<p>I am currently a senior in high school. I am applying to a scholarship online and the scholarhip needs my GPA on a 4.0 unweighted scale. My school normally goes by the 5.0 weighted scale. On that scale I have a 5.28182. I go in to ask my councelor what my GPA is on the unweighted scale. She told me it was a 3.53. I think this is odd because I have only gotten 3 B's in my whole high school expereince. The rest is A's and only 5 of those A's could be considered A-. I have 23.5 credits on my current transcript. Each semester is .5 of a credit. I recalculated it using an online GPA calculator. My GPA on that was around 3.9 I thought having a 3.5 meant half A's and half B's. This is not the case for me. I have been emailing my councelor and she says that I am using the collegiate (college) scale instead of the high school scale. I was wondering if I should keep asking her to recalculate or should I just stick with this GPA. I was also wondering if this lower GPA decreases my chances of getting a scholarship.</p>
<p>Your counselor is wrong. It’s definitely a 3.9. There’s no way you can have a 3.5 with three B’s in all of high school.</p>
<p>so you have 23.5 credits? I am not a math person, so I am trying to figure out how that works. IF you have 6 classes a day, all year, you would have 18 credits. How did you get the other 5? Do you have 8 classes each semester?
Sorry for my ignorance.</p>
<p>But here is how I would calculate your GPA-
22x4=88
1.5x3=4.5
88+4.5=92.5
92.5/23.5=3.93 unweighted</p>
<p>If you had 3 B’s in all year classes it would be
20.5x4=82
3x3=9
82+9=91
91/23.5=3.87 (or 3.9)</p>
<p>If she put in for 3 b’s as 6.0 classes (basically giving you 1.0 per semester rather than .5 per semester), instead of 3.0 classes it would be:</p>
<p>17.5x4=70
6x3=18
70+18=88
88/23.5=3.74</p>
<p>Like I said, I am not a math person, but everyway I work it out, it is higher than a 3.5. I would try to take this above the counselor. If you do apply for the scholarship, and the counselor sends in a GPA different than what you put down your GPA actually is, you will have problems. </p>
<p>Good Luck!</p>
<p>Thanks vlines, my school had eight class periods ( a day b day schedule). Some of my classes took up two class periods but you get one grade. I took classes over the summer and I also took classes before high school. Thanks again for the calculations. I am going to go talk with my counselor again tomorrow ad try to get this sorted out, thanks again</p>
<p>Ask her to do the math in front of you like I did above. Even if she does it differently, at least you will be able to see what she did, and if she is plugging in the wrong numbers.</p>
<p>So I went into my counselor’s office in order to figure out how she calculated my GPA. Apparently, my school district calculates it differently that the typical collegiate scale. The scale goes:
100 = 4.0
99 = 3.9
98 = 3.8 and goes on down from there. She said that most colleges are using this scale now. Her example was UTD. My brother goes to Texas Tech and his grades go by the basic collegiate scale. Does anyone know if a lot of colleges are using this scale? Will using this scale hurt my chances of getting a scholarship or is this scale pretty universal?</p>
<p>WOW - is there someone above your counselor you can speak with? By her calculations a 90 would be a 3.0 and 80 would be a 2.0. No one grades that way. Do they fail kids with an 80?
Here is a link to UTD grading system
[Grades</a> - 2008-2010 Undergraduate Catalog - Academic Policies and Procedures](<a href=“UT Dallas Course Catalogs - UT Dallas University Catalogs - The University of Texas at Dallas”>UT Dallas Course Catalogs - UT Dallas University Catalogs - The University of Texas at Dallas)</p>
<p>Perhaps you can speak to another counselor (who has taken math?)</p>
<p>* I was wondering if I should keep asking her to recalculate or should I just stick with this GPA. I was also wondering if this lower GPA decreases my chances of getting a scholarship. *</p>
<p>What is your SAT or ACT…that may likely determine scholarship opportunities.</p>
<p>It also sounds like you’re applying for private scholarships. Those are often ONLY for freshman year, so if you’re looking for scholarships, you need to apply to the SCHOOLS that give them for stats.</p>
<p>Well the ones I am applying to are for seniors entering as freshmen. I think they ask for a 4.0 GPA unweighted scale becuase the applicants come from across the country and not everyone goes by the same scale. I know my cousins school go by a 4.0 unweighted while my school goes by a 5.0 weighted. It is easier to process applications on one consistant scale. I am applying to the private scholarships because for the majority of my schools that I am applying to, they automatically consider me for scholarships. My application turns into my scholarship application, like in the case for Georgia Tech and the presidential scholarship.<br>
My SAT scores are 740 in math, 660 in reading, and 530 in writing (I know really low)
My act scores are 31 in math, 32 in science, 30 in reading, and 23 in writing (again really low)
I have also gotten National Hispanic Scholar
New England Mother: I am going to try to get that system to change because as of right now that scale is a school district policy. My councilor handed me the chart that they use to calculate the GPAs</p>
<p>No. The majority of colleges that recalculate GPA do it as follows: </p>
<p>100-90 =4.0
89-80 = 3.0
And so on. </p>
<p>Recalculate your GPA that way. THAT is the GPA that most scholarships want. No bonuses for honors or anything.</p>
<p>In your school district, a student who got all A’s (90 to 100) in all classes, and all of those classes are AP or equivalent - worth up to 5.0 each - could have a weighted GPA anywhere from 4.0 to 5.0. And an unweighted GPA anywhere from 3.2 to 4.0.
