I’m a concurrent enrollment student, taking classes at my local community college and finishing my high school online. Currently I’m a Junior. After some perusing it came to my attention that “honor” classes are weighted heavier than “regular” classes. Do college classes also meet the requirements to be considered weighted? From what I can tell what the high school deems as “weighted” is obsolete, as it is the college in question that will deem what they consider honor or non-honor classes, so I’m more talking about a rule of thumb. Are college classes (at a community level) considered honors?
This segues into my next inquiry. By the time I graduate I will have taken approximately 95 units completed, with an Associates of Science in Biology completed. However, during one of my first semesters I got a B in General Chemistry (A 5 unit class). Assuming every other class I take receives an A (so far, so good), how will this impact me getting into an Ivy League school? In other words, is there a major difference in having a 3.95 GPA versus a 4.00 GPA? Or will this even matter if any of the classes are weighted?
Thank you for any assistance provided, this has been stressing me out for some time, and it would be good to know how much harm has been done.
Typically Dual Enrollment (DE) classes are given a 0.5 GPA boost, so they are treated as Honors class GPA-wise. However, it varies by school, so I suggest that you check your school’s course catalog, as it will provide you with the most accurate information.
Each college may have its own way of evaluating college courses taken while in high school.
Since you use “units” to refer to amounts of college credit, you may be in California…
The California public universities consider college courses taken while in high school eligible for the +1 that honors and AP courses are eligible for in HS GPA calculations.
http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/counselors/q-and-a/calculating-gpa/#16
http://www.csumentor.edu/planning/high_school/gpa_calculator.asp
There is NO typical DE weight. It’s up to the HS as to how/if they weight those classes. Ask your GC.
Thank you guys for the replies. The opinion seems to be varied. Even if they are considered weighted, does it really matter? I mean, if a college sees that I got an A in this this and this and then a B in this, are they really going to care that the B is weighted considering I got an A in everything else that is weighted as well? I’d assume they’d just assume that I either am lacking in that subject or didn’t try as hard, or something of the sort. The point I’m trying to get to is that does the GPA itself really matter? Or the individual classes to which I either got an A or a B (or lower).
Perhaps a better way of stating this is: Is the “over 4.00” GPA just used as a way to palliate the student, whilst all that the college really cares about is that the student got an A in this class which is considered harder than a regular class and a B in this one, which is also considered harder. Because, I’d imagine getting a 4.50 GPA with a B in honors Chemistry would be a lot more troublesome to a science major than someone getting a 4.50 GPA with a B in honors English. Same GPA, different classes.
Whether a college or university looks at weighted grades or not depends on the college/university in question. Many have their own systems for weighting/unweighting grades. Don’t over-worry about this. But if you do want to know the specific policy of any college/university, it is perfectly OK for you to contact them and ask.