How does a current junior with 2nd semester grades calculate a projected GPA. HS uses a 5pt scale. I believe I need to convert to a 4pt scale. And do you use all course grades or just 5 core classes? Do you adjust for A+, A- and honors/AP? I’m looking to do a search by gpa and want to make an apple to apple gpa comparison. Thanks.
Unless asked to convert, don’t. If asked to convert, the college will tell you how
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There is no such thing as an apples to apples comparison when it comes to GPA calculations. Some schools use only core courses. Others use everything. Some schools give varying weights to AP and DE courses. Others do not.
And remember…some colleges compute the GPA using a uniform formula for their applicants.
What exactly are you looking for.
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I’m trying to do a search for colleges to consider and one search mechanism is to search by GpA. I’m Concerned about being weighted.
Well…to add to your confusion….some colleges use weighted GPA and others use only unweighted…because again…weighting calculations vary wildly from HS to HS.
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Every school does it differently, but you can get a rough idea if you eliminate the pluses and minuses, eliminate gym and health, and make every academic class an A-4, B-3, C-2, D-1, add them all up, and then divide by the number of classes. This will give a rough unweighted GPA. Yes, most highly selective colleges will take into account rigor (meaning APs and honors, when available), but you have no way of knowing how. And not every school goes by this - hence the over 4.0 average GPA for admitted students.
You may get a better idea by looking at your student’s percentile rank within the high school class. Except for students coming from extraordinarily selective high schools (top prep schools in the nation, top magnet high schools in the country), the class percentile in which the student places is considered relevant. However, your mileage may vary, since admissions get weighted by race, geography, ability to pay (for some schools), recruited athlete, donor child, legacy. Some schools use Naviance, which can show you past results for students with particular GPAs and SATs, on a nomogram, for results with particular schools. This, too, can be misleading, since the same criteria mentioned above may apply.
Your best bet is to speak with the college admissions/guidance counselor at your kid’s high school, for recommendations as to which degree of selectivity matches up to your student’s stats, and examples of which schools might be safety, likely, match, reach, high reach for your student.
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A basic unweighted GPA can be calculated by adding up all academic course grades with A=4, B=3, C=2, D=1, F=0 and dividing by the number of grades.
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Thanks so much. We meet this week with the school counselor.
Your counselor will likely tell you where you stand on a 4 point scale. Bonus if they can give you rank - whether specific or general, like top 10% or second quartile.