<p>How does the weighted/unweighted GPA system work? Is one more important than the other or something like that?</p>
<p>Unweighted GPA and difficulty of courseload are very important. It would seem that weighted GPA is a reflection of those two, but since it varies so much from school to school, it's not.</p>
<p>At my school non-AP/IB classes are graded on a 4.0 GPA scale: A(4.0), B(3.0), C(2.0), D(1.0), E(0). AP/IB classes are weighted, meaning: A(5.0), B(4.0), C(3.0), D(2.0), E(0). Obviously your unweighted GPA is more important in admissions because your weighted GPA could be a 4.0 even if you got straight Bs.</p>
<p>i've been told that it's more of a mix of unweighted + course load difficulty rather than simply looking at weighted gpa.</p>
<p>It all matters. You basically have to get mostly A's in the hardest classes available at your school to have a chance at Columbia.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info!</p>
<p>Does columbia look at freshman grades?</p>
<p>Yes. But obviously, they're not as important as junior/senior grades.</p>
<p>SO YOUR GRADES IN IMPORTANCE WOULD BE</p>
<p>1) junior
2) senior
3) sophomore
4) fresh</p>
<p>or what?</p>
<p>well...courseload would be like..are u taking easier classes like AP music theory instead of ap bio, for example, to "inflate" ur GPA --- sorry for the ppl who take ap music theory cuz they want to...some ppl <em>cough</em>at my school do it just to inflate their GPAs...and they realize that weighted GPA isn't the only thing that colleges look at. </p>
<p>and in my school, frosh + soph honors classes aren't weighted, but u can still take it and it will say "honors" on ur transcript, and some ppl don't cuz it's not weighted, which would look horrible cuz it's like you're just doing it for college.</p>
<p>unweighted GPA is important in that you GPA may be quite inflated cuz of heavy weighting, but they still want to be able to compare you to other ppl in diff. schools with diff. GPA systems, and also to ppl in your own school.</p>
<p>What would you say about what imabum has posted?</p>
<p>
[quote]
SO YOUR GRADES IN IMPORTANCE WOULD BE</p>
<p>1) junior
2) senior
3) sophomore
4) fresh</p>
<p>or what?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>It's not a formula. It all matters. They look at everything.</p>
<p>
[quote]
At my school non-AP/IB classes are graded on a 4.0 GPA scale: A(4.0), B(3.0), C(2.0), D(1.0), E(0). AP/IB classes are weighted, meaning: A(5.0), B(4.0), C(3.0), D(2.0), E(0). Obviously your unweighted GPA is more important in admissions because your weighted GPA could be a 4.0 even if you got straight Bs.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I've seen this kind of grade-GPA conversion a lot, and in fact I'm almost certain that it's what my school uses. However, it seems very ambiguous to me. An A is a 4.0. However, does an A mean a 95? It's clearly possible to have an unweighted GPA over 95, but does the scale actually stop at 4.0? So far this year I have around a 99 unweighted average, does that mean a 4.4? My school classifies an "A" as 94-96. Does that mean that any grade between a 93.5 and 96.4 is a 4.0? Or is it more exact, where 93.5 is a 3.85, and 96.4 is a 4.14?</p>
<p>I don't think so... at my school, report cards have just letter grades, but a 90% in the class translates to an A on the report card-- and all As would be a 4.0. So maybe 90-100% is a 4.0, 80-89 is a 3.0, etc?</p>
<p>no A-s? lucky..</p>
<p>This is why GPA's are so unreliable in comparing students. My school only adds .5 to AP classes and you need a 95 for an A. College's need to look at the entire context of the school and how you've done in order to make a fair decision. Don't stress so much if your GPA isn't 4.8W like some of the people here... at alot of places it's just not possible and colleges understand that.</p>
<p>lol yeah. and some ppl say like 4.3 GPA. most rigorous workload. straight As. and ppl look at that and say, wow u def. needa bring that GPA up.</p>
<p>and i think my school's classes are like 10x harder than other schools around me...and we sent about 20-30 kids to Ivies each year, somtimes more, but still i don't think we get enough credit. we're not ranked very high on whatever high school list (which are always bs...like the colleg eones) but we DID win the siemen's school award</p>
<p>Narcissa, yes, no A-. And we don't use weighted GPA to rank students. So a kid who took all the easiest classes, and got a 90% in each one could be valedictorian.</p>
<p>
[quote]
So maybe 90-100% is a 4.0, 80-89 is a 3.0, etc?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>That can't be true. . . . Rather, I hope it's not true. Compare a student who gets a 90 and one who gets a 99 (i.e. me in 7th grade and me now). My school is rather easy, and so maintaining a 90-93 average required neither effort nor ambitions. Whereas a 99 average, while still not that difficult considering the ease of even the most difficult classes offered (especially in comparison with those offered at private schools from which most Ivy Leaguers apply), requires effort, solid study habits, ambition, and studiousness. It can't be that these two grades are both viewed as simply a 4.0. I have a feeling that most schools will look at your annual report cards, seeing the actual number grades. I have heard that Columbia Adcoms value grades over SAT's. They don't view all SAT scores over, say, 2000 as the same score, and so it's doubtful they do that with that which they claim influences one's chances even more.</p>
<p>columbia2002:It's not a formula. It all matters. They look at everything.</p>
<p>huh? obviously freshmen year doesnt matter as much as junior. i just want the order of importance.</p>