Another Record-Setting Class Enters USF

[TExpress]

The new system has become ridiculous. It is no longer a grade point average, it is a grade point accumulation. If a person has straight A's today and takes the required 24 credits for graduation he will receive a 4.0 plus a 0.04 to 0.08 increase for each weighted class taken. In the case of the 9.3 GPA, the kid took more than 70 credits with most of them being weighted classes. The ridiculous GPA system today just tell us whether or not a kid has a social life. Class rank is now skewed too! A person could make straight B's now and become valedictorian if they took enough classes. I guess we have reached the steroid era of high school academics in terms of artificially inflated GPA's.

[Gismo]

The problem is there are tons of kids in these AP classes that don't belong there. And it inflates everyone's grades. My AP Econ teacher said it well. His student's pass rate for the AP exam was less than 20%. He said to the class it's low because "most of you don't belong here, but I can't fail half of the graduating seniors or I'd get fired." He clearly didnt like having to give all of the average kids Cs and Bs. He rather they take the honors or regular.

The schools get money for the number of students that take or pass the AP exams so there is incentive for them to have as many students taking them as possible.

I took 10 AP classes in high school. Unweighted I probably averaged from a 3.3 - 3.5 GPA in my AP classes, but I passed 9 out of 10 of the AP tests I took, and 6/6 of those I took my senior year. I was around the 20th percentile of my class based on GPA, yet many people I knew in the top 10% were not passing the AP exams despite their A or B letter grade and 4.3 GPAs. But you apply to colleges way before the AP test results are back or your senior year is completed so it's not even a factor for people like me unfortunately.

My freshman year of college was a breeze compared to my senior year of high school.

Admissions are screwy at universities these days. The people I know who did or did not get accepted some places is really mind boggling, especially UF.

Honestly it's probably harder to take all regular classes and get a 4.0 than to take all AP classes. In AP a B is a 4.0, at least it was at my high school. My high school had only one student i recall who truly earned an A in every class, while taking AP classes, and he went to Harvard.

Schools should not weight honors or AP. let the kids that want college credit take the AP for college credit. Get rid of the kids taking them as GPA inflaters because many do not care about passing the AP exam. Most kids takes these classes just to boost their GPA. But if you take it for the purposes of college credit and study hard to pass the AP exam it is worth while. Take it from someone who entered USF with 32 credits from AP classes.

[TExpress]

FWIW: This will show you the skew in GPA over the years. I graduated HS in 2000. I had a 4.31 weighted and a 3.9 unweighted GPA. About half of my courses were honors and AP (which was all that was offered) so my highest possible GPA would have been around 4.5. Using today's scale, I would have between a 4.38 and 4.86 weighted GPA. Add more weighted classes and the GPA goes to 5.0 and beyond! It had no effect on my academic standing so I chose not to take 20 classes a year, plus I had a life.

[Gismo]

So this begs the question, is today's USF class any more academically talented than yesterday's? Or is it instead that today's class just has more inflated GPAs but the quality of the student isn't any better.

[Apis Bull]

I think they're better.  SAT scores have gone up, and they've become way more selective.

[TExpress]

So this begs the question, is today's USF class any more academically talented than yesterday's? Or is it instead that today's class just has more inflated GPAs but the quality of the student isn't any better.

 

SAT scores and acceptance rates would probably have to be the primary indicators as GPA and class rank have gone out the window. Over the long run I would definitely say "yes". The past 3 years have been marginal. I transferred from a major university to USF in 2002 (because I realized the cold sucked and had a lot of friends at USF) and USF is a completely different university today. I was so impressed with the change that in 2009 I went back to USF and got a masters. I would venture to guess that a lot of the kids admitted in 2002 would not get accepted today.

[WWMJD]

I went to USF 10 years ago on a full ride and then some, and am confident that if I were graduating from high school today I would not even be close to getting that type of deal.  The quality of students, especially at the top end, has dramatically improved.

[TExpress]

I went to USF 10 years ago on a full ride and then some, and am confident that if I were graduating from high school today I would not even be close to getting that type of deal.  The quality of students, especially at the top end, has dramatically improved.

 

Academic Scholars Award via Florida Lottery? 100% tuition plus 300 per semester for books? I love the Florida Lottery for that! Do they still do that? Back when I graduated we had to have a 3.5 unweighted GPA, 1270 SAT (or 28 ACT), and 50 hours of community service. I didn't have any student loans as an undergrad because of that. Grad school was a different story though...

Edited September 13, 2013 by TExpress17

[WWMJD]

 

I went to USF 10 years ago on a full ride and then some, and am confident that if I were graduating from high school today I would not even be close to getting that type of deal.  The quality of students, especially at the top end, has dramatically improved.

 

Academic Scholars Award via Florida Lottery? 100% tuition plus 300 per semester for books? I love the Florida Lottery for that! Do they still do that? Back when I graduated we had to have a 3.5 unweighted GPA, 1270 SAT (or 28 ACT), and 50 hours of community service. I didn't have any student loans as an undergrad because of that. Grad school was a different story though...

 

 

Bright Futures, yes - but that was statewide; USF has school-specific awards too, like the Presidential Scholarship and various Honors College scholarships.  They actually have a wider selection of scholarships now, but they are FAR more difficult to obtain because of the new-found selectivity. 

[Ghost]

 

I went to USF 10 years ago on a full ride and then some, and am confident that if I were graduating from high school today I would not even be close to getting that type of deal.  The quality of students, especially at the top end, has dramatically improved.

 

Academic Scholars Award via Florida Lottery? 100% tuition plus 300 per semester for books? I love the Florida Lottery for that! Do they still do that? Back when I graduated we had to have a 3.5 unweighted GPA, 1270 SAT (or 28 ACT), and 50 hours of community service. I didn't have any student loans as an undergrad because of that. Grad school was a different story though...

 

 

Same here. No debt ftw.

 

They dont do that anymore though. Now (at least as of Spring 2012), they just pay for 12 credits. The minimum to be a full time student. You need to pay for anything more. You also pay for your books.