What does Weighted & Unweighted GPA means?
An unweighted GPA is your grade point average. Many schools give extra points or other ‘weighting’ for honors or AP classes, and when those are factored in, that is called a weighted GPA. Colleges have different policies, but many of the more selective colleges will re-calculate GPAs, including just the unweighted mark for academic classes (ie, not PE, etc.). High schools often use weighted GPAs to determine class rank.
What if my school doesn’t use GPA system? And it’s not an international school so no honors or AP classes?
Are you saying you attend a high school in the US?
No I attended high school outside of the US @paul2752
American colleges are more than aware of different school systems.
Either they are going to ask you to use 3rd party to “translate” your transcript or they will just accept the transcript as it is
Weighted GPA seems to be an American invention. As an international student, don’t worry about it; it does not affect you. Colleges will view your application based upon its own merits and will evaluate your transcript based upon your school’s grading scale.
Most likely the latter (with an English translation if the document is not in English). But each college will tell you what is needed.
But in common app, there’s a section about GPA (unweighted&weighted). What should I fill in then? @skieurope
The Common App asks you if your reported GPA is weighted or unweighted. Report it as unweighted. For GPA, match what appears on your transcript. In other words, if your school uses a 20 point scale, use that; if it’s a 100 point scale, use that. In reality, listing your GPA on the common app is just a formality for colleges that require a transcript with the application. In that case, colleges will always default to the official document.
What educational system are you from?
Weighted GPA reflects the fact that in the US, American students of mixed ability and motivation are in the same school, and can choose their own classes as well as the level for these classes. Weighted GPA reflects the fact you took General English, Nutrition, Math for Business, General History, Child Development (lower weighted GPA) or the fact you took AP English Literature, Honors Chemistry, Honors Precalculus, AP US History, and Spanish 4 (higher weighted GPA). The first curriculum is easy and requires almost no homework, while the second curriculum prepares you well for the demands of a rigorous college, and you have lots of homework every day. Therefore, the weighted GPA takes that into account.