After looking on the website to see what people received last year, as far as scholarships go, I was curious to see if anyone knows how they calculate weighted GPA. Some people had 4.9+ which is crazy. My HS does it like AP is 5.0 Honors 4.5 and Cp is 4.0. But, it cant be this way becasuse that would require a 4.9 Gpa to take all AP and get 9 A for every 1 B. Does anyone know? Trying to figure this out and see my USC GPA so I can see my chances for what scholarships. Thanks
https://sc.edu/about/offices_and_divisions/undergraduate_admissions/tuition_scholarships/scholarships/nonresidents/index.php
I believe they only use your core classes, so science, math, English, social sciences and foreign language. I believe USC gives 5 points for As in both honors and AP classes. My daughter’s USC GPA is higher than her school’s GPA because everything she took for core classes was honors or AP except for Spanish. Her USC GPA should be around 4.9 because of that(4.00 UW).
@jackd341 our school weight’s like yours does. As I understand it, USC gives an extra point to AB and Honors ( I assume IB as well) and they remove PE and electives. They calculate your GPA and use it plus your SAT/ACT to determine merit aid. The extra weighting for honors boosts the GPA a bit.
GPA calculation is a total mystery to me so I stopped worrying about it. We live VA and our county only weights AP and IB (5.0). Everything else is 4.0. No classes are called honors but they have “intensified” versions of a lot of things so I assume those equate to honors. But even so, those classes are not weighted. I read somewhere that some school systems, and SC may be one of them to get GPAs as high as 4.9, use a 6.0 level, where AP classes are 6.0, Honors 5.0, etc. But numerical average factors in, where 100 in an AP class would be 6.0, 98 average would drop to 5.8. No clue if that’s true and couldn’t begin to convert my daughter’s GPA according to that scale since her school doesn’t report numerical averages on her transcript. Before I gave up, I had done the math several different ways, and near as I could tell, my D’s 4.15W/3.79UW GPA with 8 APs, 1 IB and 7 “intensified” classes comes in anywhere between 4.5 and 4.75 depending on the formula I use.
This is the formula that the state uses for public high schools. Maybe this is what the University uses as well. If so, it’s a 6 point scale. So, my previous post about AP and Honors being weighted equally is probably inaccurate.
https://ed.sc.gov/scdoe/assets/File/districts-schools/state-accountability/NEWUniformGrading.pdf
@lastone03 Yeah, That looks like what I had seen. Since VA schools don’t use numerical averages to differentiate GPA within grades (All AP As are 5.0 vice ranging from 6.0 for 100 average down to 5.0 for 90 ), it would seem impossible to convert the GPA that My D’s school reported to USC to the SC scale.
@PhilipM we are in VA too. Not sure how they calculated my son’s either but he got in w/a scholarship so that’s all that matters 
English - 4 units
At least two units must have strong grammar and composition components, at least one must be in English literature, and at least one must be in American literature. Completion of college preparatory English I, II, III, and IV will meet this criterion.
Mathematics - 4 units
These include Algebra I (for which Applied Mathematics I and II may count together as a substitute, if a student successfully completes Algebra II), Algebra II, and geometry. A fourth higher-level math course should be selected from among Algebra III/trigonometry, pre-calculus, calculus, statistics, or discrete mathematics or a capstone math course.
Laboratory science - 3 units
Two units must be taken in two different fields and selected from among biology, chemistry or physics. The third unit may be from the same field as one of the first two units (biology, chemistry, or physics) or from any laboratory science for which biology and/or chemistry is a prerequisite. Courses in earth science, general physical science, or introductory or general environmental science for which biology and/or chemistry is not a prerequisite will not meet this requirement. It is strongly recommended that students take physical science (taught as a laboratory science) as a prerequisite to the three required units of laboratory science outlined in this section. Also, it is strongly recommended that students desiring careers in science, math, engineering, or technology take one course in each of the three fields.
Social studies - 3 units
Must include one unit of US history. One-half unit of economics and one-half unit of government are strongly recommended.
Foreign language - 2 units
Both units must be in the same language.
Fine arts - 1 unit (4)
One unit in appreciation of, history of, or performance in one of the fine arts.
Academic electives - 1 unit
A college prep course in computer science (i.e., one involving significant programming content, not simply keyboarding) is strongly recommended. Other acceptable electives include college preparatory courses in English, fine arts, foreign languages, social science, humanities, laboratory science (excluding those for which biology and/or chemistry is not a prerequisite), or math above the level of Algebra II.
Physical education - 1 unit
One unit of P.E. or ROTC is required.
The above text was copied directly from something that we saw on their website or received from one of the USC admission counselors. What I can’t find in writing is the weighting but I’m 99.9% sure it is a 4 point A with an extra point for any class that’s honors or above.
I also saw something (can’t remember if it was here or elsewhere) that says that it’s CORE classes only that are counted, and an extra GPA point is assigned to anything Honors or above. Like PhilipM, I went several times and tried to calculate DDs GPA because she A) took several classes in Middle School that counted for HS, B) went to one HS that used 4.0 GPA scale and C) changed to a school that uses a percentage scale. I really had to guesstimate her GPA. I’m just happy that the schools have their own formulas to try to level the playing field as I know that all HSs weigh things differently.
The average GPA is 3.73 (just got this information at: https://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg01_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=1138)
Any idea about how this GPA is calculated? Do you think this is based on USC’s own re-weighting formula?
@tif1972 @lastone03 (first post) @StrGzrMaryland are all correct with the information they provided above. In addition, if the student has taken more classes than the core requires, USC uses the higher grades. For example, if the student takes 4 years of a foreign language, they only use the two highest grades in the GPA calculation.
@LotusSeeds that is the “other” USC.