<p>My daughter's school only weights GPA by .125 for a regular honors class, and .25 for their Scholars (high honors) and AP classes. So straight A's in entirely Scholars/AP would only result in a 4.25 - and even that's not possible at her school, as some required courses don't have honors designations. </p>
<p>So, reading through some of the comments here, when I see something like a 3.7 unweighted, 4.3 weighted GPA, I'm left scratching my head. Obviously, some schools weight AP and Honors much more heavily, and it seems like that could leave my daughter at a disadvantage. </p>
<p>She's a good student, but her few B's tend to come in her AP and Honors classes, and under the school's system, a B in AP is NOT as good for GPA as an A in a regular class....</p>
<p>Has anyone else had experience with high schools that don't generously weight AP and honors, and how that is handled in college admissions?</p>
<p>In our district, pre-AP and AP classes get an extra 1.0 for GPA calculations. But most college admissions offices recalculate GPAs anyway. Some even only count the major classes - not things like band and PE. So, in that regard, all kids are in the same boat.</p>
<p>My high school didn’t weight at all. I always laugh to myself at the > 4.0 GPAs.</p>
<p>When I was in high school, I resented this, because I thought that it would hurt me in college admissions (it didn’t). Once I was actually in college, I found out that most schools either look at the unweighted GPA or use their own weighting system anyway.</p>
<p>This may be only slightly related, but how much do colleges know about the difficulties of certain teachers? For instance, my APUSH teacher was incredibly difficult. A grade in the low to mid 80s is considered good in his class. But despite this negative effect on students’ GPAs, about 90% of the class gets a 5 on the AP test. So my question is: Will colleges know this/factor in the effect that it has had on my GPA (I got an 80 in the class)?</p>
<p>One of the schools my daughter wants to attend uses the high school’s weighting system, but caps everyone at a 4.0. Good news, bad news… At least the gap isn’t as huge as it would otherwise be, but still, at this particular school, a comparable student could still have a higher GPA used by the school for admission.</p>
<p>It does say right on their website that they take the high school GPA (weighted or not) as long as it is on a 4.0 scale. I just e-mailed to be sure, and got a call from an admissions rep today. </p>
<p>But, again, at least things cap out at 4.0.</p>
<p>I have recently sent a letter to our school board about this very subject.</p>
<p>My son applied to Purdue University. He met the SAT requirements for a $32,000 Trustee’s scholarship, but not the core, unweighted GPA calculation performed by Purdue.</p>
<p>The other option to qualify was to be in the top 5% of class. He was not ranked that high even though nearly 60% of his credits are in honors/AP classes. </p>
<p>Universities can recalculate GPA’s any way they want, but they can not re-calculate class rank. </p>
<p>There are two things that have me a little dismayed:
First - There are two high schools in our corporation. At our school, honors earns a whopping .05 additional credit and AP earns an additional .08. That means a B in an AP class gives a 3.08 to the grade point total. At the other school in our system they give 1 additional point for honors and 2 points for AP. Same at the other school earns a 5.0 (3.0 +2). Class rank is based on grade point total divided by credits (attempts?). It doesn’t matter how the the unweighted core gpa is recalculated, the same honors student ranks significantly higher at a school with a good weighting system. He would have qualified for the Purdue scholarship if there was consistancy within this corporation which claims it “rewards additional academic burden” blah, blah, blah.</p>
<p>Second- Our school does not define +/- and does not use them in gpa calcs. A+/A/A- = 4.0; B+/B/B- = 3.0. However, the teachers may add a +/- to the transcript at their discretion. During the Purdue recalculation, several A-'s on son’s transcript were entered at 3.67’s. Unfortunately, he had several!</p>
<p>I could go on all day, but don’t say that all kids are in the same boat just because colleges recalculate. They can’t recalculate everything!!!</p>
<p>Same rules for everyone at our school but many, including admin, don’t understand the mathmatical ramifications…</p>
<p>Corporation should be consistent!!! Some posters on other threads say the decimal additions for honors/ap are added to the final gpa. Not at our school…decimal is added before division by total credits. Basically unweighted, but the transcript shows “standard GPA” and “weighted GPA” which is not a true statement. The difference between the two are hundredths or thousandths of a point.</p>
<p>Additionally, top 2 or 3 % are given titles of “with distinction” at graduation and may never have taken a single honors class. Not Fair!!!</p>
<p>A+ (98-100) = 4.3 (this is unweighted so at my school it is possible to have a GPA higher than 4.0 UW)
A (93-97) = 4.0
B+ (90-92) = 3.3
B (85-89) = 3.0
C+ = 2.3
…and so on.</p>
<p>…but starting next year we are switching to the scale:</p>
<p>A (90-100) = 4.0
B (80-89) = 3.0
C (70-79) = 2.0
…and so on
PLUS: AP classes get 1.0 added and honors get 0.5 added</p>
<p>So right now I have a 4.1 GPA UNWEIGHTED…which is weird</p>
<p>but most schools unweigh or use their own scale anyway so that isn’t the problem
…the REAL problem is class rank. People take less hard classes and get higher GPAs which raises their GPA. That is why I like our new grading scale because the higher level classes get a nice boost (they use weighted grades for rank)</p>
<p>Yale does. They look at your GPA/rank using whatever system your high school uses, and do not recalculate anything. (Someone asked at the info session we attended.)</p>
<p>“Yale does. They look at your GPA/rank using whatever system your high school uses, and do not recalculate anything. (Someone asked at the info session we attended.)”</p>
<p>mommadiddy: You could be in a worse situation. My school doesn’t weigh grades. Period. So the kid with 4 fluff courses can end up being valedictorian. Probably why we’re phasing out ranking…</p>
<p>That is rediculously unfair for Yale to not recalculate GPA. It’s absolutely ******** that I should be punished for my school not weighing grades. Some guy with a couple B’s from a weighing school would end up with a better GPA than my straight A’s. BS.</p>
<p>Guys! Colleges know that a 4.0 without honors and APs is not worth as much as one with more rigorous classes. They DO look at the rigor of the classes! So don’t sweat it.</p>
<p>Yea, but what about two students with the exact same rigor and exact same grades. One goes to a weighted school, the other doesn’t. Would Yale (or others) give the former an advantage? If so, that’s just not fair.</p>