<p>my school uses an unweighted GPA system, so we don't get extra credit for being in AP courses, but the courses ARE a lot more challenging and harder to get higher grades than being in the regular courses. however what i heard from many others is that a lot of other schools provide wighted GPA on their transcripts, would that disadvantage me in any way?</p>
<p>GPA is the single most important criteria at most colleges and universities. Admissions offices are very much aware of the infinite variations that high schools use to weight the GPA, however, so most attempt to either evaluate the GPA within the context of the individual high school or they will recalculate GPA using their own weighting system. The fact that your high school does not weight grades might handicap your application at a small number of colleges, but in general I think you have no reason to be concerned.</p>
<p>From my understanding schools don’t just look at GPA, but they look at your transcript as well. This will allow them to see the difficulty of your courses.</p>
<p>To answer your question, GPA (when taken in the context of class rank and rigor of course selection) is the most important factor in college admission.</p>
<p>As the posters above said, no, it won’t hurt you. GPA is almost always taken in context of the school it’s coming from. If your school doesn’t weight, the college will know that while evaluating your application, and they’ll get to see your courses.</p>