<p>It seems like a lot of high schools weigh their GPAs differently... as some students on CC have claimed to have 4.8-5.0 weighted GPAs with a 3.6-3.8 unweighted GPA. My school, for example, doesn't weigh nearly that much. So how do colleges view weighted GPA?</p>
<p>well each school weighs gpa differently. In my school also, it's impossible to get a 4.8-5.0 GPA. I think they mostly look at what grades you got in what courses more than gpa. Good gpa will come along with good grades and if you have good grades I'm sure they assume your gpa is good. Also, class rank does matter. Of course, that is in context of what sort of school you attend. Also, class rank is taken with a grain of salt as some may be ranked higher with higher grades in less competitive courses. So, basically, it comes down to rigor of courses and grades attained in those.</p>
<p>I'm not sure you can get that high in my school. Don't worry, colleges have their own way to calculate GPA. </p>
<p>It's the courses and how well you do in them, not how much weight your school gives them.</p>
<p>In schools that weight, weighted grades reflect class rigor: You get a higher GPA for taking more challenging classes (at least, that's the rationale). So your class rank should be higher if you take more challenging classes and succeed in them.</p>
<p>Where does this matter -- in rigid scholarship requirements (e.g., student must be in top 10%).</p>
<p>@Oats: If you are like geek_son, whose school doesn't weight at all, you may be feeling penalized for taking the most challenging classes -- a big issue in his school, where the past few Vals have coasted through senior year in full GPA-protection mode while the top students sweated bullets taking tough electives. That's a bummer if you're the hard-working one, but it won't affect admission status. Colleges will look at your transcript and calculate your GPA in their own way for comparison to students from other schools.</p>
<p>Colleges recalculate everyone's GPA using one standard. The most important info coming from your school is rank, as a 4.0 id top 25% and some schools and valedictorian at others.</p>
<p>is a 4.0 to colleges all As including A+ A and A-? or is it usually just As and A+s and A-s get a lower gpa designation?</p>
<p>According to collegeboard:</p>
<p>A+ (97-100) = 4.0
A (93-96) = 4.0
A- (90-92) = 3.7</p>
<p>B+ (87-89) = 3.3
B (83-86) = 3.0
B- (80-82) = 2.7</p>
<p>C+ (77-79) = 2.3
C (73-76) = 2.0
C- (70-72) = 1.7</p>
<p>D+ (67-69) = 1.3
D (65-66) = 1.0
E/F (below 65) = 0.0</p>
<p>I really have no idea myself, but I would think collegeboard would be about on target.</p>
<p>Schools will compute GPAs differently, the point is the compute it the same way for everyone so it doesn't matter!</p>
<p>My school doesnt even have weighted GPA - it's used to calculate class rank, but you'd never actually know what it is, unless I guess if you asked the guidance office they might be able to tell you. I have no idea what my weighted GPA is.</p>
<p>Weighted GPA should matter. Every college does it their own way, but if you take honors classes which are harder than regular you deserve that extra point. Plus some schools (like mine) make the grading scale harder:
93-100 A
85-92 B
78-84 C
77-70 D
69-below F
We deserve those extra points. We work harder and some of us have to play hard ball to get our grades.</p>
<p>Colleges are well aware of how competitive each high school is. As it seems most people think their HS is super xompetitive, they pay a lot of attention to things like the school's average SAT scores.</p>
<p>@Stuckinillinois- That's the scale for my online classes, my regular classes are </p>
<p>95+ A
88-94 B
81-88 C
75-80 D
74- F</p>
<p>I know, even though we don't have Honors/IB/or a lot of APs and DEs, that all the honor roll students work HARD to achieve their status. That's pretty much all my school has going for it though. xD</p>
<p>Yes, colleges do consider weight, but they first have to recalculate everything because most schools have different standards.</p>
<p>Unweighted and weighted GPA is important. Though your GPA is usually weighted if you take Ap classes ( at least at my school). Never took a Ap class, then your GPA is unweighted.</p>
<p>At my school there are no +'s or -'s. It's either A, B, C, D, or F (where's E?!).
Unweighted looks like this:
A = 4.00
B = 3.00
C = 2.00
D = 1.00
F = 0.00</p>
<p>the scale is the same as stuckinillinois':
A = 93-100
B = 85-92
C = 78-84
D = 77-70
F = 69 - below</p>
<p>My school weights classes on a "6.0" scale in that standard classes have a base 4.0 for an A, honors classes have a base 5.0 for an A, and AP classes have a base 6.0 for an A.
And basically you subtract one from each number for each letter grade you go down (excepts F's which are a 0.00 no matter what type of class it is).</p>
<p>The class rank is based on weighted GPA but both weighted and unweighted are included in the transcript and GPA is compiled by taking the average of the number of points awarded from each class.</p>
<p>So basically: All high schools are just as different as all colleges. And if there's any justice in the world the colleges with run the numbers themselves so they can compute the GPA on the same scale for everyone.</p>
<p>the more competitive the school, the more likely they will use unweighted grades because there is already and expectation that you are taking the most rigerous courses that the school offers.</p>
<p>^ Not always the case, certainly not at our school. They just don't like weighting grades because they think it confuses colleges. They noticed the student "slacklash" last year and started taking measures to fix it. Unfortunately, maybe too little and too late to make a difference this year -- but it was a clear step in the right direction.</p>
<p>The more selective the school, the more likely that the GPA is unweighted because there is already an expectation that students should be taking the most rigerous classes their school offers.</p>
<p>NACAC's 2006 Annual State of College Admission Report provides analysis of the combined results from the Admission Trends Survey and the Counseling Trends Survey. Based on surveys of school counselors and colleges and universities nationwide, NACAC provides this report to highlight issues of concern to college-bound students, their parents, and the educators who serve them. </p>
<p>Even if you don't read the whole report, you should definitely read Chapter 4 Factors in the Admissions Process</p>
<p>Admission</a> Policies</p>
<p>
[quote]
Colleges and universities receive transcripts and GPA calculations from thousands of high schools, each of which may calculate GPAs differently.</p>
<p>Many high schools use a traditional 4-point scale to measure grade averages, others use weighted 4.5- or 5-point scales, while still others use grade scales that reach as high as 8 or 10.</p>
<p>To provide a standard comparison of grade point averages among applicants, some colleges recalculate grade point averages. Colleges
are virtually evenly split on the practice of recalculating GPAs—49 percent do and 51 percent do not. </p>
<p>High yield institutions are more likely than low yield institutions to recalculate GPA.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>(Basically more selective schools where if admitted the student is more likely to enroll will recalculate your GPA to a 4 point scale)</p>
<p>Schools will look at major courses : English, Math, Social studies, Sciences, Foreign language, etc. They will back out of the GPA: Band, Gym, Peer Leadership, Yeaarbook, etc.</p>
<p>^ Oh, OK -- by "school," you meant college? Fair enough. I read your initial post as referring to high schools.</p>
<p>"Colleges recalculate everyone's GPA using one standard."</p>
<p>This ended up a bit ambiguous. Each college handles GPA using its own method (including not recalculating), but then applies that method uniformly to each applicant. That does not necessarily mean that a student attending a high school that offers AP and/or honors classes has an disadvantage over students from schools that don't. Taking the most advanced classes offered (and getting good grades in them!) is often sufficient.</p>