We also have a lot of families from other countries here. As a result, there are lots of students in Virginia who have multiple high schools on their transcripts because their families have moved around. A school transfer usually has a significant impact on a GPA. It just doesn't make sense for us to use the GPA to assess a student's academic progress when we have coursework and grades on the transcript. 

As always, I'm happy to answer questions in the comments!

That's a chair at a dog-friendly hotel in Northern Virginia...dogwood is our state flower and cardinals are the state bird!

The Role of GPA in the #UVA Admission Review

I finished my travel season helping a colleague out at two large college fairs in Northern Virginia. We get asked "what's your average GPA" so many times at those fairs that we made little signs explaining that GPAs aren't standardized, so the average GPA statistic is meaningless.

The GPA could be seen as the schools' way of summarizing the work that's on the transcript. GPA methodologies vary from county to county in Virginia (and this is fine with us...each district uses the method that works for their students). The GPA doesn't tell us the full story, though. We may see classmates with identical GPAs who have very different coursework and grades on their transcripts. What's more, GPAs don't provide the level of detail we need to make a decision. We look at every course and grade, not the GPA, to understand your academic preparation. Resist the urge to fixate on GPA alone and instead think about how we read your transcript.


Some may suggest that high school-specific GPA data is more reliable and use scattergrams to estimate admission chances. The scattergram is a feature of a student information system called Naviance or Family Connections that many high schools use. Scattergrams plot past admission decisions on a chart using just GPA and testing as the variables.

A scattergram I found online. This is NOT for UVA.

If you have access to them, remember that scattergrams are plotting the results of an elaborate application review process on a chart with just two factors. They show how our decisions correlate to those pieces of data, but they don't tell you how admission officers make their decisions. A student whose offer of admission is plotted on a scattergram wasn't admitted because of their GPA and test score, but because the details of the application were compelling.

As always, I'm happy to answer questions in the comments.

Can we talk about your GPA?

All season long, I've been tweeting about GPAs when I've come across interesting practices at high schools. Admission officers don't have a strong opinion about what methodology is best. We know that your high school or district develops a system of assessment that they determined to be ideal for their environment. All we ask is that they explain that system in the high school profile.

The high school profile is a document that the school counselor sends to us along with your transcript. These documents go over important characteristics of the school, the hierarchy of the curriculum, grading scale, and the methodology used to calculate things like GPA and rank (plenty of schools stopped reporting rank to colleges, so we don't see rank on all transcripts anymore). The profile also explains any restrictions that might come into play when students register for courses.

GPA is not the major factor in our review. Methodologies differ so much that it's impossible to know an applicant's academic story from the GPA. Two students with identical GPAs could have very different coursework and grades on their transcripts. This is why we talk about the transcript being the most important factor in understanding your academic preparation. The GPA attempts to summarize the work you've done, but we use the courses and grades on the transcript to fully understand your academic strength.

Here are some of those tweets I mentioned...

As always, I'm happy to chat in the comments!

Let's Talk About Everything #UVA20

Whenever I see or hear chatter about the admission process that warrants a blog post, I jot a note in the task app on my phone. If you've been reading for a while, you know that I try to address one big topic at a time. Well, this week, my task app looks like this:

I'm going to attempt to address each of those topics in half a page or roughly 250 words (haha, get it?). If you've been reading  the blog for years, you have probably read posts where I have addressed these topics many times before. I'm going to link to some of those longer posts at the end of each section.

GPAs are Meaningless Without Context

Almost every time a parent starts a conversation about a student, they begin by citing a GPA. That number is meaningless without context. What does a 4.0 mean when there is no standardization in that calculation of that number?

The way I see it, your GPA is an attempt to summarize the work on the transcript. It doesn't tell the whole story, though. Two students at a school could have identical GPAs with very different paths behind them.

More about GPAs.

Strength of Program

A conversation I had with a parent on Facebook last night prompted this one. We look at progress over the course of four (really 3.5) years across academic disciplines. We don't just count up the number of AP courses to assess program strength. After all, there are students who load up on APs in one subject area and shy away from challenging courses in others.

More about program strength (see the second part).

Activities

There are people out there who have decided that you have to be either well-rounded or angular when it comes to involvement. This is false. The bottom line is that we are looking to build a well-rounded class. There is room for all kinds of people in a well-rounded class. If you have something to put down in the activity section (and that would be clubs, sports, a job, or other responsibilities), you did it properly. You don't need a resume (we don't accept resumes at UVA). Just fill out the form on the Common App and move on to the next section.

There are 959 student organizations on the books at UVA. They cover things you have your high school and then the list goes off into all sorts of directions, even into fringe-y and strange territory. We want students who are going to help propel all those things along. That's why we don't prefer certain kinds of commitments over others.

More about activities.

Recommendations

Keep it simple. UVA asks for two recommendations, one from a counselor and one from a teacher of the student's choice. Most students should send two recommendations. If your style is dramatically different in different classrooms, it might make sense to send an extra recommendation. Repetition is not necessary, so think carefully about whether you really need the extra recommendation.

I see recommendations as a compliment to the transcript. The transcript provides the data and the recommendations bring the data to life with examples and anecdotes about the student's efforts and style in the classroom.

