<p>Here's what I don't understand:</p>
<p>If colleges only look at unweighted gpas, where's the incentive to take honors classes? Someone with two honors classes can have as high an unweighted gpa as someone with five honors/advanced classes with a much easier schedule. Without weighted gpas is there any real difference between four advanced classes and five advanced classes? Both can be considered "heavy loads" (out of six-class schedules at least)...</p>
<p>That's what class rank is for. Besides, weighted GPAs between schools are even less standardized than unweighted GPAs--it'd be impossible to compare (5.0 grading scale vs. 4.5 grading scale, for example.)</p>
<p>Besides, it doesn't go as deep in admissions as the difference between 4 and 5 advanced courses, then they default to other things like exact uw gpa value.</p>
<p>thanks murasaki</p>
<p>my school doesn't rank though, it just gives my weighted cumulative gpa and that of the top placed student. Is that a common practice?</p>
<p>So admissions offices wouldn't make a big deal out of 4 advanced courses as opposed to 5?</p>
<p>Admissions officers will notice if you fill your schedule with easy classes.</p>
<p>Would this be considered an easy schedule? </p>
<p>AP US
AP English 3
Honors French 3
Honors Precalculus
Chemistry
Moral Theology/Photography II</p>
<p>Please be honest</p>
<p>for what year?</p>
<p>junior year</p>
<p>It looks tough enough, but I assume you have more than 6 courses.</p>
<p>However, it depends heavily on what classes the school has. Schools judge rigour by looking at the toughest classes offered by the school.</p>
<p>Oh ok, so colleges are aware of the available classes at school?</p>
<p>Those are actually my only classes though, we operate a six-period system and one period is reserved for either a fine art or a theology class (grad requirement) so the absolute maximum someone can take in terms of advanced classes is 5.</p>
<p>So you used 4 of 6 slots for "advance" classes. Sounds good enough to me.</p>
<p>thanks, i hope ur right</p>
<p>Don't forget about the counselor rec. There's almost always a spot where the counselor rates your schedule, by the school's own standards, on a scale of below average to most rigorous. This is yet another aid of the colleges in determining the schedule difficulty.</p>
<p>So if my counselor puts down most rigorous, colleges will be inclined to believe that, correct?</p>
<p>What about advanced classes that aren't listed as honors?</p>
<p>I'm in a magnet program and my school offers classes like Website Design and Advanced Website Design. AWD is, of course, a higher level course. Another example is Cybercorps and Cybertech. The latter is also the more advanced class. Will adcoms be able to see this?</p>
<p>And what about classes that are "offered" in the school catalogue but never in school, really. Too few kids sign up for some classes (Like AP Chem, AP Physics, Econ H, etc) that they're never really offered. How do you let them know of these things?</p>
<p>My schedule next year is:</p>
<p>AP Lang
AP US Gov
Trig/PreCal H
Anatomy/Phys H
Adv. Website Design
Photography (mandatory fine arts credit that I never really took til now)</p>
<p>We can have either 6 or 7 classes. Technically, we should have 7 because of the magnet program but as a senior, we can opt out of the 7th class. Actually, kids usually opt out of a lot of the classes other than the two they really need (English and Gov).</p>
<p>Is that a decent schedule? I really had AP Chem II and Econ H lined up but since no one signed up, the classes won't be offered. :(</p>
<p>I don't think senior schedules are that big a deal. You obviously have some advanced classes lined up so colleges will know you're not slacking off and I think that will be enough for them</p>
<p>Yes, if a counselor says your schedule is the most rigorous, assuming your schedule doesn't look iffy, colleges will believe that.</p>
<p>And senior schedule would matter, or they wouldn't ever have places to list it. They want to see that you're not slacking.</p>
<p>Adcoms at selective schools are primarily interested in core-class (English, Math, Science, Social Studies, Foreign Language) advanced classes. If you have other advanced classes, they should reflect in the counselor's rating of your schedule, and, if your school uses weighted ranks, your class rank (if your school even ranks)</p>
<p>And I don't know why adcoms will need to know about classes that were 'offered' but not available. If you can't take AP chem and have to take, say, honors chem, that's still the highest level of the course available, and since no one can take it, you'll have no disadvantage in class ranking. Or, if your school doesn't rank, your counselor can rate your schedule accordingly, knowing that AP chem isn't offered but you're taking the highest level available.</p>
<p>But in the long run, this matters little. I think a rigorous courseload is more of something to check off, than to examine closely. I doubt you'll be rejected because the other dude had 8 APs and you only had 7.</p>
<p>i think weighted gpa is so that your school could have a bigger discrepency (can't spell) between rankings than with a general grading system. Colleges want unweighted because, every high schools weighted system is different and would then call for inconsistency in gpa's.</p>
<p>^ I agree.</p>