Do colleges use the unweighted or the weighted GPA for admission??

Applying to College
1

<p>I really want to know since my weighted GPA is a bit higher than my unweighted GPA for my junior year. Do they use both?? or just one of the GPA?</p>

<p>Thanks...</p>

2

<p>I have a feeling they look at both, but they obviously consider the weighted GPA more since it tells more about your class rigor.</p>

3

<p>To find out, you need to ask the question of each college point blank. Here are three of the schools on Son's list (all private LACs in the same part of the country):</p>

<p>School A: Looks at unweighted GPA only.</p>

<p>School B: Loooks at weighted GPA only.</p>

<p>School C: Looks at weighted GPA for admissions and unweighted GPA for merit scholarships.</p>

<p>This info is not on any of the schools' web sites. We found this out only during the on-campus visits.</p>

4

<p>What I have seen done is that the unweighted gpa is used and transformed into numbers that the college uses to give the student a rating on where he is rank/grade wise compared to everyone else in the applicant pool. Looking at the high school profile and the type of course taken the difficulty of curriculum is also noted.</p>

5

<p>Often this information is on the school's website, but not always. The answer is all over the map. Here is from my son's list:</p>

<p>School A (public) - looks at weighted 9-11 GPA and caps honors to 8 semesters
School B (public) - looks at weighted 10-11 GPA and caps honors to 8 semesters
School C (private) - looks at unweighted 9-11 for admissions and merit scholarships
School D (private) - looks at weighted 10-11</p>

<p>If it's not explicitly spelled out on the admissions page of the school's webiste, an email or call to the admissions office to clarify how GPA is calculated is the only way to be sure.</p>

6

<p>I would think that WGPA is used to see how challenging of a course load you take and UWGPA to see how well you do in those classes.</p>

7

<p>I think colleges should look at WGPA mostly. It's just not same if a student gets 3.8 UWGPA on honors and APs classes, while another student get 3.8 UWGPA on some lower-level classes.</p>