Scholar: Gerald

[Bill]

From the official site:

Growing up in the small town of Commerce, Texas has not been easy on Gerald, a highly gifted African American student. In spite of the occasional brushes with overt racism throughout his high school experience, Gerald maintains a cheery disposition and has never let the threat of other people's ignorance stand in the way of anything he sets out to do. His 3.914 GPA and Advanced Placement course load leave little time to pursue outside interests, but Gerald has always found time to participate in activities that feed his mind and speak to his soul. A proud member of the color guard at his school and the varsity mascot for the last two years, Gerald also plays the saxophone, piano, drums and guitar. Addicted to the positive energy and thrill of performing, he hopes to one day to make it to Broadway.

[AIWANNABE]

I don't know if a 3.914 GPA is going to cut it.

[corprip]

I don't know if a 3.914 GPA is going to cut it.

Pshhaw.. what a loser! Was he sleeping in class?

[fluff]

GPA isn't the only thing they're judging on though, so even though he has the lowest if he can impress in other areas he still stands a chance.

[AIWANNABE]

GPA isn't the only thing they're judging on though, so even though he has the lowest if he can impress in other areas he still stands a chance.

I was just joking. I think he has one of the most positive outlooks on the competition, so hopfully that will help him.

[dagwood]

3.914 the lowest in this competition? I suddenly feel reallllllly dumb.

[Lucy]

Well, colleges do look at *everything*, and presumably this competition is the same -- it's not enough to have a high GPA if you got it by having your nose in a book for four years and doing nothing else. Colleges want activities and outside interests.

They also look at your background; I was in high school with a guy who had the exact same GPA, SAT score and AP scores as me (we compared scores obsessively). He also was gay, half-hispanic and lived in Appalachia. He got into Yale.

[phat32]

Ah, to have had a high GPA coming out of high school and have the pleasant worry of whether you'd like to live in Boston or New Haven.

At the end of my junior year in high school (to replay a scene from Risky Business), I took one look at my grades, was asked by my AP classmates, "How are you doing?" and said, "Looks like San Diego State University!" (Go Aztecs, bay-bee!)

[museumguy]

For the statistically minded you need to use some sort of mathematical correction to accurately compare the old fashioned 4.0 scales with the advanced placement ones...doing that a 3.9 plus is alot higher than say a 4.2 on scale modified for AP......

and having gotten the math out of the way....some of these contestants are going to be so stressed that I hope Gerald wears the team mascot outfit at least once....just to mess with them.....

[lil_romane]

are these GPA's weighted