More about recommendations.

Holistic Admission

People throw the word "holistic" around and want it to mean lots of different things. In a nutshell, holistic admission means that all components of the application are considered when rendering a decision. If your school has Family Connections, I know your instinct is to draw conclusions about our process by looking at scattergrams, which plot past admission decisions on a chart that uses GPA and SAT scores on the axis. This isn't appropriate. Scattergrams show you the result of our review, not the methodology.

In our review, academics come first. After all, that transcript represents 3.5 years of development. Most of our applicants are perfectly qualified to do the work here, so we also look to recommendations, essays, testing, and activities to understand the big picture.

More about holistic admission (and some really bad drawing from me).

Rumors

I try to have a sense of humor when it comes to the rumors that fly around about our process, but that gets difficult at this time of year because students are so eager for this process to conclude. When you hear a rumor, choose to do the ration thing and check it out with us. You can call, email, tweet (@UVADeanJ), or comment here to get our take.


This was especially long, so we need a Jack picture to close the post.

Hi

I Don't Care About Your GPA

Did that get your attention? Good. We need to talk about GPAs.

GPAs attempt to convey academic achievement. When you talk with your classmates about GPAs, you are speaking the same language. You can probably imagine the kind of work that went into making a cited GPA because you all understand the methodology being used at your school. What would happen if a student from a different school, maybe from a different region, joined that conversation? You'd probably have to do some translating so they could understand how things work.

Admission officers know that the way schools calculate a GPA varies dramatically. Many get around this by having a system that recalculates every GPA so the different methodologies are removed. We don't do that here (not saying it isn't a possibility one day). Instead, we look at the transcript to see the courses you took and the grades that you earned. The transcript tells the story of your process over the last four years. The transcript is far more compelling and informative than your GPA.

How do we know how to analyze your transcript?

The thing that helps us understand the context for your courses and grades is the high school profile. Your counselor sends a high school profile as part of their Common App form. The profile is often a 2-4 page document that explains how your school operates. It'll go over the grade scale, weighting, GPA methodology, and course options available to you. It'll also let us know if there are any restrictions on the courses you can take. Most of the time, the profile gives us all the information we need to assess your transcript.

Here are some snippets I grabbed from a couple profiles last year:

Click to enlarge

 So this is showing me the grading scale, has a statement about how courses are weighted when GPAs are calculated, and gives me a distribution of all students in the class at the end of the junior year.

Some profiles also give us grade distribution charts. This helps us understand how grading might vary from course to course in your school. Counselor sometimes clue us into this kind of thing, too.

Click to enlarge

Over the years, I've learned that there's a certain teacher who teaches a class at a school in my region (don't ask me to be specific) that gives very, very few As. I have read a lot of applications from the school and when I see a student with an A in that course, I am over the moon excited for the student. That A isn't going to get any special treatment when the school calculates GPAs.

What if the profile doesn't have enough information or we don't get one?

If we ever have questions, we call the counselor. It happens more than you probably think! Even though I've been covering some of my territories for 14 years, I call counselors routinely and learn new things. For example, this year, I learned that one of "my" districts had a policy that automatically lowered a grade for an online course if there was too big of a gap between the student's grade going into the final and their grade on the exam. The policy is gone now, but it was in place for some of this year's seniors.


You are so much more than your GPA. While it's a handy statistic to cite when you are chatting with your friends, we were looking at the courses and grades on your transcript to understand your academic preparation.

And because those graphics aren't too exciting, here's a CavDog picture for you.

Spring is in the air!

Why GPA is Meaningless Without Context

As I read my first few files this morning, decided to jot down the top GPA in each of the applicant's classes. I hope this puts somethings in perspective.

4.4422

4.8092

4.458

4.87

4.81

4.4951

Many adults outside of academia are baffled by modern GPAs. They're used to a simple 4.0 scale that's unweighted, so when they hear about a student with a 4.2 GPA, they are totally blown away. What does a 4.2 GPA mean? It clearly means different things at different schools. This is why admission officers at UVa often decline to answer the question about what our "average GPA" is. First off, we don't have a GPA requirement here since our process is holistic. Second, any average calculation is incorporating numbers that weren't calculated with the same methodology. Our statisticians calculate an average every year, but I don't think it's something you can lean on in light of the different scales used.

The counselors at each school send us a high school profile that explains the methodology in place. These profiles help us understand the context of the data presented in the application.

Resist the urge to compare your numbers to students outside your school. I see students posting their GPAs online all the time and it just doesn't make sense.

 Don't compare yourself to students from other places. It doesn't make sense!

By the way, I also jotted down the number of Honors and AP courses offered at a few schools.

29/19

14/6

20/16

27/16*

35/19*

67/21

The two with the asterisks limit how many AP courses a student can take to 3 or 4 per year. I hope this helps you understand why there's no required number of APs for those of you who attend AP schools.We look at the coursework you selected based on what is available to you at your school. Would you consider a student's program strong if he took 4 AP courses out of the 6 offered at his school? Would you consider the program strong if he took 4 APs at a school that offered 21 with no restrictions? If you start thinking about everything in context, you're thinking like an admission officer.