<p>I recently asked this of an adcom and got a vague answer. (We use a special formula.) I simply want to know how GPA is calculated. What weighting do you give for honors? AP? (fi any) Do you use 8th grade grades for courses that received HS credit? We are trying to whittle down my son's choices and in some cases he might qualify for a merit scholarship depending on how GPA is calculated. It's really not just curiosity--if his GPA is too low for a school he might not apply. Am I being too nosy? When I see a selective school with an average GPA of 3.5 and a much less selective school with an average of 3.4, it gets me wondering. Why does this process have to be so mysterious!</p>
<p>I'm with you on this one...and I have no clue.</p>
<p>Add to it....what happens with 1Q grades from Senior year? Do they get factored in? If so, how? Are they projected out for the entire Senior year and given the weight of a year's worth of grades or are they just used to ensure that the student hasn't slipped?</p>
<p>Weird. I was curious how my S's first choice school calculated GPA, so on advice from folks at this board, I wrote them. Got a clear answer back. I'd be surprised if they didn't give a clear answer, at least so long as the people you're asking knew the answer.</p>
<p>My daughter school didn't weight grades.
I would just take grades from high school, to be safe throw out classes that arent academic- studio art, PE stuff like that.
It might actually be a tad lower than how the college will see it, but then you have a safety net.
I think they assume spring term grades will be consistent with fall term grades.</p>
<p>Each HS/college calculates it differently. Our HS follows the Univ of Cal format for weighting Honors and AO courses. But, HS grades do not count for the gpa calc, but the class completion will count for admissions purposes, e.g., Algebra/Geom in 8th grade.</p>
<p>I'm right there with you, as usual. With the vast majority of merit based , or merit and need based scholarships having a GPA component, tenths could mean thousands of dollars, or even worse it could deny a student the opportunity to even file an app for the scholarship. As such, they have to recalculate the gpa the high school provides based on some specific and consistent methodology. It sure seems that the schools would want us to know this methodology so that students would not be applying in droves for scholarship opportunities they could never receive.</p>