Is weighted GPA more important than UW GPA?

Applying to College
21

<p>just take AP's and honors, and work hard man ....... just do it ......... ull be rewarded (free nike shoes), ok, that was corny</p>

22

<p>I wasnt talking for myself, just some juniors in school.</p>

23

<p>If weighted gpa determines your rank then weighted gpa is much more important. gpa is secondary to rank.</p>

24

<p>Someone PLEASE tell me the difference between wieghed and unw GPA. My transcripts only have 1 GPA and i've been gettin 3.7-3.9 lately. (Oh, ya what's the difference between GPA and QPA?)</p>

25

<p>If your school gives weighted grades based on AP/advanced courses then your GPA can be weighted. For example . . . If I have a 3.8, and I have A A A A B, I'll have 4 4 4 4 3 points, adding up to 15 points, making 3.8 when divided by 5. If all of these classes are AP, let's say my school gives 1 extra point for AP courses. I'd have A A A A B, which is 5 5 5 5 4, which, when divided out, makes a 4.8. 3.8 would be my unweighted GPA, 4.8 would be weighted.</p>

26

<p>take the APs over the better UW. Always.</p>

27

<p>
[quote]
MANY of the top universities consider rigor of your courseload over ANYTHING ELSE (yes, even gpa, yes, even sat, yes, even class rank and all that other stuff.)

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Mmmmm...no. Sorry. The truth is courseload matters little. If you have no APs of course that's going to hurt you, but the different between taking 2 APs and taking 4 APs and an honors is very little. The only person in our grade with a 4.0uw took ONE AP junior year, and two senior year. That's it. I took one AP sophomore year, FOUR APs junior year, and three APs senior year. I have a 3.6uw. He got into Stanford, USC, CMC, and pretty much everywhere. I got in none of my top choices. Oh and I have higher SAT score and more ECs. My classmates with 3.7-3.8uw with tons of AP classes didn't fare too much better. Only those with 3.9x GPAs got in good colleges.</p>

<p>I've seen this again and again on decision threads. SATs vary (from 1800 - 2300s), ECs vary, but what remains constant is high GPA. Time and time again I see 3.8 - 4.0 GPA in accepted students. I have almost never seen an admitted student with lower than 3.8ish at the top colleges.</p>

<p>The thing is schools offer different numbers of AP classes and colleges understand that. One kid may have one AP and that's the only one at the school. And with thousands of high schools colleges don't really take time to scrutinize each one. If they see a few "AP"s on the transcript and the counselor marked "rigorous" or "very rigorous" then it's fine to them. Finishing high school with 4 AP classes or 8 AP classes don't make much of a difference, even though we all know it makes our lives that much harder.</p>

28

<p>I doubt people on this thread are equated courseload rigor with taking as many APs as possible. I think just the fact that a person takes a balanced amount of advanced courses is important, not necessarily as many APs as possible. Of course, I'm not saying that a lot of APs makes up for GPAs lower than the general ivy standard. But also, I've seen kids with 3.7s as well get into top colleges (top 10) because they had incredible rankings, so there is still some context evaluation in GPA because GPA isn't rarely standard across the board.</p>

<p>I don't think that the difference between 2 APs matters much--that would be splitting hairs. I agree that the difference between, say, 3.6 and 3.8 is much bigger.</p>

29

<p>^ Right, that's my thinking.</p>

<p>The thing is many people say "well if you have a 4.0 but take no AP classes then it's not as good" but actually, if you don't take any AP or honors classes then you're probably not smart enough to get a 4.0. The reality is that everyone who has a high GPA has as least some AP classes, so "rigor of schedule" becomes less important.</p>

30

<p>^ that's not true. some very smart people are just SLACKERS and don't take the "harder" courses in favour of a better GPA. i have many friends who scored well in the 2200s SAT-wise but have better GPAs then me because i've gotten a few B's in AP classes they haven't taken yet.</p>

<p>a few blurbs taken from <a href="http://www.collegeboard.com%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.collegeboard.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>TUFTS UNIVERSITY</p>

<p>Very important admission factors:
- Rigor of secondary school record</p>

<p>Important admission factors:
- Character/Personal Qualities
- Class Rank
- Application Essay
- Extracurricular Activities
- Recommendations
- Standardized Test Scores
- Talent/Ability
- Volunteer Work
- Work Experience
- Academic GPA</p>

<p>Considered:
- Alumni Relation
- Geographical Residence
- Interview
- Racial/Ethnic Status
- First generation college student</p>

<p>I just took one school as an example... look up ANY COLLEGE, and yeah? Rigor of courseload? Is ALWAYS up there right next to GPA and class rank and standardized scores. HOWEVER... I am not saying GPA isn't important (ah, quite the polar opposite)... GPA is the bane of my life... lol. I'm just saying rigor IS important as well :)</p>

31

<p>This is fascinating. I had no idea how other schools dealt with GPA and ranking. </p>

<p>At my school, there is a HUGE difference between regular and Honors/AP courses. We receive literally three times the work, in addition to the faster pace and higher level of thought, etc. It's been said that our regular courses give as much work as other schools' Honors classes. Because of this disparity in workload, students are strongly discouraged from taking more than 3 AP courses (I know maybe 5 people in a class of 500 who are doing this, and they are taking less work-intensive APs such as Latin). In addition, we have only 7 blocks in our school day, making it literally impossible to take more than 7 AP courses. It frustrates me sometimes that students at other schools are taking AP classes which don't receive nearly as much work and consequently have schedules which appear to be more rigorous. </p>

