<ol>
<li><p>Does your school have a weighted GPA system?
a. Yes.</p></li>
<li><p>What is a regular class A compared to an A in an honors or AP class?
a. Non-AP = 4, AP = 5</p></li>
<li><p>What system do you like for the weighted grade?
a. I propose to get rid of the weighted grades so that kids will not have anymore unhealthy AP race and will not game the system (my kids are in top 1-2%).</p></li>
</ol>
<p>
</p>
<p>This is hilarious to me. Kids will game the system whatever you do. If you get rid of weighting they’ll just take easy classes.</p>
<ol>
<li>Yes</li>
<li>regular/dual enrollment = 4.0; non-freshman honors = 4.5; AP/post-AP = 5.0</li>
<li>I like our system–I just wish they would be more consistent with how they assigned weighting.</li>
</ol>
<p>
</p>
<p>^^No, only kids that aren’t striving for good colleges would “game” the system and take the easy classes. That’s the beauty of not weighting. The colleges can see on the transcript which classes the kids took and can see in the high school profile which classes are rigorous. There really isn’t any mystery. Personally there is more “gaming” going on with schools that have unweighted and weighted…read the posts regarding the kids who are “dinged” for band/music, etc.</p>
<p>We’ve been at 2 schools - one private International and one public US - neither weighted</p>
<ol>
<li>Does your school have a weighted GPA system?
No</li>
<li>What is an A regular class A compared to an A in an AP class?
a. 4.0 for regular/4.0 for AP</li>
<li>What system do you like for the weighted grade?
I definitely prefer a weighted system for several reasons:</li>
<li>Val/Sal/Rank - at the Intl School they did not rank (too many kids moving in and out to be fair) - the choice of Val/Sal was a somewhat subjective combination of GPA and AP/IB stats - it actually worked quite well each year but the subjective part may at some point pose a problem. At the US Public it doesnt work so well - 2 of the 3 Vals have taken no AP or Honors classes. The school district is trying to eliminate the Val/Sal designations and instead have 3 distinctions of honors based on gpa, # of APS and ACT score qualifications. I guess that’s a good thing but there are some schools who give money to Valedictorians.</li>
<li>Which brings me to my other issue - My son was going to a school that gave a scholarship based on gpa and SAT score - they accepted weighted or unweighted but did not adjust what was reported which put students at unweighted schools at a big disadvantage. In my son’s case, coming from a smaller private school where they knew him they calculated a “hypothetical” weighted GPA. With 9 APs he got quite a boost. I don’t think that type of scholarship is common but if we hadn’t figured a way around it we’d be paying $9000 more each year for his college. Actually we’d be paying more because he probably would not have gone to that school - it was the deciding factor to attend.</li>
</ol>
<p>edited to add that the “hypothetical” gpa was discussed with the college and was something they supported - not something my son’s school cooked up to get him the money</p>
<p>. Does your school have a weighted GPA system?
