I am in the very early stages of trying to wade through all the college info for my middle school daughter. I’ve heard that if you take a AP class then it is weighted out of 5 points even if you don’t take the AP test. True or not true or sometime?
Also, do all classes count towards your GPA- health, photography, Spanish, cooking, etc?
I heard that some honors classes are weighted and out of 5 points but not all, any reason why? Can anyone explain this to me?
Someone also mentioned that you can take junior college classes just to get “credits” and if you get a good grade could use that towards your high school GPA, can anyone explain that?
Times have changed and was hopeful someone can explain how it works to me : )
Every school district is different in my experience. Usually there is something published that tells you how it works.
Our district changed recently not just which classes they counted but the weights as well. My senior had a different system than my sophomore.
And then many colleges calculate their own. I think you live in California and if so those schools have a pretty public formula someone will explain in this thread I am sure.
Every school district chooses its grading system. Most are on an A = 4 scale. Some weight grades and or give +/- qualifiers. Some may include classes taken in middle school that are HS based on the HS transcript and in the gpa. Some may include college classes on the HS transcript. You need to get the information from your particular school.
Likewise colleges will figure out their version of the gpa. Some will use only the unweighted gpa, no extra points for Honors, AP or IB classes. They may choose to count only “academic” courses- have not been able to figure out what UW (Wisconsin) considers that- physical education not academic I’m sure. Colleges also may look at the “rigor” of the course schedule. The HS guidance counselor will likely be asked to state whether the student took the most-least rigorous courses available.
For practical purposes in the eventual college applications consider this. You are stuck with how your HS does grading. This may impact class rank, but don’t worry about that. Your D should take the most appropriate classes for her. This may mean taking a regular version of a class instead of Honors or AP if that option means she’ll learn more/do better or schedule conflicts arise (guidance counselors may explain things). Plan on 4 years of a single foreign language, including middle school (ie through the 4th level) to meet admissions requirements and/or be competitive for top schools nationwide. Only consider 8th grade algebra if it makes sense for your D. Better to have better comprehension of math fundamentals than to move too quickly and struggle later. Consider not having any study halls if your D doesn’t need them- even in middle school (son’s schools assumed most would take one, son did not need them). Find out if any HS courses can be taken in middle school to get a class out of the way- things like Health may be offered. Be sure your D includes fun classes such as art and music. Middle school is a great time for exploring subjects one won’t take in HS. My son did extra tech ed- never would have used those tools in our house.
Teen years are a time to learn a lot of skills and material to improve one’s knowledge base. It is also a time to try many different things. The main focus is on growth and development, not the college resume.
Every selective college will tell you the same thing. I was on a college visit trip this past weekend and all three top-25 schools said almost the exact same thing word for word. They do not rely hardly at all on the GPA calculations shown on the HS transcript.
They will do their own judgment of the impressiveness of the transcript based upon the rigor and grades shown on the transcript. Most will focus primarily on the five core areas – math, science, english, social studies, foreign language. They don’t care what grades you get in music, gym, typing, home ec, etc.
Some selective schools actually calculate their own GPA using their own standards and methods. Most simply make an overall judgment based on what they see.
But to answer your direct question. At most high schools, a “perfect” GPA would be 4.0 unweighted and 5.0 weighted. That means straight As in all classes, plus straight As in a boat load of honors/AP classes. But the fancy colleges (as noted above) don’t use those calcs to make admissions decision.
There are as many grading systems as high school it sometimes seems! Our school doesn’t use the 4.0 system at all. Instead they have a 100 point scale. The slow classes aren’t weighted, regular college prep (NYS Regents classes are weighted x1.05, both honors and AP are weighted x1.10.) At least when my oldest graduated the valedictorian had a 106. You couldn’t get 110 because most ninth grade courses didn’t have an honors version. The weighted GPA only showed as an average - course grades appeared on the transcript in their unweighted form. Colleges seemed to figure out how to interpret it.
Every state and/or HS is different. On top of that every college admissions department is different, and most (all?) recalculate what the applicants send them to put everyone on the same scale.
OMG, I thought my question was straight forward and every college would interpret it the same way, woozers! Sounds like we need to talk to the prospective high schools and a few colleges that seem the most interesting to her. We are in California, JennFolsom is the clue I guess : ) While we live in Ca, are not most likely spending much time thinking about UC’s or Cal States. It sounds like she is more likely to get into a better school out of state. She is going to be in the top 10% of her class, but that is it. She is a hard worker but not a huge amount of extracurriculars and not sure how she will test. She did public for elementary and now a private school with really small classes for middle. It is a perfect fit for her. Debating about where to send for high school and my friends with older kiddos have started the college planning so decided we should start doing some background research.
