How does your HS calculate GPA?

Parents Forum
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<p>Help! When I look at profiles of colleges and they list their accepted students' GPA, I never know how to compare that to my son! I know all colleges re-calculate GPA based on their own standards, and I think most of the selective schools do it on a 4.0 UNWEIGHTED scale. Is that what everyone else has heard?</p>

<p>But when I read posts on CC and people tell me say their kid has a 4.2 GPA, what does that mean? </p>

<p>Our hs does a wierd thing where an A in a college prep class is a 12.0, an A in honors is a 15.0 and and A in AP is a 16.5. But they just use that for ranking and Natl Honor Society (min GPA 12.0), the GC's recalculate on a more normal weighted scale for the kids to use when looking at colleges. Our GC said for college purposes they count an A in a coll prep class as 4.0, an A in honors as 4.5, and an A in AP as a 5. </p>

<p>But I've seen others on CC who count an A in honors as a 5.0. So what systems do other hs use? Is honors A 4.0, 4.5 or 5? Inquiring minds want to know!</p>

<p>I calculated my son's GPA four ways (yes, I'm a little obsessed with this):
Weighted, all classes: 3.95 (using +.5 for honors and +1 for AP)
Weighted, core academics: 3.83
Unweighted, all classes: 3.62
Unweighted, core academics: 3.47</p>

<p>So what is my son's GPA????</p>

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<p>alright. first off, our school, other than normal classes, only offers Colleg in high school classes. So i cant tell you about how we do AP and honors. What we do is take our grades from the classes 0%-100% and they are averaged. that is the non-weighted percentage. That is then put onto the 4.0 scale. That is our unweighted GPA.</p>

<p>After that, they take your classes and any college credit class (everyones equivalent to a AP) and the add 10% to the grade. Then they find the averages of it, and put it on the 4.0+ scale. That is our weighted GPA.</p>

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<p>My daughter's school releases four GPAs: Unweighted all classes; Unweighted core academic; weighted UC and one other I can't remember. The colleges can then choose which to use.</p>

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<p>neither of my daughters schools weighted grades
First school- was a private prep- had honors but no AP- didn't weight or rank.
Public comprehensive, has AP- has honors, does rank but doesn't weight grades.</p>

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<p>My Ds HS reports three GPAs: Academic GPA (not counting art, choir, etc?), Overall GPA (everything), and Unweighted GPA. IB, Honors, and AP classes are all given an extra point (on a 4.0 scale), so someone taking all possible IB/honors/AP courses could approach a GPA of 5. </p>

<p>It is no secret, however, since all three and the additional weighting system are all printed right on the transcript that goes to college admissions offices. The Overall GPA appears to be the one used to calculate class rankings.</p>

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<p>It's a mess really. Makes me thankful for the ease of comparing the dreaded standardized exam scores! </p>

<p>My son's HS goes by an unweighted 100 range. So the average looks like 90.876 or something. How the heck do you compare that to anything?</p>

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<p>IMO, your son's gpa will be recalculated by the various colleges. Some colleges will not weigh honors/AP classes, and others will weigh them. Some will only look at needed core classes for admission (ie: phys ed, and AP psych might not be inluded in determining gpa). If you really want to know his gpa, you need to call each admission office and ask how it is calculated for admission and merit scholarships. Good luck! It really is a mystery, isn't it?</p>

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<p>Every school system seems to do it differently. My kids' school system does not separate out core academics. The GPA is for all subjects. The weighted GPA includes an extra point (yes, a full point) for all A, B, and C grades in honors, AP, or IB classes. AP is not worth more than honors. </p>

<p>This extreme weighting is the reason why some kids' weighted GPAs are much higher than their unweighted GPAs. For example, I know of a student with a 3.9 unweighted/4.6 weighted. I doubt, though, that the colleges weight as heavily as our school system does.</p>

<p>The school system's weighting method is probably described either in the high school profile that goes to the colleges or on the actual transcript. College adcoms don't have to figure it out for themselves.</p>

