Case Schemmer’s weighted GPA of 5.05 is largely due to the 21 Advanced Placement classes he took during his four years of high school. Park City High offers a total of 26 AP classes.
Every time a student passes an AP class, they can receive a bonus of up to 0.05 to their weighted GPA. Multiply that 0.05 bonus by the 21 AP classes Schemmer aced, and you get 1.05.
Combine 1.05 with Schemmer’s perfect unweighted GPA of 4.0, and you get his historic 5.05 weighted GPA. No Park City High student ever breached a GPA of 5.0 prior to Schemmer.
“I just feel really lucky to be able to go to a high school, especially in a rural Utah city, that still offers all these different classes for you to succeed,” Schemmer said.
As someone pursuing a career in computer science, he said one of the hardest credits to earn was the AP photography course, because it pushed him creatively.
“I think my favorite one just has to be AP Physics C,” Schemmer said. “It’s like a calculus-based physics course. So you have to take AP Physics 1 then AP Physics 2, so you understand the base physics, and then Physics C is almost like a reteaching of sorts, but then they add on stuff with the calculus.”
In the fall, Schemmer will head to New York as an undergrad in Columbia University's computer science program.
He said he was attracted to the growth in the tech industry there.
“It’s just going to be in a city that is super vibrant and on that track for growth in the industry that I want,” Schemmer said. “Maybe I could get like an internship in the city… or maybe I can do research with some professors. But I think it’s a really, really great outside-of-the-school atmosphere that really led me to pick there.”
Schemmer said he wants to dive deeper into the world of quantum computing, which he predicts will be the biggest advancement ever in the computer science field.
“You’ll hear a lot about in the media like artificial intelligence and machine learning, but I think quantum computing is something that the public knows a lot less about,” he said. “I think it’s almost a lot more powerful, just in the sense like artificial intelligence and machine learning still are aligned on the same hardware that we’ve had for years now. It’s just kind of applying new concepts and kind of just taking it to the next level. Whereas quantum computing is like a complete restructuring from base up.”
Schemmer credited his family and passionate teachers for his academic success.
