<p>It has probably been asked many times on this board but I did not see it as a thread. What is the difference between a weighted and unweighted GPA?</p>
<p>Many high schools give a “bump” for Honors and AP classes. For example, APUSH you receive a solid B=85=3.0, but because it is AP the high school will “weigh” it 1.0 higher changing that 3.0 to a 4.0.</p>
<p>Some HS transcripts list both weighted and unweighted; unless only list one or the other. To complicate it further, some colleges will “re-calc” to the colleges standard.</p>
<p>My son’s school (he is a sophmore) lists both weighted and unweighted on transcript. If he follows current upward trend his unweighted GPA will be between 3.5 and 3.8 and weighted will be well over 4, maybe 4.2 or higher. When searching for a college do you use the unweighted GPA and course difficulty, do you split the difference or do you use the weighted.</p>
<p>Each college is different. Some will use the highest GPA that appears on your transcript, and others will just look at your grades and recalculate GPA according to their own formula, often times not counting non-core classes (which are math, science, social studies, foreign language, and language arts).</p>