Important to note that many schools give merit based on only the unweighted GPA so a child taking easier courses has a better chance and getting more free money than a child who wishes to challenge themselves by taking all of the rigorous courses. We ran into this again and again. With the state of college debt in our nation it is a very important and realistic thing to ponder and address.
Goes without saying schools have different ways of weighting or not of course! Simply saying one needs to be aware that rigor needs to be weighted against merit chances and also if a school measures un/w GPA. When schools tout an incoming classes average GPA they are using unweighted - telling you what they look at!