[paloaltokid]

It's not really an exaggeration of what it's like growing up in Palo Alto. When people marveled at someone's GPA, it would be how far above 4.0 unweighted it was. I think one kid at my school had a 4.8 weighted GPA.

Anything below a 3.9 and you were seen as not all that interested in academics.

[scroy]

Not sure how the grades work there, how can unweighted GPA be above 4.0? At my HS, APs were weighted (to 4.5) but there was no way to go above 4.0 without that.

[deadlast]

AP as well as "honors credits" are graded from 2.0-5.0.

To achieve this, you take probably 3-4 honors classes freshman year, along with the dreaded dead weight PE and a language if your school doesn't offer an AP language.

Then you transition to 2-3 AP classes as well as 2 honors classes (Precal and English) sophomore year, as well as secondary PE.

Junior year and senior year you take 5 or 6 APs.

Then, if the competition still has not been shaken, there is option of enrolling in supplementary colleges at the local JC after school or over summer (which, nicely, also are measured out of 5.0 on the HS transcript).

I enrolled in a mid tier private college instead of a UC due to fear of working harder than I did in high school.

I cannot believe how much free time there is. I'll probably transfer up soon. We'll see.