<p>I am confused on something. My child takes a mix of Honors and Regular Classes. Right now, he is a B+ in his Honors classes and a A-/A in his regular classes. I was always under the impression that it was better to take an Honors Class and get a B than to take a regular class and get an A; however, recently I've heard that the colleges calculate or use an unweighted GPA. If that is the case, then my child's GPA is going to be lower than someone who gets all A's even though my child is taking more challenging courses. Can someone fill me in?</p>
<p>It'll depend on the college. The UCs, for example, will weight up to 8 AP/Honors classes on the 5 point scale versus the normal 4 point scale but even these are only the ones they recognize as 'weight-worthy'. Different colleges have different schemes of calculating or paying attention to GPA.</p>
<p>In our school the weighting determines your rank, we have a 100 point scale where the slow class gives you a max of 100 points, the average Regents level gives you 105 and the honors and APs give you 110. Of course you never can be sure what grade you'll get in honors vs. regular, though my son had to take regular English as a senior due to scheduling conflicts and ended up doing more than 5 points better than his previous averages so it probably upped his GPA a little bit.</p>
<p>This is a real issue- different high schools weigh honors/AP courses differently to calculate GPAs and then different colleges use different formulas to re-interpret those grades. If a student takes only regular classes and gets all A's (instead of taking some honor/AP classes and maybe getting a B), then the unweighted GPA will be higher but it will still be a problem. Any admissions officer will recognize him/her as a student who didn't seek out challenging courses and this will be a bigger problem than a slightly lower GPA would be. JMHO.</p>
<p>The schools will always ask if the student took the most rigorous courseload. If the school offers AP or Honors and the student didn't take them, the GC will not answer yes.<br>
So the answer is that it is better to get the B in Honors. IMHO.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, it seems to depend on the college. A friend reported that one college admissions officer (not a top 25 school) responded to the question about whether a B in AP was better than an A in a regular class by saying the A was better.</p>
<p>Many of the schools that recalculate gpa also give a score to the rigor of the curriculum reflected on the transcript so a student is not necessarily harmed by taking the harder class butr getting a slightly lower grade.</p>
<p>The standard admissions officer reply to that question (that I've heard several times) is to quip:</p>
<p>"It is better to get an A in the honors class...." ;)</p>
<p>would suggest that you read the following:</p>
<p>NACAC's 2006 Annual State of College Admission Report provides analysis of the combined results from the Admission Trends Survey and the Counseling Trends Survey. Based on surveys of school counselors and colleges and universities nationwide, NACAC provides this report to highlight issues of concern to college-bound students, their parents, and the educators who serve them. </p>
<p>(the 2007 report requires a password)</p>
<p>Even if you don't read the whole report, you should definitely read Chapter 4 Factors in the admissions process </p>
<p>according to the NACAC:</p>
<p>Colleges and universities receive transcripts and GPA calculations from thousands of high schools, each of which may calculate GPAs differently.</p>
<p>Many high schools use a traditional 4-point scale to measure grade averages, others use weighted 4.5- or 5-point scales, while still others use grade scales that reach as high as 8 or 10.</p>
<p>To provide a standard comparison of grade point averages among applicants, some colleges recalculate grade point averages. Colleges
are virtually evenly split on the practice of recalculating GPAs—49 percent do and 51 percent do not. </p>
<p>High yield institutions are more likely than low yield institutions to recalculate GPA. (Basically more selective schools where if admitted the student is more likely to enroll will recalculate your GPA to a 4 point scale)</p>