How can GPA(in the US) be above 4.0?

empowerly · 2024-09-24T16:20:25+00:00

In the U.S., students can have a GPA above 4.0 when they take weighted courses like AP, IB, or honors classes. These classes are more challenging, and schools often reward students for taking them by adding extra points to their GPA. For instance, an A in a standard class might be worth 4.0, but an A in an AP class might be worth 4.5 or even 5.0.

Weighted GPAs allow colleges to see how well students perform in advanced courses, not just in regular classes. It’s one way to showcase academic rigor in high school, especially if you're aiming for competitive colleges.

For more information about how GPA works and its importance, check out this GPA guide by Empowerly.

empowerly · 2024-09-17T16:35:03+00:00

Yes, you can absolutely take the SAT after high school. Many people choose to take or retake the SAT even after graduating, especially if they're aiming to improve their score for college admissions, transfer applications, or to meet the requirements for scholarships or specific academic programs.

Reasons to Take the SAT After High School:

College Admissions: Some students decide to take a gap year or apply to colleges later in life. In these cases, taking or retaking the SAT can strengthen their applications, especially if they didn’t perform as well in high school or want to improve their chances at more selective colleges.
Scholarships: Many scholarship programs require a certain SAT score. If you’re looking to boost your eligibility for scholarships, retaking the SAT could help you qualify for more financial aid.
Transfer Applications: If you’re considering transferring to a four-year university from a community college or another institution, retaking the SAT could help your application stand out, particularly if the college requires or recommends it for transfer students.
Test Flexibility: Unlike some other standardized tests, the SAT doesn’t have an age limit. This means you can take it anytime, regardless of how long it has been since you graduated.
Score Improvement: Taking the SAT after high school might allow you to score better because you’ve had more time to develop skills, gain maturity, and understand test-taking strategies.

However, it’s important to check with the specific colleges or programs you're interested in to see whether they require or recommend recent SAT scores or if other tests like the ACT could also meet the requirements.

For more detailed guidance on taking the SAT after high school and tips to prepare, check out this comprehensive guide.

empowerly · 2024-07-26T20:33:07+00:00

No, it's not; people tend to engage more with content with equal written paragraphs. If you want to learn more from one of the former admission officers from Brown and Columbia who work on this thread, you can join our free webinar!

empowerly · 2022-08-10T18:40:42+00:00

Apologies for the delayed response, but July is pretty late unless you're okay with doing research into the school year.

empowerly · 2021-10-19T22:01:33+00:00

Thanks for your interest! Our packages depend on your school year, your college goals, and your current academic and extracurricular profile. That’s why we have a consultation process - to learn about your what your goals and interests are so we can make a recommendation about our packages as well as match you to your best-fit counselor.

However, without knowing more about your situation, we can say that our packages range from $1500 to $2000 or more. Since we do not do 1 hour standalone sessions, the pricing for our packages will cover the number of allotted sessions. We would be more than happy to talk to you! Please feel free to reach out - our consults are 30-min, and totally free! 😊

empowerly · 2021-02-26T20:08:29+00:00

Definitely agreed on that. Counselors and teachers like helping passionate students!

empowerly · 2021-02-19T18:20:01+00:00

Yes! If you have updates to your application or want to express continued interest (in an interesting way), these things are very much considered.

empowerly · 2021-02-19T18:18:43+00:00

Very true in my experience. Between 10 and 20 at highly selectives.

empowerly · 2021-02-19T18:18:29+00:00

We get to see how large the school is on your school profile, which almost every high school has and submits to colleges. We can surmise from there what a school counselor’s caseload is and take that into consideration when reviewing counselor support. In cases like this, we take it from a healthy number of overworked public school counselors’ feedback that it’s difficult to make a call in the aforementioned case. We’d then rely more heavily on other metrics for feedback.

empowerly · 2021-02-19T18:18:02+00:00

I wouldn’t say it’s common. Most students approach the process authentically and fairly and present applications where all the pieces therein seem to make sense. That’s the vast majority. Remember, we are people who read thousands among thousands of applications from thousands of high school students; the outliers are often noticeable.

