<p>Hi:</p>
<p>How do the Ivies, Stanford, BC, and such prestigious schools calculate your high school GPA?</p>
<p>Do they only count the "academic courses", not count plus/minus grades, and no weights for AP/IB/Honors?
So A- = 4.0? B+ = 3.0?</p>
<p>Where do they do this and where do they not?
Advantage or disadvantage this way?</p>
<p>thanks so much.</p>
<p>I have the same question because my GPA sucks this semester, though technically I only got 3 Bs in AP classes (while my friends are getting straight As in their honors.. ) </p>
<p>Sigh.</p>
<p>how do you all calculate it when doing the "chances" posts?
because one way i could have like a 3.95 UW, but the other way i could have a 3.88 UW</p>
<p>Usually, all As (A-, A+, A) just go down as 4.0 points. B's as 3.0, etc. All points are added then divided by the number of classes. Most schools use academic courses (social studies, science, math, english, foreign language), if they're high-ranking. Some schools (Stanford, Princeton, UC's) only look at 10th, 11th, and midyear grades.</p>
<p>what do the ivies do?</p>
<p>What I mentioned above. Advantageous if you make low As, disadvantageous if you make high Bs.</p>
<p>do they only look at the final grade at the ends of soph. and junior yr?</p>
<p>Semester (or Trimester, as the case may be) grades.</p>
<p>but do they give wieght to AP courses?
b/c i dont see the point in taking challenging courses if not</p>
<p>You're forgetting something.</p>
<p>They examine the rigor of your courseload. If you have a 4.0 with no AP classes at a school that offers 10, then you look a lot worse than a guy with a 4.0 at the same school that has 5 AP classes. The GPA is unweighted, but the rigor of your courseload is a huge factor that they consider. Besides, many schools use weighted GPAs in their rankings, which is another thing colleges look at. Many top schools ask if the ranking is weighted or unweighted. Some of those secondary school reports are very detailed.</p>
<p>It's all in context, don't worry.</p>
<p>would it be somewhat correct to say that, if entirely unwieghted, my GPA is 3.93, and if wieghted giving each honors course a +0.5 and each AP course a +1.0, it would become a 4.5?
12 As in Honors Courses
1 B in an Honors Course (damn 89)
2 As in AP Courses</p>
<p>my school does it based on all the +s and -s and electives (which count as Regulars), and gives +.33 to an Honors course and +.43 to an AP course. My GPA based on the school is currently a 4.32</p>
<p>and all colleges usually do it this way?</p>
<p>and so that means that an A- is basically the same thing as an A to colleges and that an A- is really no worse than an A?</p>
<p>I don't know about all colleges, but with the majority of them, especially top colleges, that's the way it's done. You don't have to worry about A's being 3.7, A- being 3.5, etc.</p>
<p>As for alamonde, most schools don't have a standard weight they assign to APs and honors, they just use whatever weighted GPA your school provides, and may or may not recalculate it. Many selective schools recalculate based on an unweighted, four point, academic scale (A-, A+, A all counting the same, etc.). There are exceptions to my generalizations, of course. For example, UC recalculates weighted GPAs and has specific weightings that it adds for AP classes and UC certified honors courses.</p>
<p>^^^but see, I don't get why selective schools would recalculate "based on an unweighted, four point, academ scale," because that would not put into consideration the difficulty of AP and honors courses. If that is how they calculate it, someone with As in honors courses would have a higher GPA than someone with a B+ in an AP course, making it more beneficial to take the easier way out. But, if that were the case, then why do admissions officers say that it would be better to get a B+ in an AP course than an A in an honors course? When is difficulty considered?</p>
<p>so that actually pretty good for me because if i get A's and many A-'s, they all look like A's?</p>
<p>alamode has a good point. However, in my case, weighted GPA hurts me. </p>
<p>I took those calc, physics, CS classes in middle school and AP calc BC and phys C mech&EM exams in 9th grade. My HS transcript doesn't show any of that. There goes 4-5 AP courses already. Plus, my school doesn't offer very many APs. </p>
<p>In addition, I just learned that the college courses (through concurrent enrollment) that I am taking now are weighted as regular HS classes (i.e. A=4), although they are 2nd or 3rd year college courses. These college courses are harder than the AP classes at HS, but if I include them in my high school transcript, they will actually weigh my GPA down. </p>
<p>My friends are taking calc AB, BC, phys B, and/or phys C now. Their weighted GPAs are way higher than mine. My unweighted GPA is 4.0, but my 4yr weighed GPA will be something like 4.25.
Go figure!</p>
<p>Do hardcore (ivies and the like) schools count Arts/Music courses?</p>
<p>Remember guys, though, that the GPA that schools calculate is not used to compare you against their other applicants - at most it will be used to compare you against other applicants from your school.</p>
<p>Almonde, difficulty is considered when they take a look at your transcript to evaluate what classes you have taken and how difficult it was. </p>
<p>A student with a UW GPA of 3.0 yet having 4-6 AP classes total will most likely be better than a student with a UW GPA of 4.0 yet having no AP classes and taking easy courses to the eyes of the reader.</p>
<p>Like another user said, both content (GPA) and context (rigor or challenge of the courses taken) are factored in. Really though, just give these admission readers the benefit of the doubt; the system isn't dumb.</p>
<p>My previous school considered a 93+ an A while 85-92 was a B, while my current school uses the 90-92 A-, 93-96 A, 97-100+ A+ route. How will this factor into the final GPA?</p>