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<p>You really can't compare your kid's GPA to the stated average GPA, no matter where your kid goes to school and what system they use. Unless you call a particular school, ask how they re-calculate a GPA from your kid's school and do the math.</p>

<p>All you can do is "guesstimate," which is just what you've done. Colleges, in addition to possibly/probably recalculating your GPA, will look at the GPA in the context of the high school profile your school sends along with the transcript. </p>

<p>There have been oh so many threads on this subject and I'm not yet sure I've seen even <em>one</em> poster whose school does the GPA the same as any other poster. Frustrating for information junkies, I know. It's absurd, but that's what it is.</p>

<p>PS If you're still looking for the info, our hs calculates the unweighted GPA on a 0-100 point scale using all grades. It calculates the weighted GPA using only core "leveled" academic courses. "Leveled" courses are those which are offered CP/honors/AP. Honors are weighted +30% and AP are weighted +35%. Thus, a weighted GPA of around 126 tends to be the highest achieved. Are we having fun yet :p?</p>

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<p>I wish there was a standardized GPA used for weighing classes so there isn't this comparing apples to oranges. Why can't schools agree on this! I would think the NEA could take the lead on this - establish a GPA system for reg classes, honors, and AP's. If they did that, even the privates would likely go along because colleges would endorse it. Right now, the "each school/district has its own system" isn't working. My niece's school gives a 6.0 to an A in an AP class, while my kid's school only gives a 4.5 for an A in the same AP class.</p>

<p>If YOU could come up with a system, what would YOU suggest????</p>

<p>This is mine...</p>

<p>AP
90 - 100 A's 5.0
80 - 90 B's 4.0</p>

<p>Honors/ pre AP
90 - 100 A's 4.5
80 - 90 B's 3.5</p>

<p>Reg/college prep
90 - 100 A's 4.0
80 - 90 B's 3.0</p>

<p>I also support getting rid of "ranking" because it is nearly impossible to determine real rank without taking into consideration whether a student has taken the harder AP's verses the "AP Lites", more math & sciences vs easy electives, etc.</p>

<p>Our state univs have decided not to recalculate GPAs -- they include all classes (even religion from the Catholic schools). They don't have time to do all the recalcs (and they mostly use SAT and ACT scores for admittance anyway once they see that a kid has taken all the College Prep classes required for admission and has a stated good GPA on the transcript.)</p>

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<p>Every school does seem to do it differently AND every college/university seems to do it differently. Some admissions reps say they don't recalculate at all, and some pretty much throw everything out and re-calculate according to their specific program. You won't know unless you ask the admissions office of the specific schools you're looking at. </p>

<p>My S' school does not weight and provides one GPA (0-100 scale). But they do have a 4.0 conversion chart that they provide if a college asks for grades on a 4.0 scale.</p>

<p>EDIT: jlauer, some states have tried to institute a uniform grading policy -- I'm familiar with NC and SC. I'm not sure they've fixed anything, though. Their efforts have their own significant problems.</p>

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<p>For years, my kids' school refused to weight the AP classes. When kids were not getting accepted into some top tier schools (in spite of having all "A"s, high SATs & lots of EC's) parents complained so much that the school finally relented. The parents insisted that the lack of weighing was hurting these kids' chances at the top tiers. Parents were concerned that colleges were receiving an avalanche of apps and may overlook the fact that the GPAs didn't include weight for APs and honors. Even if weighing doesn't make a difference in admissions, at least now the school has removed the possibility that it does. The school was wise to relent, but their new system is different (less generous) than most other schools.</p>

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<p>As an example of just how bogged down you can get when a state tries a one size fits all solution, here’s some guidelines from NC. </p>

<p>
[quote]
North Carolina: </p>

<p>High schools have one of three grading scales available:</p>

<p>Option 1: Letter grades w/o (+) and (-) – A=4, B=3, C=2, D=1, F=0</p>

<p>Option 2: Letter grades w/ (+) and (-) – A+=4, A=4, A- =3.68, B+ = 3.38, B = 3, B- =2.68, C+ = 2.38, C = 2, C - = 1.68</p>

