<p>This is what confuses me. So a 4.0 GPA is the highest you can get on the 4.0 scale if you get A's in all classes. </p>
<p>If I take all AP's and Honors classes and get B's and A's, some kid who is in all regular classes might have a higher Gpa than me. So why do people want to know my Gpa? </p>
<p>I know my weighted Gpa, 4.63. I just don't understand the significance of posting your gpa on a 4.0 scale because it shows nothing.</p>
<p>It is easier to figure out what your grades are when it is converted to a 4.0.</p>
<p>Colleges calculate your GPA differently. First, they take out non-core courses. They look at your unweighted GPA. Then, they assess the difficulty of your course load based on your school profile.</p>
<p>Some schools report GPA very differently - use different scales, count pluses and minuses, etc.</p>
<p>Some students do not have the option of AP or IB classes. It is an attempt to assess what you’ve done on a basic level, and then assess how you took advantage of available opportunities.</p>
<p>Also, in my state, unweighted GPA is used to determine automatic admission to state schools. Are you theoretically punished for taking AP classes and getting B’s? Yes, you are. You wind up having to apply differently because you won’t meet the criteria for automatic admission. </p>
<p>No system is perfect.</p>
<p>A weighted GPA means very little to a college because schools use different weights for courses (some give 1.0 for an AP, others 0.5, etc). That is why they use UW GPA, class rank and difficulty of classes.</p>
<p>If people are curious about your GPA, and won’t be taking the actual classes into consideration, then give the weighted GPA. Some schools don’t calculate an unweighted GPA, others do. Some don’t weight at all, but that makes it difficult to calculate a reliable rank (which is why some schools also don’t rank).</p>
<p>Yes, it is possible for a student to take all general level classes, and outperform you in terms of GPA, but obviously if you took several AP classes, and got an A in all but one class, you’re the better student - again, that’s why they use weighting. I’ve seen schools that give 1.0 extra for Honors, and 2.0 extra for AP; you can’t compare their GPA to our local school which adds 0.4 for honors and .8 for AP. Their top GPA of 4.8 sounds so much more impressive than our 4.2</p>