<p>I haven't heard much about high schools ranking using unweighted GPAs. I know this is a little unfair, and makes people play the system a little more. Anyhow, are there other schools out there that use unweighted, or is my school just wierd (in fact, I never knew weighted GPAs existed til I came on here...)</p>
<p>My D attended a high school that used unweighted GPAs. </p>
<p>IF you apply to selective colleges, they will look at your unweighted GPA.</p>
<p>A lot of schools use unweighted GPA, but most of those also provide weighted GPA</p>
<p>My kids' school system puts both unweighted and weighted GPAs on transcripts and refuses to provide class rank.</p>
<p>This is why it is important that students read their school profile so that they have an understanding of their grading system.</p>
<p>In addition, I would suggest that you read the following:</p>
<p>NACAC's 2006 Annual State of College Admission Report provides analysis of the combined results from the Admission Trends Survey and the Counseling Trends Survey. Based on surveys of school counselors and colleges and universities nationwide, NACAC provides this report to highlight issues of concern to college-bound students, their parents, and the educators who serve them. </p>
<p>Even if you don't read the whole report, you should definitely read Chapter 4 Factors in the admissions process </p>
<p>As far as GPA's weighted vs. unweighted</p>
<p>according to the NACAC:</p>
<p>Colleges and universities receive transcripts and GPA calculations from thousands of high schools, each of which may calculate GPAs differently.</p>
<p>Many high schools use a traditional 4-point scale to measure grade averages, others use weighted 4.5- or 5-point scales, while still others use grade scales that reach as high as 8 or 10.</p>
<p>To provide a standard comparison of grade point averages among applicants, some colleges recalculate grade point averages. Colleges
are virtually evenly split on the practice of recalculating GPAs—49 percent do and 51 percent do not. </p>
<p>High yield institutions are more likely than low yield institutions to recalculate GPA. (Basically more selective schools where if admitted the student is more likely to enroll will recalculate your GPA to a 4 point scale)</p>
<p>I would also suggest reading the The Recipe For Success, a look into how the 11 admission officers at Williams balance scores of priorities from the campus community.</p>
<p>My son's school refuses to calculate weighted GPA and DOES NOT count weigted courses in class ranking. This means the kids who work incredibly hard and get the IB diploma, but have one or two B grades, are never the val or sal. The kids in the "top 5%" of the class are about half students who have not taken challenging course work. (there is no AP, only IB). This seems very unfair when putting down class rank on college apps.</p>
<p>True, orjr, that's a problem.</p>
<p>But if you use weighted GPAs in class ranking, then kids near the top feel that they must fill their schedules entirely with weighted academic courses. This limits their opportunities to explore other areas and also keeps the best students out of the musical ensembles, journalism classes, etc. In schools that rank on the basis of weighted GPAs, nobody in the orchestra is ever valedictorian.</p>
<p>My class (2008) is the first in our high school's history to use weighted grades.</p>
<p>My small independent school did not weight GPA.</p>
<p>Our public school only used weighted GPA.</p>
<p>
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But if you use weighted GPAs in class ranking, then kids near the top feel that they must fill their schedules entirely with weighted academic courses.
[/QUOTE]
</p>
<p>Determining the valedictorian based on a weighted GPA which only includes academic courses would solve that problem.</p>
<p>My private school only did unweigthed GPA--0-100 scale. They don't rank--they just give out awards for the top 5% and #1, but they don't call him the valedictorian.</p>
<p>Our school had over 50 valedictorians this year.</p>
<p>Mine does. There's like at least 10 ppl with a 4.0 too. @_@</p>
<p>My regional public school uses only unweighted GPA on a 4.0 scale. They feel it gives students in lower levels a chance of getting onto the honor rolls. (Both of ours are based on both GPA and specific letter grades) Unfair to those of us taking 4-5 AP's with the rest of the classes being honors level though. We don't rank either and do not have valedictorians per say. Just the top 3 students of our class are asked to speak at graduation.</p>
<p>My school ended Valedictorian status because it wasn't fair for those kids in the most rigorous courses. Now, they use both weighted and unweighted GPAs to determine our Salutatorian- about 35 students a year.</p>
<p>Yea, my school does not calculate or provide weighted GPAs. I have about 6 4.0s in my class, but three of us went crazy with APs and three took easy classes. I'm surprised there aren't more people taking easy classes to get a 4.0.</p>
<p>Also, that means we're ranked #1, but our school doesn't do Valedictorian. How do colleges see that?</p>
<p>We have an 11 point unweighted scale, no class ranking (though general quintiles are reported, I believe). private school,</p>
<p>Cozmo, where are you from? My school did that, too (although technically they called it a 12-point scale with 12 being an A+ that almost nobody ever received -- the highest GPAs were usually in the high 10s).</p>
<p>My school ranks the students with their unweighted GPAs, which basically screws over anyone who tried to take challenging courses.</p>