List of HS GPA recalculation methods used by colleges

Applying to College
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Some colleges recalculate HS GPA by their own specified methods. Here is a thread to list them, so that high school students looking for chances or matches can recalculate their HS GPA for the colleges in question, instead of listing their high school’s weighted HS GPA that has no meaning outside of the high school.

Arizona public universities:

California public universities:

  • A=4, B=3, C=2, D=1, F=0. +/- not used.
  • High school and college courses and grades from the 9th-10th summer to the 11th-12th summer (i.e. 10th and 11th grades in the absence of summer courses) are used. Cal Poly SLO also includes courses and grades from 9th grade.
  • Academic (a-g) courses (including arts) are included.
  • +1 weighting for A, B, and C grades in AP, IB, college, and UC-designated honors courses (not all high school honors courses are honors for UC purposes, and this designation exists only for California high schools).
  • Three versions of recalculated GPA are considered by UC:
    • Unweighted: the above weighting is not used.
    • Fully weighted: the above weighting is used.
    • Weighted capped: the above weighting, up to 8 semesters worth (no more than 4 semesters worth before 11th grade), is used. Most UC web sites use this version, but some use other versions (usually specified). CSU uses only this version. The practical maximum is around 4.4.
  • CSU differs from UC in double counting college courses. I.e. a semester college course counts as two courses and two grades for CSU, but one course and one grade for UC.
  • GPA for Cal Grant purposes is calculated differently.
  • Reference: GPA requirement | UC Admissions
  • Reference: GPA Calculator | CSU
  • Convenient calculator: GPA Calculator for the University of California – RogerHub

Florida public universities:

  • A=4, B=3, C=2, D=1, F=0. Unclear if +/- is used.
  • Counts “academic core courses (including English, math, science, social studies and foreign language)” (note: no arts).
  • “Courses marked as pre-AP, pre-IB, pre-AICE and honors are given an additional 0.5 quality point. Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate (IB), Advanced International Certification of Education (AICE) and Dual Enrollment (DE) courses are given 1 additional quality point.”
  • Reference: https://www.ucf.edu/admissions/undergraduate/question/how-is-my-high-school-gpa-calculated-for-admission/

University of Michigan:

  • “We do not use a weighted GPA scale in our evaluation process. We will convert all first-year applicants’ GPA to an unweighted 4.0 scale using all classes in 9th through 11th grades, and we use only the absolute value of the grade in the recalculation process (A+ or A or A- = 4.0).”
  • Reference: Article - Recalculated GPA for First...
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I am curious if this really matters. Our school doesn’t calculate gpa. They provide the college a grade distribution for all the courses. I would suspect the regional rep assesses your rigor based on their knowledge of the school and makes a qualitative assessment of someone’s transcript. Minute differences don’t matter I would think. We just applied fuzzily without regard to gpa. We haven’t even calculated the gpa any one way. When asked , the college counselor told us to put down 4.0 even though there is some occasional A- on the transcript. To be clear the grading is on some 13 or 14 point scale (A+ is the full score which is some 97 and change on a 100), and no one probably got a full 13 or 14 in a few decades.

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List them for what purpose? Whether a college recalculates or how they recalculate varies by college, and few are transparent about the process. As a general rule, follow the application instructions.

Having a detailed step-by-step method for college XYZ will not stop questions about GPA. UCs have a very detailed process, but as @gumbymom and other Forum Champions will attest, the questions come up constantly.

File under “it is what it is.”

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I think this thread has the possibility of being helpful. At least it could be linked or referred to when telling kids about how some schools have their own GPA calculation.

University of Georgia is very transparent about their GPA calculation (and all aspects of admission, TBH)

Calculating UGA GPA

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Massachusetts uses a basic 4.0, add 0.5 for honors, add 1.0 for AP & DE classes. But they do take into account +/- according to this system:

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You can find the whole document that used to describe it here:

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