Monday, June 01, 2009 By Ngoc-Minh Pham [ArticleImageHyperLink] Advertising New GPA calculating system unfair (November 26, 2003) -- SchoolMax, the school’s new system that keeps student information and calculates GPA, have provoked students, myself included, to complain about their class ranks and GPA. As a result, students are considering neglecting unweighted classes in order to maximize their GPAs. However, since there are many factors that colleges look for aside from GPA, it is not recommended that students disregard unweighted classes. Prior to SchoolMax, every class, regardless of point values, was averaged on a 4.0 scale and for every AP or honors class taken, 0.2 of a point was added to this average. With this system, additional unweighted classes would not hurt this average. SchoolMax, however, averages weighted classes on the traditional “5-point” system. Thus, a student taking only five AP classes would be able to get 5.0, whereas a student taking five AP classes and an additional extracurricular unweighted class can only get 4.83. SchoolMax’s way of calculating GPA seems unfair, as it puts the well-rounded student at a disadvantage when it comes to GPA. However, nowadays, colleges look for a versatile human being rather than just a high GPA earning drone whose only specialties are within the academic scope. In order to rest assured that they are admitting well-rounded students, most colleges have their own way of calculating GPA; therefore, the GPA and class rank that SchoolMax produces might not even matter. Students should not let SchoolMax’s flaws sway them into limiting their variety of classes and extracurricular activities. By only taking AP classes, students are actually adding to the problem that they have dubbed “unfair” because they are penalizing other students who are concurrently taking unweighted and AP classes. Classes exist because students are wiling to take them. If unweighted classes such as orchestra are neglected because of their effects on GPA, these subjects will eventually become unavailable in school. The cessation of these unweighted classes may seem insignificant, but it may affect other scopes of learning because many aspects of education are related to each other. When combined, the different pillars of education are like a chain of dominos. If all of these pillars should fall, the educational system that mankind has worked so hard to achieve is sure to meet its downfall.

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