<p>I have a concern regarding course weight disparity factoring into admissions. For example my school is far more rigorous than neighboring schools and yet my school gives a 0.5 extra weight to honors courses and a +1 weight to AP courses. Another school in my area gives a +1 weight for honors and ap so say I have a 4.6 in my school would a student from the other school that has a 4.8 there a (4.4) based on my schools weighting, be viewed better than me?</p>
<p>Schools weight courses differently. Colleges know that and a student would be evaluated on the context of his/her own school.</p>
<p>Many colleges look only at unweighted GPA or weight according to their standards for exactly this reason.</p>
<p>Weighted GPA’s don’t mean that much to college admissions people, except as an indicator that the applicant took the more difficult classes that were available. Many recalculate to see the unweighted GPA, and many high school transcripts provide both.</p>
<p>Weighted GPA’s are used in high schools partly as a means of allowing the students who take the more difficult classes to rise to the top of the graduating class. If not weighted, then the hardworking kids who excel in shop classes or lower levels of college prep classes might end up valedictorian with a 4.0, while kids taking more challenging classes and “only” getting a 3.8 or thereabouts could rank lower. </p>
<p>So colleges look at the GPA, rank, and level of difficulty when evaluating applicants.</p>
<p>That leads to another question say I am ranked 3/400 at a top school but another student is ranked 1/400 at a far weaker school does that matter?</p>
<p>If the college admissions considers weighted GPA, it is likely a recalculated weighted GPA using the college’s weighting method.</p>
<p>I would assume that most colleges would recalculate all weighted GPAs based on their methodology, and then somewhat ignore them.</p>
<p>Students have to be graded within the context of their high school, so a person who got a ~4.8 because they had nearly all AP classes available to them can’t be considered ‘better’ than a person who got a ~4.4 or so, because their school couldn’t afford to institute many AP programs.</p>
<p>Colleges focus their attention on unweighted GPAs, and then make sure that the GPA earned is a result of taking the hardest classes available at a person’s respective high school. It’s a process that’s a bit more intensive than taking a weighted GPA and comparing students based on it.</p>
<p>In some cases the ironic fact is that dual enrollment classes drag down a weighted GPA. AP class “A’s” earn a 5, Honors 4.5, yet an actual college class 4.0. It is sad to look on Naviance and see a 4.18 weighed GPA listed for a student who only has one B and has taken 60 college credit hours, 20 of those upper division. One only hopes admissions committees figure out a way to fairly value students achievement.</p>
<p>Not an easy task.</p>