Calculating GPA with both HS and online classes

Hello parents
Our high school kid took a bunch of classes at online high schools in addition to his regular day high school.

As a result, his unweighted GPA combining both regular day high school and online high school is higher than the unweighted GPA reported on his regular day high school transcript.

Similarly, his weighted GPA combining both regular day high school and online high school is higher than the weighted GPA reported on his regular day high school transcript.

Day high school does not allow addition of grades from online high school into their main transcript.

Now, the Common App has only two boxes - unweighted GPA and weighted GPA.

We must report the GPAs as they appear on his regular day high school transcript. Thus, fruits of his online high school work is not immediately visible via those two boxes.

What is the best way to report this higher unweighted and higher weighted GPAs in common application? In other words, what is the best way to ensure that competitive universities do look at his online high school grades and the GPA boost as a result of those grades?

This brings up a diff question - do competitive universities really have their own formula to calculate GPA for each applicant based on the major one is applying to?

Many thanks in advance.

I would put the high school a student attended in “Current or most recent high school”, with the GPA that appears on the transcript from that school.

I would put the other school in “Other high school”.

If you have attended any secondary/high schools not listed in the previous section,

And provide both transcripts.

I believe an AO will be able to deal with this.

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Yes, you need to report the GPA as it appears on the HS transcript and then use the other school section for online school (and provide that transcript).

It’s common that high schools don’t use outside courses in their GPA calculations and adcoms are going to look at the entire application.

Yes, some schools will recalculate GPA. Most common practice seems to be using the unweighted number and only looking at grades in core classes. There is so much variability in grading scales!

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They may also use their own weighting that is different from that of your high school. The definition of “core classes” may also differ depending on the college.

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OP, just list them in the section that allows for other course work or notes. You can request those transcripts be sent as well.

I just want to clarify for other future college applicants reading this - that this plan is not needed and usually not fruitful. Taking extra HS classes beyond what is offered or can be scheduled at your high school is not the expectation of AOs at top colleges and universities. They want to see you challenged yourself with what was available and that may include dual enrollment or summer enrichment courses.

The lists of extra high school courses not counted in your transcript, self study AP scores with no related class on transcript, and other add-ins leads AOs to further question high level ECs listed and the reality of depth/engagement due to actual time available to pursue so many things.

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I don’t work in admissions, so I can’t really offer any advice here.

As a fellow parent, I just want to say that a lot of the high school graduating class of 2024 is going to have transcripts that are not as uniform as prior graduating years.

This class entered 9th grade when the pandemic was in full swing. I know our local publics, which typically graduate very competitive applicants and have very high AP and dual enrollment participation, awarded credit for 8th grade without requiring the students to do much of any work or attend virtual classes.

Those students shouldn’t be penalized because their schools weren’t ready for virtual learning, but hopefully, the stigma of online education is dead now that we’ve seen that it’s just like any other form of learning- you get out of it what you put into it.

If any AOs are tempted to judge online credits harshly, consider that your bias is probably due to slanted sample size of unprepared schools pivoting to online with no prior experience and is more a reflection of that rather than a broad indictment of online learning as a whole.

As a parent, I’m letting the AOs figure it out and letting the chips fall where they may. I’m not going to let the drama and gossip of the mess that has been high school for this cohort of kids affect my student or me.

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