That is crazy, and puts students in your school district at a disadvantage compared to other students throughout the country.
We are in the same boat. The common appl only lets us choose a 5.0 scale, so our counselors send a letter, which we’ve never seen, explaining that our school’s weighted GPA is really out of 4.8, not the 5.0. They apparently also say our school is very competitive, but that doesn’t raise student’s reported GPAs.</p>
<p>romanigypsyeyes: How do we find out if a school recalculates the GPA? Only schools that just consider your sophomore through senior grades must do a recalculation. Other schools appear to take what your official transcript says is your GPA.</p>
<p>Op needs to get a copy of his/her school profile that the school sends to the college. It should have the grading scale. </p>
<p>I also believe that the GPA’s are not computed manually but by computer with the credits/weighting already loaded. Different courses may have different weightings. </p>
<p>Op needs to know what courses are calculated in the gpa. OP also needs to know how much weighting is attached to each course (AP’s/Honors/IB, etc).</p>
<p>Op could have some of those A’s in phys ed, which is usually not calculated in the overall GPA.</p>
<p>Once Op knows how the school calculates grades, s/he will</p>
<p>@goingnuts- you need to ask the school. That’s the only way to know.</p>
<p>I’m kind of confused how the OP can have over a 5.0, if using a 5.0 weighted system. I will however admit that I don’t really get weighted as my S’s school does not weight. </p>
<p>I agree with the advice of the 4 = 90-100 scale (that being said, my S’s school does 93+ = 4.0), but for the sake of the scholarship, I think that is a fair valuation.</p>
<p>hope- I can not imagine your counselor is correct. What school district is your school in? I would like to look up the GPA policy in the district (or you can do it). I have seen all sorts of grading scales before, but I have never seen the one she showed you. The most common is the 90-100 is 4.0, or A is 4.0. Next common is the +/- that divides that number up even more. </p>
<p>I would tell you to calculate yourself and just submit that, but if they do ask for validation from your school, it could be a problem. You could also call the scholarship group and verify with them if it is OK for you to recalculate your GPA yourself. </p>
<p>What % did your GC give you? Was it 95%? There has not been a single grading scale that would put you at a 3.5 with 95% average. That would be more like a 85-89 average.</p>
<p>Hope, here is the recommendation from College board:
How to Convert Your GPA to a 4.0 ScaleColleges report GPA (grade point average) on a 4.0 scale. The top grade is an A, which equals 4.0. This is the standard scale at most colleges, and many high schools use it.</p>
<p>If your high school uses a different or weighted system, you need to convert your GPA to a 4.0 scale for this tool. Talk to your school counselor or get a rough conversion by substituting these values:</p>
<p>A+ (97-100) = 4.0
A (93-96) = 4.0
A- (90-92) = 3.7</p>
<p>B+ (87-89) = 3.3
B (83-86) = 3.0
B- (80-82) = 2.7</p>
<p>C+ (77-79) = 2.3
C (73-76) = 2.0
C- (70-72) = 1.7</p>
<p>D+ (67-69) = 1.3
D (65-66) = 1.0
E/F (below 65) = 0.0</p>
<p>[How</a> to Convert Your GPA to a 4.0 Scale](<a href=“College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools”>How to Convert (Calculate) Your GPA to a 4.0 Scale – BigFuture)</p>
<p>take that into your GC and help her to figure this out correctly for you!</p>
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<p>@vlines: I am sure their counselor is correct. We are in a school district that calculates GPAs exactly that way: 90 in a regular course is 3.0, 90 in an AP course is 4.0. If a student averages 95 while taking the school’s regular mix of AP/non-AP courses, then their unweighted GPA is 3.5 out of 4.0.</p>
<p>Thanks so much for the College Board GPA conversion link. Unfortunately, the school transcripts will report a much lower GPA for @Hope4future and our senior. Why would a scholarship take a self-reported higher GPA over the official transcript GPA? We can only hope they digitize all applicants’ grade data and then recalculate GPAs themselves for some reason.</p>
<p>going nuts, the OP has to convert his 5.0 GPA scale down to a 4.0 scale for this scholarship. Doing that does not decrease the grade, it only drops the GPA possible to between 1-4, instead of 1-5. That does not mean that his A’s would now be B’s.</p>