<p>Our school GPA is weighted, with a B in Honors/AP equaling an A in a regular course. We don't rank. My GPA is around 4.3 weighted, 3.9 unweighted. </p>

<p>I am currently a junior, taking 3 honors, 2 regular and one elective course (plus gym). Next year I will take 3 APs (two of them, English adn BC Calc, called the hardest classes in the school), one non-academic honors (chorus), and two academic electives (no level, not included in GPA). This is considered a rigorous schedule. </p>

<p>My school sure is out of sync...I just hope adcoms know that!</p>

32

<p>Weighted > unweighted. I've seen people with B's in AP courses get into very competitive schools, but not people with A's in regular courses.</p>

33

<p>To find out how GPA weighted is calculated use wikipedia and search 'GPA' and scroll down to united states system.</p>

<p>NOW my question, what is 90% unweighted for GPA,for all you geniuses?</p>

34

<p>


</p>

<p>Could you find one of those for NYU and Bing?</p>

35

<p>Look, compare these 2 applicants:
*4.0uw, 4.0w regular courses
*3.5uw, 4.5w honors courses</p>

<p>Who will be accepted to the elite colleges? Probably neither. These arguments are somewhat futile as the most competitive applicants tend be those with the best grades in the hardest classes. And the reality is if you come up short in either category you probably aren't going to get in.</p>

<p>I think there is too great of an emphasis on how GPA is recalculated. It really doesn't matter. They want to see you do well in hard classes, do well on your SAT, and then you are deemed competitive and they move on. Granted, "well" is certainly a relative term, but at the same time it has all the specificity that you can really ask of the college admissions process.</p>

<p>Within the Ivies, it is very unusual for an unhooked applicant from a public school to be accepted without a near perfect GPA in the most rigorous curriculum offered. The vast majority of Ivy admits are ranked in the top 5% of their class, and I believe most also have above a 3.8uw GPA. While there is no proof of this final info, I will contend that the majority of Ivy admits also received the "most rigorous curriculum" check box from their guidance counselor.</p>

36

<p>stambliark, I think your assertion holds true in many cases, but there are exceptions. These guides tell you to take all possible AP courses, but my (large, public) school offers 22 AP exams, which are mostly classes open only to juniors and seniors. You need a parental override to take more than 3 AP classes per year, because of the high rate of burnouts. Kids from my school who don't take all honors classes and don't get straight As still get into Ivies. </p>

<p>Elite colleges would rather have a 2200 SAT, 4.5 wGPA kid with great ECs, killer essays and recs, than a 2400/5.0 with few ECs and no "passion" anywhere in the app. I've seen it happen. Stats are important, but they're not everything, and my guess would be that schools are looking for kids that are not only bright, but sensible and well-balanced as well.</p>

37

<p>etselec, I didn't say you needed perfect grades in all weighted classes. My opinion is merely that you need to do well in your environment. If 3 APs per year is the max at your school, it makes perfect sense that those who did well in those AP classes would be the top candidates - and possibly the only candidates - that are competitive for admission to the Ivies. Keep in mind that "hardest classes" doesn't always mean "every AP at the school." It is more of a general label that your high school assigns you that affirms that you have made an effort to extend yourself academically.</p>

38

<p>My school does GPAs strange. </p>

<p>4.0 - 100
3.5 - 95
3.0 - 90
etc.</p>

<p>I would have a 4.0 the normal way, but under their system I have around a 3.6 (although there must be an error in their program because they have a 3.3 listed on my transcript...and there's absolutely no way that's correct). They hand check them for the final rank, though, so it shouldn't be a problem.</p>

<p>I mentioned something about it being different and they said, "But if we gave out 4.0s for every A there'd be no way to tell who's ranked what." Apparently the concept of doing rankings on a 100 point scale escapes them.</p>

<p>Does anyone else's school do it that way?</p>

39

<p>What do you mean by the "normal" way? Every single school does it differently, that's why a lot of universities/colleges recalculate them using their own system when they review your applications. (i.e. at my school, 93-100 = 4.0, 90-92 = 3.7... honors +.5, APs +1.0)

[QUOTE]
Could you find one of those for NYU and Bing?

[/QUOTE]

New York University :</p>

<p>Very important admission factors:
* Application Essay
* Recommendations
* Rigor of secondary school record
* Academic GPA
Important admission factors:
* Character/Personal Qualities
* Class Rank
* Extracurricular Activities
* Standardized Test Scores
* Talent/Ability
Considered:
* Alumni Relation
* Racial/Ethnic Status
* Volunteer Work
* Work Experience
* First generation college student
* Level of Applicant's Interest</p>

<p>Not sure what "Bing" is... State University of New York at Binghamton?</p>

40

<p>Most of my friends in larger (my town is very small...only 5,000 people) areas have their GPAs averaged as any A is a 4.0, Bs are 3.0, etc. and many of them also have the 100 point scale. The way your school does it looks familiar, but I've never seen a school that does it like mine. I'm just kind of curious to see if other schools do it odd.</p>