Thank you for the links, it is definitely a place to start, wish they were more standardized, ugh!
With apologies to Jenn and the late, great, George Carlin…
What or who is the modern GPA?
“I’m a modern GPA, a GPA for the millennium. Digital and smoke free. A diversified multi-cultural, post-modern deconstruction that is anatomically and ecologically incorrect. I’ve been up linked and downloaded, I’ve been inputted and outsourced, I know the upside of downsizing, I know the downside of upgrading. I’m a high-tech low-life. A cutting edge, state-of-the-art bi-coastal multi-tasker and I can give you a gigabyte in a nanosecond!
I’m new wave, but I’m old school and my inner child is outward bound. I’m a hot-wired, heat seeking, warm-hearted cool customer, voice activated and bio-degradable. I interface with my database, my database is in cyberspace, so I’m interactive, I’m hyperactive and from time to time I’m radioactive."
As a California resident, the UC’s are going to be your best bang for the buck. Have you looked into the cost of college? The number of schools that are arguably “better” than UC Berkeley or UCLA can be counted on your fingers. Those schools will be twice the price of a UC.
^The UCs might not be twice the price. Some of those “better” schools have fabulous financial aid, though perhaps not for someone who could afford to send their child to private school for middle school.
I don’t think how school calculate GPAs is what I’d be looking for in a high school. Middle school is far too early to be thinking about where your child will go to college, though you may have some notions. I was pretty sure my precocious kid who always scored in the top 1% of any standardized test he was given would probably go to a very selective college. When I looked at our local public high school I did not worry about the average SAT score, but about what the kids that would be his cohort were doing. Did some of them go to the types of colleges I thought my kid would want? Were their ECs that would be good for him? Were there enough AP offerings or similarly challenging options? Was it safe enough?
“OMG, I thought my question was straight forward and every college would interpret it the same way, woozers! Sounds like we need to talk to the prospective high schools and a few colleges that seem the most interesting to her.”
You actually don’t need to do anything. Whatever HS your kid goes to will use their own system to grade the kid. And whatever colleges the kid applies to will use their system for scoring the HS transcript. The schools do this every year for hundreds of thousands of kids.
All of that algebra is only relevant for the small percentage of colleges that are somewhat selective. 80% of all U.S. college admit over 80% of the kids who apply.
If you kid is going for a selective school, the thing the college really wants to know is class rank, not so much GPA. Since most high schools don’t report class rank, all the GPA math is really an exercise to figure out the kid’s class rank. If your kid is taking a bunch of hard classes and has a top 10% class rank, then the GPA becomes almost irrelevant.
The colleges know the high schools and the high schools provide profile info to the colleges. So the colleges have a pretty easy time figuring out an approximate class rank and what that represents. They know that the #1 student at Easy High with a lot of basket weaving classes is not as strong as #150 student at Crazy Hard STEM Charter High.
The only thing you might want to ask your kid’s potential HS is if they. If so, pay attention to that and don’t sweat the nuances of GPA.
Middle school is way too early to obsess. Inform yourself, sure. But don’t push her mercilessly in middle school. More important is that she form a solid basis and be prepared for hs classes. Sure, get her in some good activities now, maybe some decent community service, let her polish her sport, music, art, etc, and try something new, but those are life lessons, anyway. See how her interests develop. Your job, at this point, is really to look at her, help her learn who she is, and foster that in ways that don’t interfere with confidence and grounding (and socializing.) The right challenges at the right time, not some wacky push to the top.
Right now, you can pick a college or two, run the NPC (Net Price Calculator) on their financial aid page, to get an idea of your costs.
As said, not all hs weight the same. Not all hs will inform colleges of rank. And not all hs have the same rigor. Most colleges look at the cores and performance there. The double edged sword in picking an uber competitive hs can be…the quality of the education vs what can be crazy competition at some.
^Oh yes, I have no regrets about staying put where we were and having our kid at the local high school. The competitive kids are competitive, but things have not gotten crazy here. There is no AP war, I don’t see people trying to game their rank, the workload of APs is not unreasonable, and in at least one AP Calc course the homework isn’t graded, so you can do as few problems as you like.
Because of the more rigorous nature of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate- Diploma Programme, and selected Honors courses, students receiving a grade of A, B, or C in those courses shall receive extra grade weighting as follows:
A (90-100%) Outstanding Achievement 5.0 grade points
B (80-89%) Above Average Achievement 4.0 grade points