Category: GPA News

GPA, grade point average educational news for high school students preparing to go on to college and university studies.

College Ranking Criteria

President Obama is considering a plan to rate colleges according to their value and affordability and to tie those ratings to the $150 billion in financial aid that the federal government provides each year.

College rankings according to “best value for money” would garner the attention of high school students and their parents who are concerned about finances.

In theory this sounds like a fantastic idea, but is it practical? How do you measure the value of a college? Is ‘value’ a function of cost, return on investment, student satisfaction, or graduate rates? Depending on how this process is defined and what values are considered most important, the results will differ significantly.

No one yet knows how the government plans to perform its evaluation. The plan is to compile the ratings by the start of the 2015-16 school year and to link those ratings to federal aid by 2018.

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The College Dilemma

A college degree once all but guaranteed a well-paying job and higher earnings than high school graduates. But fewer of these good jobs are now available thanks to the long-term economic changes and the effects of the last recession.

People with college and advanced degrees are working jobs that don’t require them, whether by choice or necessity. That in turn pushes people without college degrees out of those jobs.

The number of college graduates has grown much faster than the number of jobs that require high-level education skills. As more college graduates flood the market, supply outweighs demand and employers are able to offer lower wages.

Because college is so expensive, many students are facing a dilemma: If they go to college, they still might not get a job that requires a college degree, and they’ll be on the hook for big student loan payments. But if they don’t go to college, they might be pushed out of entry-level jobs by overqualified college graduates who can’t find other work.

Under the current economic climate high school graduates should not only be asking themselves if they can afford to go to college but also if they can afford not to?

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Online University Application Woes

The Common Application, which has been in use since the 1970s, enables a student to fill out a single application for multiple colleges. The number of schools accepting online applications has more than doubled in the last decade and includes nearly all of the nation’s most prestigious institutions. The company now processes well over one million applications a year.

This year’s application was designed and built from scratch, in an effort to make it simpler to use, with a newly standardized supplemental form that can be adapted to each college.

Unfortunately this new version of the online Common Application has been plagued by numerous malfunctions putting admissions offices weeks behind schedule and causing panic amongst thousands of students trying to meet early admission deadlines.

Problems became evident as soon as the application was released in August, the company has been frantically trying to fix the problems over the summer and fall and have indicated that the number of applications is up 20% over last year indicating that high school students were able to navigate the system successfully.

The recent problems mean that college admission offices will have to work overtime to go through applications, and some plan to take on temporary extra staff. But they say they still intend to send out acceptance and rejection notices on time in mid-December.

With the bugs being resolved, they expect the larger regular round of applications — usually submitted by January deadlines, with replies sent in the spring — to go more smoothly.

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UK To Test GPA Model

A pilot scheme to change the way students' degrees are graded will be tested by more than 20 UK universities.

Grades would be divided into 13 levels of classification, ranging from A+ to F, based on average point scores. The grade point average (GPA) model is already used by US institutions, said the Higher Education Academy (HEA) group, which is running the scheme.

The Higher Education Academy (HEA) which is running the project, will select 20 to 25 higher education providers in the UK to take part. Students would receive a traditional honours degree grade alongside the new mark. This new system could eventually replace the current way of classifying academic achievement.

The results of this pilot project, expected to be published in fall of 2014, could possibly lead to a uniform GPA system in the UK.

The new system would provide students with a more effective assessment and feedback of their work and would make it easier to compare degree grades on an international level.

A student awarded a first class degree under the current system would receive either an A+, A or A- under the GPA model.

The HEA has yet to identify which universities will be taking part in the study.

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Paying for Your Child’s College Education

The cost of a post-secondary education is a hot topic. Tuition fees continue to rise, and student debts are crippling new grads. The big question is, who should pay for school? Should parents do their best to cover their kids’ educations? There are two schools of thought. Firstly, if your child has to pay for higher education then they will work harder and be more fiscally responsible. However they may start their adult life thousands of dollars in debt which will take them a long time to pay off. Secondly, if parents pay for higher education it is a gift. The cost of an undergraduate degree is approximately $80,000 – a huge gift!! As a parent you want to give your child the best start in life you can afford. Enabling them to get an education and start their adult life debt free is the best start you can give them.
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Higher GPA Linked With Conscientiousness

People who are conscientious were more likely to have higher grade point averages compared to those who are not, according to a new study by Rice University psychologists. They examine previous studies that research the link between the “Big Five” personality traits -agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion, neuroticism and openness to experience – and college grade point average.

It found that across studies, higher levels of conscientiousness lead to higher college grade point averages. It also showed that five common personality tests are consistent in their evaluation of the “Big Five” personality traits; all five measures found a positive correlation between conscientiousness and grade point average and virtually no correlation between the other four personality traits and grade point average.

According to Sam McAbee, a psychology graduate student at Rice and the study’s lead author, the study has important implications for college admission offices and employers, who use personality tests to measure an individual’s capacity for success.

“Research on these personality tests helps us gain a better understanding of how various personality traits may affect academic outcomes and other important life outcomes,” McAbee said.

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Higher Education, Government, and the Nation

Let us also agree on two other propositions: that the rising costs of college threaten to place higher education beyond the reach of too many of our citizens; and that the full value of higher education can be realized only if students graduate …
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Student Athletes Score State’s Highest Grade Point Average

The top seven grade point averages were taken for basketball; top eight for hockey. The basketball team posted a grade point average of 96.26, highest among all boys basketball teams in New York. The hockey team was 95.63, which tied with Brockport for …
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Will British Universities Adopt Grade Point Average System?

The Grade Point Average system, as applied in the USA, attempts to rank students by ability across a range of disciplines by collating a mean average of letter marks (that is, ABCD and F), which are quantified as 0-4 numerically and then averaged.
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USF Crown Point Announces Dean’s List and Honors List Students

Students on the dean’s list earned a grade point average of 3.5 or higher while maintaining a course load of 12 credit hours or more. Honor roll students earned a grade point average of 3.5 or higher while maintaining a course load of six credit hours or more.
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Grade Point Average Restrictions Affect Athletes

New London – A total of 27 high school athletes in the fall and winter sports programs have attended mandatory academic support sessions because their grade point averages have fallen below 1.7, deeming them ineligible to participate in …
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