I needed a bit of clarification on what is meant when people say my high school unweighted average is 92 or the weighted average is 95.
When I figure out my sons high school average, I simply add up his 5 core courses, science, math english spanish and history and divide it by 5. I do not use gym, music, or any electives as I feel that any competitive college will not use those in calculating a gpa. Maybe they do, and if so, then great, I will add it in, but I like to be conservative and just take the core courses.
I always thought that unweighted meant, without the fluff courses such as gym, music, health etc, but does it relate to honors and AP courses taken??
I do not know how to calculate that to be honest. My son takes honors bio, spanish and geometry and takes regular regents english and social studies. I always felt that folks that do take AP courses and honors courses should get some “credit” for that but colleges believe it or not do not see it that way. Do not get me wrong, they do like to see that a student has challenged themselves by taking honors and or AP courses, however, they do not “curve” the grades. They do not say, hey Billy took 5 AP courses and got a 85 average so that equates to a 95 if he was to take 5 regular high school courses. To them a 85 is an 85. I do not think that is fair, but that is the way it is.
Anyway, any clarification would be helpful since I do not want to cheat my son thinking he has a 92 average when it is really a 93 or 94 etc.
Thanks
Weighted averages give extra “weight” for higher level (e.g Honors, AP) classes. High schools calculate these differently, so you can’t really compare between schools unless you know the formula is exactly the same. Also, weighted averages are generally only used for HS Class rank. Colleges may publish high school GPA ranges (common data set item C11), but I think these too are likely determined differently…I think most are using a non-weighted GPA; and, like you mentioned, sometimes they may be using only the grades from base academic courses.
At our HS, an Honors class earns you +0.83 (to the 4.0 scale), and an AP class +1.33. So an A+ (97-100) in a “regular” class is 4.0, Honors 4.83, AP 5.33. An A (93-96) is worth 3.67, 4.5 H, 5.0 AP. An A- (90-92) is 3.33, 4.16 H, 4.66 AP; etc. Our school uses ALL classes (including PE, etc) to calculate weighted averages, but it is only used for class rank. Class rank statistics are often published by colleges (common data set item C10), however many high schools do not rank, so the numbers reported by colleges (e.g. % of students that were in the top 10% of their HS class) are frequently based on data for less than 50% of the students.
Not sure what you mean by “cheating” your son. You can find out how your HS, and/or the colleges of interest calculate GPA, and keep track yourself.
UW GPA generally means an A=4, B=3, C=2, D=1. Multiply each class by the number, average for the GPA on a 4.0 scale. As stated above WGPA means some classes get additional credit for being harder. The WGPA is defined by your school (each one is different)
Thanks, I had a feeling it had to do with honors and AP classes. I guess it is a moot point because most, if not all colleges use the unweighted average so the one I have been using is the corrrect one. It is a shame in a way becuase students should get some credit on their gpa in high school for taking harder classes. I know they may get rewarded with regard to class rank, but it would be nice to see them get credit for honors clasess and AP classes reflected somehow in their gpa.
Some schools recalculate GPA by throwing out gym and electives. Some do not. See this article for a flavor:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB105899458688282900
Every HS weights differently (and some don’t weight at all). But when your HS sends in the transcript to the colleges they also send a school profile which describes the weighting system used, the level of classes offered etc. so every transcript can be viewed in the proper context. Regardless of it is in the GPA, colleges know the rigor of each applicant’s schedule as compared to what is offered in the HS. As noted above a number of colleges do recalculate GPA (ex. based on academic subjects only).
Thanks Nava,
Yes, I would agree, lets be honest, if a student has a 93 gpa but with the gym and basket weaving course it is now a 95, Harvard, Yale, Tufts, or any decent college will not say hey Billy has a 95 average. So thanks, but that is what I assumed. I just did not want my son to get a kick in the butt for having a slightly lower gpa since he was taking honors courses. However, I am sure all of these admissions offices know what the deal is with regard to curriculum rigor