<p>i am on my daughters name on this site, just to ask a question about GPA. </p>
<p>at the high school she attends, honors courses are weighted a full point more than regular classes, and the scale goes all the way to 5.3. many people have been telling her that colleges only consider unweighted GPA, and she is stressing out. she has struggled in some honors courses, and received B's, but could have easily gotten A's had she taken the regular class. in this case, her UW GPA would be higher. are these honors courses hurting her in the long run for college applications??</p>
<p>also, the school she attends is very competitive. is this taken into account as well?</p>
<p>The standard "rule" for admissions at selective colleges is to always take the most challenging courses available to you in HS. Many colleges do use their own system for weighting, assigning class rank, etc., but they are certainly taking into account the rigor of the HS transcript, as well as the quality of the HS. However, it does seem (according to some parents here) that weighted GPAs for students heavily into honors courses can hurt as far as merit scholarships go.</p>
<p>IMO the GPA's are so hard to define that the U's use them as a tool more than anything. My D had lower GPA than some classmates but higher SAT's and seemed to be more competitive for scholarships. Not sure if her classmates took same rigor of courses - My D was like yours - B's in top classes when an A would have been easy in lower level.
I would not stress about it - tougher courses are definitely the way to go and the test scores will help as well.</p>
<p>Colleges dont usually look at weights on a GPA but they will probably look at her class schedual, the strength of those AP, BC, and whatever other weighted classes she has taken are often concidered.</p>