If you do a google search of Harvard students average gpa it’s 4.1. Now is this weighted or unweighted I thought, so again after a google search I see that they take unweighted gpa. How is this possible?
Thank you
Where are you seeing that? The only time I’d trust an average GPA number is when it’s published on the Common Data Set itself
http://www.collegesimply.com/colleges/massachusetts/harvard-university/admission/
“Harvard University was 4.04 on the 4.0 scale”
Sorry I meant 4.04
a 4.0 is equiv to a 95.
Agreed
Not a primary source. This site http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg01_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=444 also not a primary source, says 4.10, but says that it is weighted.Prepscholar also says 4.1. So they could be weighted GPA’s. Alternatively, some HS’s give A+ with a 4.3 GPA. Regardless, 87% of the class had a 3.75+ in HS, which is the definitive number and is as specific as will ever be provided.
https://oir.harvard.edu/files/huoir/files/harvard_cds_2014-15.pdf
So a 100 would be a 4.3?
A 100 would be a 100. If Harvard recalculates GPA to a 4.0 scale, and I don’t know that they do or do not, I would assume that 100 would convert to 4.0, since Harvard does not have an A+ in its own grading scale.
Unweighted scales are from 1-100 or 0.00-4.0, anything above 100 or above 4.0 is weighted: https://i0.wp.com/greatcollegeadvice.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/slide15.jpg.
Here’s a good chart for conversion purposes: https://www.pdx.edu/asian-studies/sites/www.pdx.edu.asian-studies/files/Attachment8_GPA_Conversion_Table.pdf
That’s not quite true. Some high school will have a 4.3 for an A+. They may still give more weighting for AP and honors courses. (For example an A+ in an AP course would be counted as a 5.3 at some schools for their weighted GPAs.)
It’s actually pretty funny that Harvard says their average GPA is 4.03 when they say they are reporting GPAs on a 4.0 scale just above. (Page 8 in the most recent common data set: https://oir.harvard.edu/common-data-set I suspect they just didn’t bother to correct for the schools that use a 4.3 scale.
It reminds me of the old joke about the kid in the 10 items or fewer line at the grocery store with too many items. The clerk asks him if he goes to MIT and can’t read, or Harvard and can’t count.
“Some high school will have a 4.3 for an A+.”
Yup. And some high schools consider a 97 to be an A+, but only give a 3.7 for a grade of 97 (you need a 98 to get a 4.0).
I had hoped that unweighted was at least a common scale, but apparently it is not. GPAs appear to be nearly meaningless. Sigh.
If you give anything above a 4.0 for a grade it’s callled “weighting”.
^^ Correct! Or, it could be the high school is using a 1.00 to 4.3 scale. Which is why I posted the conversion table in post #7. Here it is again: https://www.pdx.edu/asian-studies/sites/www.pdx.edu.asian-studies/files/Attachment8_GPA_Conversion_Table.pdf
No, at least, not as the word is normally used in education-speak.
Weighting is when you take your regular grades and then give a bump (either a percentage or just +1 or +0.5 for honors and AP courses.) Giving 4.3 for A+s is not weighting it’s just using a 4.3 scale. The point of weighting is to raise the GPAs of students who take harder courses - it’s particularly useful if the school ranks students and usually ensures that the kids who take the most advanced courses ended up with higher ranks than students who take regular courses.
My kids’ highschool reported all the grades on the transcript unweighted on a 0-100 scale. Then they reported two GPAs - a weighted and unweighted one. They had a really strange weighting system that was 105% of the assigned grade for college prep, and 110% for both honors and APs (no differentiation). I have no idea what the colleges did with the information - but the kids who got into Harvard from our high school were never lower than the top 2 or 3% of the class in the time my kids attended. (That top 2 or 3% being based on the weighted GPAs.)
Personally I think people worry about this far too much. If you have mostly solid A’s in rigorous courses, you are fine from an academic view point. There are other far better ways to show your intellectual chops than a mere GPA.
That is very similar to our school and the first time I have found anyone else on CC with such a system! Just a slight variation-honors and non-core DE classes(language, business, engineering) get 105%, and AP and DE core get the 110%. Are you in NY somewhere?
I feel the % system is fairer than giving everyone a unilateral bump regardless of class performance.