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Impact for Academic & Merit Award Scholarships

Many universities have told FAIRGRADE they take GPA scores directly off a student's transcript when evaluating students for merit scholarships.  As a result, FCPS students are losing out on thousands of dollars in merit scholarship awards to students whose school systems use the traditional 10-point grading scale and give more weights for Honors and AP/IB courses. 


In a FCPS sponsored Roundtable panel discussion on August 25, 2008, that included four admissions officers from area colleges, the college admissions panelists acknowledged that FCPS grading policies can put FCPS students at a disadvantage. 

"A weighted GPA I think, by and large, is what scholarship organizations are going to look at.  I'll tell you private colleges are not going to look at the weighted GPA.  They are going to look at unweighted grades." 

Source:  John Latting, Dean of Undergraduate Admissions
Johns Hopkins University
FCPS-Sponsored Roundtable-8.25.08

In November 2007, Indiania University in Bloomington told FAIRGRADE the following: 

"...IU does not refigure GPAs for freshman applicants.  
We accept the GPAs as submitted by high school counselors..."
Source:  Jocelyn Bowie, Director of Communications and Recruiting, IU College of Arts and Sciences - Nov. 2007

Here is what IU offers students with a qualifying ACT score >=29 or SAT score>+1300 and a minimum GPA of 3.75. 

IU Merit Scholarship = $8,000 per year ($32,000 over four years)


And here is a chart detailing merit-based scholarship requirements at some other schools: 

MERIT-BASED SCHOLARSHIP REQUIREMENTS

 School Criteria
Award
Admissions Policy
vis-a'-vis GPA
Bringham
Young University

(Utah-private)
SAT>=1560 & GPA>=3.67 or
SAT>=1510 & GPA>=3.78 or
SAT>=1460 & GPA>=3.89

Four Year
Full Tuition
Scholarship
Un-weighted GPA
calculated by BYU
using Carnegie scale
         
George Mason
University
(VA-public)
Scholars Program
SAT>=1300 & GPA>=3.7
 
Four Year
Full Tuition
Scholarship
Director of Scholars
Program stated that
for 2007-08, there was
a GPA minimum requirement
with no exceptions.
         
Lynchburg College
(VA-private)
1100 SAT & 3.5 GPA or
1200 SAT & 3.25 GPA or 
1250 SAT & 3.0 GPA
 
 $12,000/yr
$48K over 4 yrs.
GPA taken right from 
the transcript. 
No recalculation.
         
Purdue
University
(IN-public)
Out-of-State
SAT>=1340 or ACT>=30 or
GPA>=3.8 on 4 pt. scale
 $10,000/yr
$40K over 4 yrs.
 GPA taken right from
the transcript. 
No recalculation.