Colleges and Weighted GPA

Applying to College
1

<p>My school calculates GPA on a weighted scale instead of a traditional 4.0 scale. I was wondering how colleges figure out my traditional GPA on a 4.0 scale if my school provides a weighted GPA which is based on the number of honors courses and regular courses I am taking. My current GPA is 4.82. I am taking 2 APs, 4 Honors, 1 Regular Elective (Psychology), and Phys Ed. How do I calculate my GPA on a universal 4.0 scale or how do colleges do it?</p>

<p>Regular Grade Points</p>

<p>A+ = 4.33
A = 4.00
A- = 3.67
B+ = 3.33
B = 3.00
B- = 2.67
C+ = 2.33
C = 2.00
C- = 1.67
D = 1.00</p>

<p>Honors & AP Grade Points</p>

<p>A+ = 5.63
A = 5.20
A- = 4.77
B+ = 4.33
B = 3.90
B- = 3.47
C+ = 3.03
C = 2.60
C- = 2.17
D = 1.30</p>

2

<p>I think it depends on the college.
Why</a> Colleges Scoff At Your Kid's GPA - WSJ.com</p>

3

<p>Colleges would rather use ranking if your school ranks.</p>

4

<p>Varies:</p>

<p>Some use class rank and ignore overall GPA; some rely on weighted GPA but do reweighting to unify weighting systems; some do not use weighted grades. In those categories you also have many, before redoing GPA, who throw out all grades except for math, science, social studies, foreign language, and English; also there are those that give weight only to APs and not honors or only to a limited number of courses (e.g., though you may have 20 honors and AP courses, they may weight no more than 8 or 10). In other words, there is a lot of variety out there among colleges.</p>

5

<p>What! they give you around 130% credit for AP/Honors??? In my school they only give .1 extra for GPA...</p>

6

<p>drusba is right. I've visited many colleges over the years, talked to many admissions people, and studied many websites. The way GPA is treated is all over the place. There may be a mode practice, but it's not obvious to me.</p>

<p>I would say not to trust any admissions department to do this very well or very logically.</p>

7

<p>Thanks a lot, and yea our school is ridiculous. We eliminated rank in 2002 because our town is full of babies and whenever a kid complained to their parents that they were ranked lot the school would encounter fierce backlash from the parents. I also only have about 80 kids in my grade and it's a public school in suburban New Jersey.. lol.</p>

8

<p>The more selective the school, the less of a tendency that the GPA is unweighted because there is already an expectation that students should be taking the most rigerous classes their school offers.</p>

<p>NACAC's 2006 Annual State of College Admission Report provides analysis of the combined results from the Admission Trends Survey and the Counseling Trends Survey. Based on surveys of school counselors and colleges and universities nationwide, NACAC provides this report to highlight issues of concern to college-bound students, their parents, and the educators who serve them. </p>

<p>Even if you don't read the whole report, you should definitely read Chapter 4 Factors in the Admissions Process</p>

<p><a href="http://www.nacacnet.org/NR/rdonlyres/7CA6BEAA-90C5-4357-A498-FB0566564D71/0/06SOCA_Chapter4.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.nacacnet.org/NR/rdonlyres/7CA6BEAA-90C5-4357-A498-FB0566564D71/0/06SOCA_Chapter4.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>according to the NACAC:</p>

<p>
[quote]
Colleges and universities receive transcripts and GPA calculations from thousands of high schools, each of which may calculate GPAs differently.</p>

<p>Many high schools use a traditional 4-point scale to measure grade averages, others use weighted 4.5- or 5-point scales, while still others use grade scales that reach as high as 8 or 10.</p>

<p>To provide a standard comparison of grade point averages among applicants, some colleges recalculate grade point averages. Colleges
are virtually evenly split on the practice of recalculating GPAs—49 percent do and 51 percent do not. </p>

<p>High yield institutions are more likely than low yield institutions to recalculate GPA.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>(Basically more selective schools where if admitted the student is more likely to enroll will recalculate your GPA to a 4 point scale)</p>

<p>I would also suggest reading the The Recipe For Success, a look into how the 11 admission officers at Williams balance scores of priorities from the campus community.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.williams.edu/alumni/alumnireview/fall05/recipe.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.williams.edu/alumni/alumnireview/fall05/recipe.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>