<p>My son is trying to finish up his transcript and course descriptions to document his high school earning. He has quite a few college courses as a dual enrolled student, but we have never used grades at home. It has been suggested to us that it might be advantageous for him to calculate a GPA and credits. What do you folks think about this? </p>
<p>We've broken his education down by subject area and he's written course descriptions that reflect what tools he utilized and what he learned. He has many standardized test scores that are in the top 5% or so, and those good college grades to show that he can handle college level work. I don't think there is any question about his needing a GPA to get into the schools on his list. Our concern is more that he might not be seen as a candidate for scholarship without the GPA. Is it probable that he'd get overlooked due to a lack of grades? How would we calculate GPA, based upon homeschool grades alone, or with colleg grades added in? I'm assuming the college courses woudl be weighted, but I am unsure of proper procedure. </p>
<p>Any BTDT help would be greatly appreciated! </p>
<p>I know of people who have done it many different ways. Some have just used the outside courses for the gpa and not even given grades at home. That has worked for them. We chose to give grades at home. Although those grades were, admittedly, quite subjective, they did match the grades our sons received in outside classes, so they were never questioned.</p>
<p>You can weight grades for college courses; however, each college will unweight or weight in their own method in order to compare different students fairly. Thus, we chose to give unweighted grades. It is simpler, and it didn't seem to hurt our boys in any way. (Just be sure to note by the gpa that it is unweighted.) I do think there could be at least a small advantage in having grades, particularly when applying for outside scholarships, where they may not understand homeschooling as well and need a way to compare students more easily.</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies. I actually got a good tip from a friend today. She asked why not just put down his college GPA and identify it as such. Makes sense, yes? I think that's what we'll do. </p>
<p>:) I'll be so glad when all these papers are filed and the rest is in the hands of the admissions officers!
Rellie</p>
<p>On our son's high school transcript, we indicate self-study (home school) courses with a pass/fail; outside classes with the grade he earned (whole grades only). Outside classes included college classes, online classes, and classes he took with at tutor -- any class where there was an outside source of evaluation. We did not weight grades. We explained our method and rationale at the end of the transcript.</p>