Our high school is going to change how GPAs are calculated and reported to colleges. Current system reports two GPAs;
- Academic GPA = 5 core classes (and AP electives, i.e. includes AP Music Theory, but not standard chorius). There is a .33 bump for honors and .67 bump for AP on a 5 point scale (A+ in AP = 5)
- Overall GPA = all classes with no bump on a 4.33 scale (A+ in any class =4.33)
Now they want to report unweighted Overall GPA to colleges and for use in graduation awards including High Honors, Val & Sal, etc. But there will still be a weighted GPA out there — not sure how it will be used, I suspect it will be phased out.
- Overall Unweigthed GPA = all clasess no bumps. Includes PE, etc. on 4.33 scale (A+ = 4.33)
- Overall Weighted GPA = all classes, including PE, etc with AP & Honors bump of .5 — making a 4.88 scale (A+ in AP or Honors = 4.88)
I’m curious, how does your High School calculate GPA? Is PE and electives included in what is reported to Colleges? How do they determine High Honors, Val & Sal, etc? And while were at it…does Val & Sal speak at graduation? Are there other student speakers?
I graduated HS a few years ago, but I’ll still answer.
Grades are unweighted on the transcript. All courses are included in GPA calculation. No class gets a weight bump. I should also point out that the school has no basket weaving classes, so even with no weighted GPA, there is little opportunity to build a schedule simply to pad a GPA.
Yes, but PE is P/F.
There is no val/sal. Honors are determined by GPA and is capped at 20% of the class (could be less, never more). There is no ranking, but one can gauge where one is by decile.
UW for Naviance but not on transcript. Colleges can work it out for themselves. No ranking. No val or sal. Any students can submit speeches, performances, etc. they’d like to be part of commencement and students and class sponsors select. It’s nice because commencement is always very much a reflection of the graduating class and feels very much like a celebration of them rather than a precribed rite.
For the current graduating class at my DD18’s school, they report both the unweighted and weighted GPA’s on the transcript. Max unweighted GPA is 4.0 (it is done on a 10 point scale like most colleges A=4.0, B=3.0, etc) and weighted GPA max depends on the courses taken. All Honor’s classes are given a 1.0 bump and AP classes and DE classes are given a 2.0 bump. All classes are included on the transcript, including the one year PE requirement and the other standard level class required for graduation. All fine arts classes are standard weight for the first two years in the subject, then they are honor’s level. The school does not rank and there is not Val or Sal or Honor’s at graduation. Speakers are chosen by the class (more like a popularity contest). However, for the next year and thereafter, the weighted grading scale is changing. Honor’s classes will only give a .5 bump and AP will be a 1.0 bump.
For my kids I think all classes are included and only a weighted GPA is provided to us. AP’s get a 1.0 boost. Almost no one takes APs and we don’t have Honors. It seems an A in one AP to push you just over 4.0 is enough to snag valedictorian. Val, Sal, and senior class President have the option to speak at graduation if they want. GPAs over 3.9 and 3.75 are recognized at graduation.
Our school you get a .22225 boost if you take an honors or AP class
Isn’t boosting cheating the system? I mean, what’s the point of regular classes If those classes don’t get boost?
Ha, my school is ridiculous.
For the weighted GPA, AP gets a 1 point boost, and Honors gets a 0.5 point boost. Electives, including PE and Personal Finance, count.
The unweighted GPA is on a scale where 93 is an A. The weighted is on a scale where 91 is an A.
And prior to GPA calculation, you get 5 points added to your semester grade in an AP class and 3 points added in an Honors class.
And they wonder why so few people want to take four years of orchestra!
But not boosting gives kids who take regular classes an advantage. Is it fair for a kid who take regular English and gets an A but an Honors English kid you gets a B? Whey incentive would their be to take an honors class?
7. At our school orchestra for example junior or senior year orchestra can be taken pass fail.
8 your statement does not make sense. Honors classes are supposed to be harder and therefore kids have to work harder. Regular classes sometimes depending on who teaches can make the class even much harder or easy.
So are you suggesting that all courses be weighted the same? Our districts academic scholar awards is 3.9 non weighted and 4.7 weighted. Just because a teacher may be more difficult doesn’t make the material harder.
In our district, they use whole letters only (A=90+, B=80-89, C=70-79, D=60-69, F<60). A=4 points, B=3, C=2, D=1). Honors classes and dual enrollment are +1, so an A=5. AP is + 2, so an A = 6. Naviance reports both weighted and unweighted; I don’t know what transcripts show. Top 3% get recognition at graduation, but no one else.
My kid reports that the kid ranked first this year had 13 APs and an unweighted 4.0. Apparently, a bunch of kids made a pact a couple years back to only take 8 APs, and they were all ranked 3rd.
My school has a 5.0 scale for AP and honors and a 4.0 scale for all other classes (PE, some electives, and foreign language below level III are not offered at the honors level). No val or sal; the only student speaker at graduation is the class president. They keep saying they’re going to change Honors classes to a 4.5 scale but they never do.
It doesn’t really matter how your school scales it though; each college has their own grading scale that they will use to view your transcript.
My school reports 4.0 for all non-honors and unweighted GPA. 4.5 for Honors and 5.0 for AP. Unweighted is out of 4.0 and all classes are just 4.0. Also, Colleges recalculate GPAs. Don’t worry too much about how your school reports it. Colleges will see your transcript with grades on it and recalculate your GPA. Our school Ranks. Only Val and Sal get to speak at our graduation, but top 7 get recognized in the yearbook
Some colleges take high school GPAs at face value, so having an exaggerated weighting system may be helpful at those colleges (e.g. University of Alabama for the 3.5 GPA frosh scholarship threshold).
Some colleges use class rank, so your high school GPA calculation matters, but only in comparison to other students in your high school.
But some other colleges recalculate their own way, or holistically look at the courses and grades in your record, so that the high school’s GPA calculation is not relevant.
A boosting is for to show rigor in classes
By senior year for me, I will have taken 23 APs(4 of them are 1/2 credits so it is more like 21 APs ). I will rank around 4th or 5th. I will have taken 8 honor courses and 6 regular courses
It does show rigor. Although all of the top colleges you can get into with single digit AP courses
Thanks for all of the responses. I realize most colleges do recalculate but slightly concerned that scholarships/some schools just take the raw number. And it sure is interesting to see the different methodologies!
@curryking821 How did you take so many APs?!