So at my school, we do unweighted GPA on a 4.0 scale with A’s in Honors and on-level being worth 4.0 and A’s in AP’s being worth 5.0. On my commonapp, I reported my weighted GPA (4.29) and said that the GPA scale was 5.0. When going back and looking at it, should I have said 4.0 scale? Am I screwed because of this?
No. It’s a very common error.
@skieurope Alright, sorry to message you so much. https://recsupport.commonapp.org/recommendersupport/s/article/What-should-I-list-for-our-school-s-GPA-scale.
This says"If your school uses a weighted GPA, you should list the highest possible weighted grade average a student can achieve and select the weighted option in the GPA Weighting prompt."
Technically 5.0 is the highest weighted (limits on AP classes, though so really it’s a 4.5 if you take max APs). So I guess I was right unless I’m misinterpreting what it says.
@skieurope Just to clarify, am I interpreting the commonapp site right? I read on other forums here (past ones to be fair) that it should be 4.29/4.0 and not 4.29/5.0 for weighted. However, the commonapp site says to report the highest possible weighted gpa, and, technically, it is possible to achieve a weighted 5.0 at my school if you take 100% AP classes. So was I right in my reporting?
I was taught that the base scale never changes, so I am of the camp that it is 4.29/4.0. Not saying I’m “right.” Like I said before, there is a lot of confusion (and always has been), so I would not worry about it.
In theory, it should be 4.29 out of the highest possible GPA, but that won’tbe a 5.0 because it is impossible to take all APs for 4 years. So the HS could figure out what is the highest possible GPA one could theoretically get, given that a school might weight honors courses as 0.5 and have HS graduation requirements like art or PE that are not weighted at all. But that’s not gonna happen.
@skieurope Why can’t they just clarify and make it clearer? Geez, it’s like trying to solve a puzzle for even the simplest things. Anyway, thank you for your responses.