<p>I have been looking for information on how UA might translate my sons high school gpa. He is a junior this year, very interested in engineering. I have read that UA will use the weighted gpa.</p>
<p>His school seems to have a really strange gpa scale. Although he has taken every honors class available beginning freshman year, his gpa doesn’t seem to give him any extra credit for that at all. Of the 7/8 classes he takes per year, at least 5 have been honors classes. Each class is worth .5 credits, whether they are honors or not.</p>
<p>His transcript shows an unweighted 3.23 and a weighted 3.44 right now, but I’m hoping that UA will somehow give credit a little more credit for the honors classes to put him in range of a scholarship. </p>
<p>Any ideas on where to look? Thanks!</p>
<p>So how exactly does his high school weight? Lots of schools weight differently, and some don’t weight at all. Alabama uses the highest GPA shown on the transcript - they don’t recalculate your GPA. What I’ve heard is that some kids at schools that don’t weight at all get their guidance counselor to write on the transcript that if the grades were weighted, the GPA would be __[whatever], and my understanding is that UA does accept that. </p>
<p>At my D’s HS, honors and AP courses are weighted an extra 0.5 GPA points (so an A in an honors or AP class would be 4.5 vs. 4.0 in a regular class). I know of other schools that weight 1.0 extra for honors and 2.0 extra for AP - there doesn’t appear to be any rhyme or reason. If your child’s school already weights, just not enough, it might be tough to get the guidance counselor to apply a different rating system just for UA’s purposes. There’s no harm in trying, though.</p>
<p>What confuses me is that on his transcript, all classes are .5 credits, whether they are honors classes or not. So his A (94) in regular History class is exactly the same as his A (96) in pre-calc. I just can’t figure out the logic behind this.</p>
<p>Anyway, if UA doesn’t recalculate at all, I guess that’s the answer I was looking for.<br>
Thanks!</p>
<p>The fact that all classes are worth 1 credit per year (0.5 credits per semester) is more for graduation requirements and has less to do with GPA. It’s similar to how at colleges on the semester system, most classes are 3 credits, while some have different credit amounts to reflect the different about of time spent in the classroom each week. What is the issue is the value of the GPA multiplier, which is affected by ones grades and sometimes the class being honors and AP (note that most colleges do not weight GPAs for honors courses).</p>
<p>A GPA is calculated by the following formula:</p>
<p>GPA=Sum of quality points/total graded credits taken (getting a score of Pass in Pass/Fail grading means that that course is not included in the GPA calculation).</p>
<p>where Quality Points=Number of credits the class is worth*GPA Multiplier (ie 4.0 for an unweighted A).</p>
<p>His transcript shows an unweighted 3.23 and a weighted 3.44 right now</p>
<p>gosh…he’s so close. Is that including 1st semester? What will his GPA be by the end of the year? Is it possible that his last semester grades will bump his GPA?</p>
<p>Although he has taken every honors class available beginning freshman year, his gpa doesn’t seem to give him any extra credit for that at all. Of the 7/8 classes he takes per year, at least 5 have been honors classes. Each class is worth .5 credits, whether they are honors or not</p>
<p>I don’t think it matters that an honors class is worth .5 credits…what matters is what GPA points they assign…do they asign a 4.0 for an A? or a 4.25? or a 4.5? (no matter what, the classes would still have .5 credits…that doesn’t change…and makes no difference for GPA at all)</p>
<p>Again, weighting for honors or AP classes means that a student gets a bump in GPA points…not a bump in credit size.</p>
<p>Bama only recalculates when a school doesn’t use a 4.0 scale (some use 6.0 or whatever).</p>
<p>With a 3.23 UW, are you saying that is report cards have been mostly Bs with a couple of As? </p>
<p>however, if you could get the GC to write a recalculated 3.5 GPA on his transcript, Bama will take that.</p>
<p>Ok, I think I get it now. He’s had almost all A’s and B’s for freshman and junior year (so far) - 6 A’s first semester this year so hopefully he will make that 3.5 by the end of the year.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>* 6 A’s first semester this year so hopefully he will make that 3.5 by the end of the year.</p>
<p>*</p>
<p>Encourage him to keep it up…sounds like he’s on track to make 3.5.</p>
<p>Mom2: Thanks again for your responses. I actually found the schools gpa calc formula in the student handbook and they are correct about the 3.43/3.44 - now a 3.45. If he keeps his grades right where they’re at he will just manage a 3.505 at years end. He gets straight A’ on all assignments and tests, but group “projects” kill his scores.</p>
<p>I know you have kids there - can a kid like mine make it in engineering there?</p>
<p>Will they also count his first semester senior year in his gpa? That could be a huge help too.</p>
<p>No, they don’t count first semester grades of senior year. Only grades 9 -11.</p>