Weighted and Unweighted GPA is driving me batty ....simple question

Applying to College
1

Ok, just an observation the female undocumented Valedictorian with a GPA of 4.95? How is that possible? That is her weighted GPA? In my sons school the highest weighted GPA you can get is only a 4.8. But the HS in the next town you can get a 6.0

My son’s school weights GPA. Clemson is one of the colleges he is looking at. According to CC, the average GPA is 3.9 but it accepts 52% of applicants and its SAT scores are 1842 out of 2400. The listed GPA seems a bit high considering the other stats. When you look at colleges and see the stats are they referring to unwieghted GPA? My school doesnt even provide unwieghted. I guess i will have to figure that out.

Thanks so much!

2

There is no standard for how US HS’s weight. For a school that operates on a 4.0 GPA, I’ve seen HS’s that add 2.0 to an AP class. Others might add 1.0, and I’ve even seen schools that add 0.05 and 0.08. Generally weighted GPA’s are only useful internally, for class rank, val/sal, etc. For colleges, because of the disparity, most will look at UW GPA or apply their own weights.

With regard to your son’s school, this is a case of “it is what it is.” I would not spend too much time focusing on it.