Hi! I am currently stressing about college and the college admissions process. I was wondering about my chances at a highly selective university.
I started a non-profit organization focused on something I am extremely passionate about. My ACT score was a 35. However, my unweighted GPA is 3.6. I am at a rigorous public high school in Chicago, therefore, my classes are all honors and AP. My weighted GPA is a 4.39. I do a lot more extracurricular activities and I have good essays, but I feel like that is the gist of my application.
I was looking at other websites that state that the average at a certain school is above a 4.0. Therefore, I was wondering if these highly selective schools pay closer attention to the weighted GPA?? What are my chances??
Does your transcript show an unweighted GPA or does it show a weighted GPA? Or does it show both? Colleges will evaluate your grades in the context of your school, so the GPA that is listed on your transcript is the one they will most likely use. (Unless they choose to recalculate your GPA for the admissions process.)
For top ranked schools UW GPA is the first criteria (indicating any deviation from perfection. i.e. non-A grades!) but W GPA which indicates the rigor, comes next. For UCs, UC-GPA is as important if not more.
Class rank tells a lot, as well.
Unweighted GPA tends to be weighted heavier than weighted GPA at most institutions.
I’m pretty sure colleges look at unweighted GPA because weighted GPA varies depending on the school. Each college has an equation they use where they put in your GPA and the rigor of your classes to achieve an academic index.
Actually, they will look at the transcript and see the courses and the grades. It’s one thing to get less than A in, say, gym, versus in a core, especially one related to your possible major. The gpa itself is just one data point.
See I have the same issue here! I go to an extremely difficult and highly competitive public school in the Chicago Suburbs. My weighted GPA is a 4.5 and my unweighted GPA a 3.6 and I’m worried that all the hard honors classes that I have taken have gone to waste since people who have been getting As in easy regular classes may have a higher UW GPA than me.
The school profile report will explain the GPA situation at your school. Most college would use uwGPA or recalculate GPA in their way. The same 3.6 GPA at one school may value more than 4.0 at another school.