<p>Option 3: 0-100 Scale – 96-100 = 4, 95 = 3.88, 94 = 3.75, 92 = 3.5, 91 = 3.28 . . . (I won’t type the whole darn thing). </p>

<p>Then, to those 0-4.0 conversions, the following weights are applied:</p>

<p>Honors/GT Sections of standard level academic courses; arts courses that meet honors-level standards, and honors courses offered by magnet high schools --- Add 1 quality point. </p>

<p>Pre-calculus, non-AP/IB calculus, mathematics courses beyond the level of calculus and foreign language courses beyond the second year level. Such courses are considered to be inherently advanced. Add 1 quality point. </p>

<p>All AP/IB and higher level college courses – Add 2 quality points.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Which immediately raises a lot of questions. So a very high B at an option 1 school gets 3 points, period, while a B+ at an option 2 gets a 3.38 and a 91 at an Option 3 gets a 3.28? But they are ALL B’s. Math beyond the calculus level gets a lesser weight than AP Calculus (or AP Psych, for example). Why? Is a third year of a foreign language inherently more advanced than a college prep chemistry or physics? Is an AP/IB course necessarily more challenging than a non-AP/IB class at a magnet high school?</p>

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<p>"PS If you're still looking for the info, our hs calculates the unweighted GPA on a 0-100 point scale using all grades. It calculates the weighted GPA using only core "leveled" academic courses. "Leveled" courses are those which are offered CP/honors/AP. Honors are weighted +30% and AP are weighted +35%. Thus, a weighted GPA of around 126 tends to be the highest achieved. Are we having fun yet ?"</p>

<p>And our high school is also on a 100 point scale. All courses except gym appear to count, including 8th grade courses taken for high school credit. Slow courses are weight 1.0, regular regents level courses are 1.05 and honors and AP are an equal 1.10. The highest theoretical weighted GPA is 110. The highest GPA last year was 104 point something.</p>

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<p>My S's school did not weight or rank. All courses, including honors and APs, were considered the same. No weighting whatsoever. Courses such as art, physical education, projects and some other courses were given grades but were not included in GPA. The school graded on a numerical basis. For example. 90 to 93 was considered an A- which would be the letter grade we would see on the report card. Then the A- was converted to a GPA of 3.8. If a student had an average of 89.999 it was truncated to 89 and became a B+ and was converted to a numeric grade of 3.3. So....if a student ended up with 89.999 in all his/her classes he/she would have a GPA of 3.3. If that same student ended up with 90.0 in all his/her classes he/she would have a GPA of 3.8. (Explain that one to me...)</p>

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<p>Thanks so much to everyone for their input!</p>

<p>I am sure the schools my son will apply to (smallish LAC) will re-calculate his GPA on their terms. Our hs, like most high schools, also sends a "school profile" along with the transcript that explains what classes the school offers, and what % of kids take honors, AP, etc, so the colleges get an idea how competitive the school is. Plus I know that colleges keep databases on all the high schools they get applications from. </p>

<p>Our high school does rank students using their strange 12.0 - 15.0 system, but only releases deciles. Great if you're the last one in your decile, awful if you're the first one in the next lower decile! </p>

<p>Our GC tells us that UMAss & Mass State Colleges recalculate using 4.0 for college prep, and add .5 for honors and 1.0 for AP.</p>

<p>Providence College, bless their hearts, comes out and tells you EXACTLY how they weigh GPA & transcript. First they looks at the transcript and school profile and create a "strength of schedule" number, from 1 - 10 (ten being most rigorous schedule possible at that hs). Then they calculate an UNWeighted GPA on a 4.0 scale using only core academics (plus religion classes at parochial schools). They look at the two numbers together, strength of schedule and GPA, to see how strong a student's academic record is. I suspect a lot of the other LAC's do something similar, or use their own weighting system. </p>

<p>So I guess when looking at college's freshman profiles I'll be conservative and compare them to my son's UNWeighted Core academic GPA, which is of course the lowest of his calculated GPA's!</p>