College Admissions Offices Respond to the Ravenscroft Grading Scale
Tommy Griffin, Vice Provost/Director of Admissions, N.C. State University, December 2012
We use the context of the high school for each applicant in making our admission decisions. The grading scale
does not impact our admission decisions. We expect that a grade of "A" means that the applicant has done
great work regardless of the high school's grading scale. We also know that regardless of the grading scale
some high schools have more difficult grading. That is, there are high schools where fewer A grades are given
to their students. Our experienced application readers know about these schools. Information on many high
school profiles often includes not only grading scale information but also the grade distribution for the
students in the graduating class.
Christoph Guttentag, Dean of Undergraduate Admissions, Duke University, November 2012
One of the things we recognize is that there are literally scores, if not hundreds, of grading scales out there. No
grading scale is intrinsically helpful or problematic. One of the strengths of our educational system is the
diversity of ways in which students are assessed, responding to local needs and institutional values and
priorities. I’ve seen the following (off the top of my head): 90+ is an A; 93+ is an A; 4 point scales, 5 point scales,
6 point scales, 7 point scales (including many schools using the International Baccalaureate curriculum), 12
point scales, 105 point scales, scales that use neither numbers nor A-F letters, scales that give honors courses
+.5 and AP +1, scales that give Honors +1 and AP +2, scales that don’t give any extra weight to Honors or AP’s,
etc. Every good admissions office — and by that I mean at the very least the top 250 private colleges and many
many public universities — knows what to do with all of these different grading scales. They read profiles.
They read applications in detail. They understand the student within the context of his or her school. Grading
scales allow each secondary school to make distinctions it feels are meaningful, and we always respect those
choices. It is simply not the case that any grading scale is helpful or hurtful to a student’s chance of admission.
Barbara Polk, Deputy Director of Undergraduate Admissions, UNC-Chapel Hill, November 2012
Speaking for UNC-Chapel Hill, Ravenscroft students are not disadvantaged by your grading scale. While
many students and parents believe that we compare students from one school directly to students at another
school, there is no truth to that belief. All students are reviewed in the context of their own high school. We
read the school profile to understand a school’s grading scale and that is the scale we use in evaluating
students from that school. Given the number of high schools we work with each year, we see a tremendous
variation in grading scales. For that reason, again, we review each and every student in the context of that
specific school’s grading scale. It may also be helpful to reinforce the fact that we do not have quotas other
than 82% of the class coming from North Carolina and no more than 18% from out-of-state. There are
absolutely not quotas by school, city or county. Understanding this may also help alleviate concerns about the
grading scale and how it compares to those of other schools.
Jody Gore, Recruiting Coordinator Senior Unit, University of Michigan, January 2013
It is getting to be very rare for us to see schools on a 7 pt. scale. Our review is very holistic and comprehensive,
so I take that into account in our review. I do not personally think that a student's grade of 90 is any better
when it is called an A than when it is called a B. We do recalculate an unweighted GPA, but on your scale. So
we do not look at weight for any AP IB or Honors classes. I don't think your students are necessarily
disadvantaged in our review, but we do have to make note of the difference. Most schools put their grading
scale on the school profile; a few will put it directly on the transcript. On your profile, you make it pretty easy
to figure out that 93-100 is an A, so we don't really need a Letter and a Number. We recalculate on an
unweighted 4.0 Scale so 4= A, 3= B and so forth.
Dawn Calhoun, Associate Dean of Undergraduate Admissions, Wake Forest University, February 2013
When we evaluate students who have applied to Wake Forest University, we evaluate them within the context
of their respective high schools. We understand the grading scale of each school, are cognizant that differences
do exist, and acknowledge those differences in scales during the evaluation process. We always refer to the
high school profile/secondary school report to understand details and any nuances of a high school.
We do not recalculate any grade point averages. We take the GPA as it is given to us and evaluate the GPA
within the context of the high school. As you can probably gather, we utilize a very individualized evaluation
process. We feel that if we were to recalculate or convert a GPA to a standard scale, then the number would
lose its integrity. We look to see how a GPA is calculated at a high school (what goes into the calculation, if it is
weighted/unweighted, etc.). Also, if we do receive both a weighted and an unweighted GPA, we evaluate the
application using the weighted GPA to give students credit for taking the more challenging courses we want
them to take.
I hope that helps to gain a better idea of our evaluation process which, as you know, is a holistic process. When
evaluating an application, we take into consideration the high school record (grade point average, strength of
curriculum, and class rank-if offered), activities/honors, writing samples (short answer responses and essay),
recommendations, standardized test scores (if submitted/test-optional school), and a strongly recommended
interview.
Angela Herrera – Associate Director of Admissions, Cornell University, February 2013
We do look at the context of the school via the School Profile. We are looking at each individual student and
the classes they have chosen to take and what the grade in the class is - not the weighted grade. We do not use
GPA as it does not tell us about the classes. The grade scale doesn't matter to us because we are measuring
your students against your students only, not other schools and their scales. If your profile explains the scale
we will be able to decipher it just fine.
Julie Shimabukuro - Director of Admissions, Washington University, St. Louis, February 2013
We do not recalculate GPAs at Washington U but we like the way that Ravenscroft weights your grades using
the 4.0 scale and giving an extra point for AP courses and .5 point for honors courses. You have
an excellent school profile which clearly explains the courses you offer, your grading system in detail, as well
as your weighting system. We also appreciate the grade point distribution for the senior class by quintiles and
your school’s testing results. This information clearly helps us evaluate your students within the context of
your school’s academic program.