a. No/Yes
2. What is an A regular class A compared to an A in an AP class?
a.NA/.5 for AP, .25 for Honors
3. What system do you like for the weighted grade?
a. Ilike the weighted system used by the second school</p>
<p>Most colleges that are selective and who carefully examine the students for acceptance, will convert the weighted averages to unweighted anyways, from what I was told. I believe it is true, since how else is a college going to compare the different weighted methods among high schools? After the grades have been “unweighted”, a “weighting” is given to the difficulty of the student’s courses, the school curriculum. This is pretty standard among the more selective schools. Duke U actually spells it out with a rating given for grades, difficulty of courses, test scores, ECs, recs, essays, as the 6 categories.</p>
<p>The problem I have with not weighting is that not all kids apply to schools that are that selective. Many schools, particularly state schools and large schools do not have the time to redo the GPAs. Some actually have arbitrary GPa or class rank cut offs and though they will be flexible for exceptional reasons, the chances are good that apps reviewed in the heat of the app season are going to get a quick once over. I saw some kids from my son’s prep schools that were turned down for gpas that were below a 3.5 when a 3.4, 3.5 gpa at that school with unweighted grades on a steep curve is really excellent. It also happens with scholarships. Say what you want, that number that is reported is often the one used. And a B at Super Prep does not an A at Regular High make.</p>
<p>Not only have I seen kids denied for gpa from this school, but I’ve seen them not accepted at Honors Programs due to GPA, and you can argue till your face is blue. True the LACs and the top colleges that have this school on their radars, will make the adjustment, but that is only a small fraction of the colleges in the US. </p>
<p>So it really depends on where your student is applying to college. Son 3 had the high SATs that had adcoms take a close look at the transcript and make the adjustments to offer him merit awards, but had he had lower scores, that may not have happened. In fact, the college he picked, gave his gpa as the reason that he got the lower merit award initially. When he called and requested a review of his profile, his gpa was adjusted for the 9 AP courses he took and his scholarship increased. If he were given credit for honors type courses as well, he would have had even a higher GPA. This would have been the case, had he gone to the high schools that S1 anr S4 chose.</p>
<p>Yes cpt that is my S’s issue too and I don’t know how it is going to play out. He really needs merit and his unweighted gpa is going to be a problem as he needs a 3.5 for most merit awards. He does have good SAT’s :)- good enough to get free tuition, room and board at a state summer college program, but gpa almost kept him out of the program. I’m hoping to find some way to work around this issue. He will only have 4 APs and 1H, but weighted even with 4, would give him over 3.5. The thing that kills me (and I’m sure you’ve all seen me post this like 20 times) is the highest gpa EVER at his school is a 94, so if a 94 is a 4.0 then his 87 is about a 3.75; but alas no one looks at it that way. Any suggestions you can offer would be appreciated.</p>
<p>ldinct, cpt: I hear ya; daughter attends a small private; very few AP’s… and honors are impossible to be admitted to…no weighting; highest GPA is prob a 3.8 and only one or two kids have it…majority of class sits between 3.0-3.4…even our electives have grade deflation (my daughter’s GPA was actually brought down by one)…</p>
<p>ldinct: suggestions: when you meet with your college/guidance counselor, ask which schools on your son’s list know the rigor and grading system in your school; he would best be served by targeting schools that know your high school and it’s curriculum and grading…if she/he can’t answer the question, the next question would be “where have our students in my son’s range found success in getting merit aid”…?</p>
<p>Thanks Rodney, exactly the issue. the problem is- the schools in the NE that know the school are schools which don’t give merit, and the top 20-50 schools. Or, very small LAC schools that might give $10-$15K out of $50k. Merit is something that hasn’t really been on their radar, when I brought it up they talked about how time consuming it was to apply for small scholarships. I think they are versed in FA which doesn’t help us. S is looking at state schools which have no knowledge of this school and don’t really consider this prep school gpa issue, so… My first plan of attack is to apply early to a couple knowing there may be some issues.</p>
<p>^^what may work then may be to explore options that are geographically different from your area; if it is a smallish school, it would force their admissions office to explore the profile in detail…?</p>
<p>A sit down with the GC is in order. Have some of the merit scholarship/honor college requirements in hand, so that the GC can see exactly what the problem is. Chances are s/he is most likely very much aware of the issue. Though some of them like to slough it off on the profile as bearing light on the grading scale, insist that some note be written and maybe the gpa shown under a common weighting method, possibly the one that is being used at the local public school so that some kind of parity is attained.</p>
<ol>
<li>Yes.</li>
<li>4.0/5.0, honors are 4.0</li>
<li>I like the way my school does it, although I would prefer if honors were weighted to 4.5.</li>
</ol>
<p>I use 4.O for non honors, non AP test, non dual enrollment
I use 4.5 for honors
I use 5.0 for class where AP test was taken and scores at least 3 and also dual enrollment classes
I do like my system since it mirrors what was used in the district we lived in when d1 was a freshman. I think non weighing can hurt a student when being compared to weighed students. I use the AP test designation since my d has not taken any AP classes but I will give the weighing factor if she scores well enough on the AP test. ( All AP classes have to be approved by the College Board and I didn’t do that)</p>
<p>cpt,
good idea on bringing in the examples. I think 3-4 examples might illustrate what is at stake. However, whether they will deviate from “policy” and “fairness to other students” will be the issue because when I’ve asked generally all I receive are vague answers- “don’t worry it’s in the profile”.</p>