<p>At my son’s school, doing study hall instead of an unweighted elective does yield a higher GPA (as well as more time to study). </p>
<p>Since music makes my son tick, we encouraged him to follow his heart when scheduling. Sadly the 10 semesters of band classes did ding his GPA and probably knocked him out of the top 5% even thought he has many weighted IB classes and just 2 Bs. But it was a choice me made. Certainly the many music classes and other outside music activities do show his passion. </p>
<p>What bothers me more is the boring unweighted Business class the school stuck him in freshman year. Study halls and PE classes were full. I’m also bothered that his Drivers Ed class (optional, $300 fee night course) counts as an unweighted/transcript course. It accidentally got added 2x on his transcript (2 different semesters) - we’re trying to at least get that fixed.</p>