I know AP/Dual Enrollment classes weigh 6 points (at least in my county), Honors weigh 5.0 points and regular classes weigh 4.0 points, but the valedictorian at a near by school had an 8.4 GPA (yes, really!) and our school valedictorian had a 7.6, but i’m not quite sure how. When I asked the school counselor she said “They just took AP/Dual Enrollment classes” but that obviously cannot be the whole truth. I live in Florida if that helps.
Would it be possible for you to contact the valedictorians through Facebook or something? I doubt they’d care too much if you just sent a message asking about it.
My county (broward, also in florida) also weighs with 6 for AP/DE, 5 for honors, 4 for regular, but it’s impossible to get above a 6.0 here (and our valedictorians always get around 5.4-5.5 because they always take a few honors). If it is true that you have a 6/5/4 grading scale, it’s mathematically impossible, but maybe there’s something else to it? Also, do you go to a private school or something where it might be different?
The current record in Hillsborough county, Florida is 10.02 as a cumulative weighted GPA. Nuts! And she did not even have a 4.0 unweighted GPA. The school district thus allowed over 6.02 in weighting.
What’s insane is that someone at any high school in Hillsborough county could thus take the same course load (including a ton of virtual online weighted courses), make nothing but Cs, have a 2.0 unweighted GPA and graduate with an 8.02 weighted GPA. And that would likely qualify such a person to be the Valedictorian at most Hillsborough county high schools during most years.
Obviously, any system or methodology of weighting to rank students that could allow a 2.0 student to be Valedictorian is flawed and should be changed.
Hillsborough county used to add the weighting into the semester average and then create a cumulative average of weighted semester averages. That system was at least fair and emphasized the grades actually earned. But now they add in all weighting overall 9th-12th to the unweighted semester average. The emphasis now is on the quantity of weighted courses attempted and not on the quality… or grade performance.
My daughter’s best friend, a senior now, has never had a B - ever. She takes nothing but honors and AP courses, completing 7 with 5s by the end of her junior year… and yet, she is not ranked first. She is currently 11th, and the 10 people in front of her in rank all have Bs… so none have a 4.0 unweighted GPA, as she does. They are all ranked higher due to taking extra classes online with weighting.
They clearly should change back to their prior weighting methodology.
Ridiculously inflated GPA scales is why standardized testing will never completely go away.
Ironically enough I just moved from Broward County to Hillsborough County. So it seems to be point based not exactly grade based?
Some counties in Florida have 7-point, 8-point, and 10-point systems.
Because the weighting is so unique to each county, universities recalculate everything anyway.
I find it rediculous that this happens in Florida and perhaps other states. It just doesn’t make sense to me that a 17 or 18 old comes into college as junior with an over inflated GPA. It seems to put an out of state student at a disadvantage. This does not seem to happen at Northern high schools. Quite eye opening.
Precisely the reason that many colleges calculate their own GPAs for applicants. Weighed GPAs are relatively meaningless.
@bemo23 In Hillsborough, it is a 4.0 scale. BUT - they then add an extra 0.04 for every Honors class attempted, per semester (as long as you get a C) and an extra 0.08 for every AP class attempted, per semester (as long as you get a C).
The problem is that they are adding all of this cumulative weighted inflation to the unweighted GPA semester average and not adding it in semester by semester and then averaging that weighted semester average. They used to do it the right way, but they changed for some unknown reason a # of years ago. Who knows… maybe the administrators could not figure out the math… or maybe they could not figure out what to do with classes taken over the summer.
If they did it the right way, as they used to, the emphasis would still be on grades and not just on the # of weighted classes attempted overall. By allowing potentially over 6 points in inflation/weighting, they are really de-emphasizing the grades themselves.
And yes… many colleges calculate their own GPAs for applicants, but since this weighting system determines Rank, it can send the wrong signal to colleges. The damage can already be done. My D2 has only gotten one B semester average ever and in an AP course. She has a 3.98 unweighted GPA. But she is still only ranked 29th out of 591. Less than 1/4th of the kids ranked higher than her have a 4.0 unweighted GPA. More than 75% of them are ranked better due to weighting and not grades. Luckily, she is still in the top 5%.
Colleges can accurately know your unweighted GPA, AP scores, ACT scores, SAT scores, etc. - but Rank implies something… and at least here in Hillsborough county, that implication can be very distorted. Elite schools expect you to be in the top 5% or at least in the top 10% of your class. And your own school’s ranking methodology should not be allowing kids with lower unweighted GPAs to leap ahead of you in rank simply by attempting many more weighted courses online. But it happens all the time - unfortunately.