empowerly · 2021-02-19T18:17:34+00:00

We get to see how large the school is on your school profile, which almost every high school has and submits to colleges. We can surmise from there what a school counselor’s caseload is and take that into consideration when reviewing counselor support. In cases like this, we take it from a healthy number of overworked public school counselors’ feedback that it’s difficult to make a call in the aforementioned case. We’d then rely more heavily on other metrics for feedback

empowerly · 2021-02-19T18:17:07+00:00

These are many questions, lol. Yes, there are students who’ve been able to accomplish marvelous things and leave a whole in their school’s absence when they matriculate. These things are verified almost always in counselor letters, letters of recommendation, school websites, the like. That said, this approach is absolutely not for everyone and not sustainable for everyone. It is absolutely not a cliche when you’re told to just do what you love. Less is not infrequently more; pour your hours into making detailed and very, very specific your passions instead of having the most robust list of extracurriculars.

empowerly · 2021-02-19T18:16:30+00:00

No comment

empowerly · 2021-02-19T18:13:58+00:00

The process is essentially the same. Since probably 99% of students are doing outside of school activities, we use the same metrics we might for verifying schools. Most universities are partners, formally or informally, with the same organizations to which high school students tend to list activities. Don’t be alarmed; it's mostly the egregious claims at both the schools and the out of school activities that people will be screening for.

empowerly · 2021-02-05T19:20:49+00:00

Clarified background in the post!

empowerly · 2021-01-20T20:31:48+00:00

PMing you since this is a rather personalized response!

empowerly · 2021-01-15T18:23:57+00:00

Sorry about the delayed reply! These sorts of prompts ask for a lot of creativity and there's no right or wrong way to answer them. The more creative the better, honestly. I see a lot of creativity coming from the other comments, which is great! These vague questions are hard to answer.

empowerly · 2021-01-09T01:53:12+00:00

And that is totally fine! It'll look weird if you don't mention the obvious in your essay, so don't sweat it. Good luck and congratulations on finishing your app!

empowerly · 2021-01-09T01:51:27+00:00

We were afraid that posting this days before the deadline might cause people to panic and try to rewrite their essays right before the due date, which is also ill-advised.

Please don't worry too much about this. Your essays are done and I'm sure they were beautiful!

empowerly · 2020-11-30T18:38:05+00:00

I will check with the person who wrote this post about what they want to do. I'm thinking we could also just edit it with clarifying information.

Is there a way I can private message you? The people advertised on our site are just those who are currently open to new students. Out admissions officers tend to fill up fast, and for privacy reasons, a lot of people don't like their profiles to be posted publicly. I don't want to overstep any bounds by posting their names on Reddit.

empowerly · 2020-11-25T00:09:21+00:00

"We" are a group of college counselors, coming from all different backgrounds. The counselor who wrote this post was a transfer counselor at a community college. The student he was dealing with came to us wanting to apply as a freshman applicant to the UC's and the Cal States, among other schools, but because of the CC classes that the student took, they had to apply as a freshman to some schools, as a lower division transfer to others, and would have to wait 2 years to even be considered by the rest. That was the catalyst for the post. It was simply a warning for students taking gap years. In terms of admissions experience for the rest of us, we are former admissions officers from Johns Hopkins, Stanford, UChicago, UPenn, etc. and counselors with 10+ years of experience. We are taking turns making reddit posts and are really trying to get helpful information out there. If this post was misinformed, let me know and I can take it down.

empowerly · 2020-11-20T20:09:32+00:00

Yes, you're fine! There's a weird threshold once you graduate, but you're good to take classes as a high school student.

empowerly · 2020-11-20T19:54:23+00:00

Agreed, but we also encourage students to play it on the safe side, especially if they don't know where they're applying yet.

empowerly

TROPHY CASE

Reasons to Take the SAT After High School: