My son’s unweighted GPA is under the 3.5 however his weighted GPA as his school calculates it is a 4.41. He hadn’t received a scholarship award so I reached out to the admissions office. I received a response that all schools not using a 4.0 scare are recalculated and weighted and his GPA fell short of the 3.5 when recalculated. Looking at the FAQ on the UA website it just says that they use whichever is higher on the transcript not that it would be recalculated? Can anyone point me in the right direction?
I can’t edit my post but to add to it the email says if the counselor recalculates his GPA on a 4.0 scale and writes that on there and initials it we can send it back in. But if our school doesn’t calculate weighted GPA on a 4.0 scale how would that work? Or I am not understanding it correctly?
I would call you son’s counselor and go from there.
It seems that your school IS using a 4.0 scale - with weighted grades he has a 4.41/4.0, correct?
If so, that’s the GPA UA will use if it appears on his transcript.
Some schools use 5.0, 7.0 or 8.0 scales and those are the ones that would be recomputed.
@jrcsmom So I looked at the chart for our district for calculating GPA. A 100 in an AP class would net a 6.0 on GPA. I think that’s considered a 5.0 scale?
I attempted to manually calculate it using the method she gave in her email - adding .5 for each honors/ap class to the grade. Using that method I come up with 4.046. In her email she said they recalculated it at a 3.35. I have NO IDEA where that number came from. I’ve even tried calculated just core classes and I still don’t get anywhere near that.
@jeepgirl I called the counselor but he didn’t know so he sent it up the chain. :-?
@mom2collegekids do you have some advice?
I am thinking they take the 3.5 on a 5.0 scale and that figures out to a 2.8 on a 4 scale. Are you re figuring each class grade? So an A = 4,B=3,C=2,D=1 ? And then adding a .5 on each AP class? Here is an example of a conversion of a 5 to a 4.http://em.tsu.edu/registrar/forms/gradeconversion.pdf
I’m still not certain they aren’t using a 4.0 scale and as noted above the HS counselor would be able to clarify that for you, but some in some schools students earn A=4.0 in a non-weighted class, A=5.0 in honors courses and A=6.0 in AP courses, but it is still 6.0 out of 4.0. It is just a method for the school to provide additional weighting for AP courses.
I still can’t figure out where they came up with the GPA they did. I almost wonder if we are looking at the same transcript. I found a website that calculates and I inputted all his grades in there and still come up with over the 3.5. I feel like this will all get resolved but I am ready to rest easy. He’s worked so hard on the testing and we never expected the GPA to be an issue.
It should be easy for them to figure out. It’s just a matter of adding up how
many A’s he has x 4 and so on and then adding the .5’s. The good thing is you have plenty of time to see if they are missing something on the transcript.
Good news! Heard from the counselor late Friday that he had recalculated the GPA and wrote it in on the transcript and sent it off to Alabama. I can’t seem to replicate what he came up with but it meets the 3.5 requirement so I’m not going to spend any more energy on it. That’s one hurdle out of the way! Meanwhile we await the score release of the October ACT to see if he’s bumped it up to Presidential.
@TexasMom18 Glad you worked out the GPA. DS had the GPA but w/ SAT was just shy of the Presidential. I made him take the ACT and had him do a few practice tests the week before the exam.
When scores came out, I was literally shaking when I went to check them, as I had no idea where we would have been able to send him if he didn’t make it!
He got a 33, what a great day that was!
@TexasMom18 Great news!
@laralei That’s where I’m sitting today. I’ve already gotten the email from Bama that they have received his October ACT that gets released tonight. I’ve unsuccessfully tried to find somewhere on Bama’s website where it might be posted. He’s feeling good about this test. He currently has a 29 but has gotten multiple 33s on practice tests at home.
We do have a backup plan. He has a scholarship locked in to Texas Tech and that is instate tuition for us. But his heart beats for Bama.
@TexasMom18 I was able to find scores last year for my DD at UGA(they had it updated on her online account), but never at Bama. My D17 was one of those kids that gave it one last try(Sept. 2017) and got a 33, Thank god! Your son can still take the Dec. ACT test and Bama counts it.