<li>Do they include freshman GPA?</li>
<li>Do they include grades from non-academic courses? like drama, photo, ceramics classes?</li>
<li>Since my high school does not show weighted GPA on the transcript, so how does college calculate that? Is honor class weighted?</li>
</ol>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>Every college uses its own method to calculate GPA. The most selective colleges tend to only use academic courses and don't weight the GPA for honors/AP (they start with the assumption that you're taking honors/AP or you're not going to be admitted any way).</p>
<p>On the other hand, for example, Mass state colleges & universities use all classes and give a .5 bump for honors and 1.0 for AP (at least that's the method our high school says they use).</p>
<p>Don't worry about what your hs says your GPA is. The college will figure it out using whatever their method is. If you're really concerned about a particular school, call admissions and ask how they calculate GPA.</p>
<p>I hope and am pretty sure that you're wrong Lafalum, because I get a lot of B+s and A-s in AP classes, and thus my weighted GPA is a 4.2, while my unweighted is a 3.4. If you are correct, then people in regular or honors calsses (not AP) with A-s will have a higher GPA than me. That's completely rediculous. :/</p>
<p>Lopo, you can calculate your GPA any way you want to, but the colleges are going to calculate it they way they want to. They aren't going to take your word for it that it's a 4.2, they're going to look at your transcript and figure it out their own way. I assume you're adding 1.0 for honors. Like I said, Mass state schools add .5 for honors. </p>
<p>I've been to an admissions meeting at Union College where they described their average GPA as being a 91, meaning they're translating everything into a 100% scale. </p>
<p>Providence College specifically told us they ONLY include academic classes (plus theology if you go to Catholic high school) and they DO NOT weight. An A is a 4.0. Then they look at your schedule and use their own method to calculate another number that describes how advanced your course load is (how many honors, APs, etc). They combine the two numbers to rate your academic achievement in high school.</p>
<p>For ranking purposes, my son's public high school has an A in a college prep class as a 12.0, A in honors is a 15.0, A in AP is a 16.5 . His GPA according to our high school is around a 13. There are as many ways to calculate GPA as there are schools. If you do a search, there are dozens of threads on this site regarding how to calculate GPA. There is no one right answer, so do NOT believe any GPAs that are quoted on CC. Some people have an A in honors as 5.0, some as 4.0, some as 4.5.</p>