How important is the actual number of your GPA?

<p>So at my school the typical schedule consists of seven classes, with upperclassmen often taking only six classes. For me, I'm taking Leadership as a zero period, I don't have any free periods, and I take Advanced Drama as an eighth period. Because I'm taking four AP/honors classes and have As in three of them, every regular class that I get an A in lowers my GPA. Right now my cumulative GPA (just finished my junior year) is a 4.05 but if I took out PE, Leadership, and Advanced Drama it would be a 4.22. My question is: will colleges see past the number of my weighted GPA and look at what it would be without my extra classes? A lot of my friends have 4.4, 4.5, etc. GPAs because they're taking six classes with four or five of them being honors/APs. Does anyone have a similar situation? I really enjoy the extra classes I take and I'm not thinking of dropping them but I'm really concerned that my lower number is going to hurt me when I apply to college this year. Any insight is greatly appreciated!</p>

<p>P.S: Just so it's clear, I'm not taking PE as an extra class, I just took it out of the equation since very few schools include it when they count your GPA.</p>

<p>Many colleges ignore the high school’s weighted GPA because high schools differ in weighting method. They may recalculate GPA using their own weighting method, or they may just holistically look at your record to see how rigorous your schedules were and how well you did.</p>