CSU Application Calculated GPA - is this weighted or unweighted GPA?

I am helping my son prepare his CSU Application. Have a few questions:

  1. In the section for entering high school grades, only some of his courses are showing up as suggestions. The rest he had to enter manually, even though all the courses are options on the UC application. Is this happening to any of you? Is this an issue or not a problem?
  2. After entering his high school grades, many of them weren't automatically labeled as A - G, so he had to manually assign them. Is this okay or an issue?
  3. After entering all the above info. the calculated GPA shown seems to be the UNWEIGHTED 10th - 11th grade GPA rather than the weighted GPA. Is it supposed to be like this? Do they use this unweighted GPA for admission or weighted GPA?

Based on the CSU GPA calculator for eligibility index:
https://www2.calstate.edu/apply/eligibility-index

I thought they’d use weighted GPA. Why would they display the unweighted GPA if the weighted GPA is used?

Talking to a CSU help desk person, I was informed that there are many schools where the pre-population of courses is not accurate or up to date. Also, the GPA calculator is not working correctly and they are trying to fix it.

Since the CSU’s have redesigned their application website, there are several posters having the same issues. You might want to contact Cal State apply:

https://help.liaisonedu.com/Cal_State_Apply_Applicant_Help_Center/Filling_Out_Your_Cal_State_Apply_Application/Cal_State_Apply_Academic_History/2_High_School_Coursework

I contacted them by phone and chat. Person on the phone was quite vague and did not seem to have much idea about this. Told me to hold and promptly got disconnected. Person on chat seemed to be quite sure that the calculated GPA was supposed to be unweighted GPA. Said that GPA would not match the GPA at:

https://www2.calstate.edu/apply/eligibility-index

because that was calstate university whereas this is Calstate apply ??#$^%

Did not make much sense to me.

Can anyone else please confirm what this calculated GPA should be? If anyone shows a calculated GPA in the application of greater than 4, then it must be weighted.

I have gone through the CSU application process with my two sons and numerous nieces and nephews. The GPA that they submitted on the application was the CSU capped weighted GPA. Grades and course types are being submitted on the application, so if there is a mistake it will be recalculated based on the self-reported information. Unfortunately I do not have access so the changes made for this year and it seems like there are some technician issues that need to be addressed by the Cal State apply administration.

https://www2.calstate.edu/apply/eligibility-index

they have their own special GPA - like @gumbymom - I’ve filled out lots of CSU aps.

They use only a-g courses taken in grades 10 and 11 and cap the AP./Honors bonus at 8 semesters - so, it is likely to be quite a bit different than what’s on the transcript. Depending on how many a-g courses were taken, it caps at 4.3-4.4.

Each campus recalculates it by hand.

here is a link to their calculator.
https://www2.calstate.edu/apply/eligibility-index

it is possible the ap isn’t recognizing an AP or Honors class.

As long as you enter the grades correctly, you should be all set. You’ll get a student number and the ability to follow up and validate the AP bonus is applied correctly.

@CaringParent2015 here are a few comments that may help as we just completed it. The Apply Now app could make instructions clearly in my opinion as well and we asked support how to enter the grades under high school coursework. Direction given to us was to enter the grades exactly as they appear on the transcript (i.e., with +/-'s), and to note if Honors/AP/None (none being regular class) - note that support told us to enter Honors even if just considered Honors at your HS. So these grades entered are the actual unweighted grades but the application must adjust based on the course type as it calculated my D’s GPA correctly - meaning it matched the CSU GPA shown on the transcript (so with the 8 semesters of AP weighted grades included).

Re A-G we also had to go in and adjust some to right categories. We had some courses that the app did not recognize as well and manually entered them and that may be the reason they did not get allocated across A-G correctly.

Our GC commented that CSUMentor (old app) took excess courses in other categories and placed them in G automatically - this app gave us no G credit so I had to move some from areas where we had excess.

Lots of issues that they are working through. Just keep calling support as needed until you get the app right.

FYI: I am aware of the formula and am expecting the calculated GPA to be based on the CSU calculator link that I provided. I am using only the 10-11 A-G courses and am capping AP/Honors at 8 semesters.

It appears then that there is some issue with the calculation on my son’s app since it is not giving any excess weight at all to any of the honors or AP courses.

Also another question: My son has a lot of excess band courses which is automatically categorized as F. He does have the minimum needed G course of one year. But does it make a difference if the excess credits are in F or G? Should he move the excess band courses to G?

I would put the excess in F if there is room. G is for College Prep courses and not really the correct category for Band.

Latest update, it appears they have fixed some bugs on their side. Without doing any changes, it is now showing the correct weighted GPA.

I seem to have that similar problem too. When we did it by hand it was 3.83 and now it it 3.71. The live chat and phone people are not helpful. They told me that they are not CSU affiliated. Just the application service.

Just self report the correct courses and grades. The CSU’s will recalculate the GPA based on what you submit on the application.

I am trying to calculate my minimum eligibility index but for my GPA, but am confused on the GPA calculations. “SAT I: (GPA X 800) + SAT EBRW + SAT Mathematics” is the formula. Do I also calculate 12th grade to my 9 - 11 grade or just my CSU preliminary GPA of 3.87 from 10th - 11th grade? Plus, is it weighted or non-weighted GPA when we calculate the minimum eligibility index? Thank you.

@Dreamer009:

CSU GPA is 10-11th grades for the a-g courses with up to 8 semesters of extra Honors points for UC approved Honors/AP/IB or DE classes taken in 10-11th grades. Use this calculator: https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/

The CSU GPA is capped weighted in the EI calculation. If you are unable to figure it out, either post your grades and classes or PM me if you want privacy.