<p>How do you view weighted vs. unweighted GPAs? For example, Student A takes a fairly challenging academic load for all four years of HS, but focused on math/science, and took less challenging English classes. Student B takes the most challenging options in all subjects and has a higher weighted GPA. But the transcript for Student A will show almost all 'A's' (with AP's in math and science) while the transcript for Student B may have more B's or B+'s, due to the challenging workload through the four years. </p>
<p>Do you think admissions people really look at the weighted GPA more than the letter grades on a transcript?</p>
<p>Unweighted more. Outside of Cali no major schools put much emphasis on the wghtd gpa. They look at courses and difficulty separately. With rampant grade inflaton in all classes it's hard to much weight on grades at all except if somebody is well below the average.</p>
<p>If they are comparing candidates, they have to do it on an unweighted basis. Some schools do not weight and those that do may do so differently. </p>
<p>I think the weighted GPA is something that allows high schools to rank their students, taking into account the difficulty of courses.</p>
<p>My understanding is that colleges generally look at unweighted GPA, class rank, and course difficulty (i.e., the choices made from what is available at the school) separately.</p>
<p>Stanford computes its own version of an applicant's GPA, taking into account only academic courses and only courses after 9th grade. But, who knows whether they notice if the applicant has, say, a very high class rank based on the high school's version of weighted GPA.</p>
<p>I have heard schools say they would do as Little Mother suggests. I don't understand how it is done. For example, some schools recalculate gpas taking only the required prerequisites for admission. So, lets say 2 yrs. of foreign language is required. Some students take the minimum, and others take the equivalent of 5 years by finishing an AP f.l. as a senior. I believe that while the schools see the rigor in this student's f.l. schedule, they will only use the first 2 years in calculating gpa. Now if another student takes AP art, and another takes AP computer science, neither is a requirement for admission and is not counted in the recalculation of the gpa. Phys ed, business courses, music, art, etc., are not included by these schools. Some schools will also not allow an extra .5 for an honors class, or AP class. This can hurt when gpa is looked at for merit aid at some schools. Is this how some of the schools recalculate? It is my understanding that some recalculate this way.</p>
<p>This is why I think ranking is important if the school does not have grade inflation. A scant 3% of students in my daughter's grade scored above 90% in all their classes this past marking period. Getting an 88 or 89 is still a very good grade at her school. Without ranking or weighting, these kids would look mediocre in comparison with kids from other schools. Using unweighted GPA alone for merit aid does not take the context of the school into account.</p>
<p>Momofour, No it does not take the context of the school into account. I don't think weighting and ranking do either, b/c you are ranked against the peer within this competitive hs. Someone from another hs can have a much higher ranking or weighted gpa, yet the hs is much less competitive than the one your child attends. This creates a situation which has been discussed before. One can do better with merit aid if one goes to a less competitive hs, and gets tutored for standardized testing. In fact, many state schools will also accept the kid from the less comptetive hs with the higher gpa, even though the sat scores are somewhat lower.</p>
<p>Yeah, kids from very competitive HS can be handicapped. At my kids' HS, kids who get Bs & even Cs for their AP courses get 5s & really know their stuff. It's just really competitive & there are a LOT of overachievers--many of whom plan to go into engineering or medicine.</p>
<p>Fortunately, adcoms know the reputations of some of the more competitive HSs, especially when their students have done very well in their colleges & may admit a child with a lower GPA from such a school over one at a less competitive one that they're not familiar with.</p>
<p>So there are schools that give an extra .5 for honors and AP classes? Well, there is a new wrinkle. So you have some places that do not weight at all, some who give .5 extra and some who give 1 extra. I have even heard of schools who give 1 extra for honors and 2 extra for AP!</p>
<p>And then there is the issue of places that give pluses and minuses... Apparently, there is more than one way of giving a numerical equivalent to them.</p>
<p>So you can see the importance of the college using a similar GPA calculation in its comparisons.</p>
<p>Many colleges will recompute each applicant's GPA. Some schools only use core academic classes (and the definition of what is a core class can vary from college to college), some will only use unweighted GPAs, some will just use what is reported on the high school transcript, some have their own crazy little way of adding up the points. </p>
<p>This is why it is IMPORTANT to ask each college that your child is considering (1) will they use the GPA reported on the transcript or will they recompute it using their own methods (2) if the latter, exactly how will they recompute it. </p>
<p>And, keep in mind that the "median" GPA's reported in the guidebooks and USNews often are based on the RECOMPUTED GPAs. So, when considering your child's chances at a particular school, it's important to know what you are comparing it to. Sometimes you can find this defined on the admissions website but more often you have to ask directly. Some schools seem to have lower median GPAs, when, in fact, those medians have had grades in "fluff" classes taken out, or are based on unweighted grades.Other schools seem to have very high GPAs, but sometimes those are based on weighted GPAs. If you don't ask, you can be comparing your kid and thinking they are way ahead or way below the reported median, when, in fact, if their GPA is computed the way the school does it, they are right smack on target.</p>
<p>app readers for highly selective schools are going to want to know that a student took the most challening classes available, incl. english/humanities. Just like in NCAA basketball, strenght of schedule matters, a lot.</p>
<p>Carolyn makes a good point about advertised gpa's...one school that is in the bottom half of the top 100 states that it's median accepted gpa is a 4.0 -- obviously, these grades are weighted by that collegiate formula.</p>
<p>My daughter's school computes GPA on a sliding point scale, only a 100 would earn a 4.0 for the class. Honors/AP classes are weighted a full point. Thus a 100 in an AP class would be worth a 5.0, not that anyone would ever earn that grade. It's not thought of as a competitive high school by the way (average SAT's are like 980), it's just one without grade inflation. I'm not sure what the thinking is behind that. The top GPAs end up around 4.2 or so, high B/lowA in all honors classes would earn that. I know the top kids do very well in admissions but I wonder if the second decile type kids are hurt by the way the school does things.</p>
<p>Just like in NCAA basketball, strenght of schedule matters, a lot.</p>
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<p>Excellent point Blue, and one that is sometimes forgotten here on CC as people banter about GPAs and test scores. It also is a good idea to look at each college's recommended (read: preferred) high school curriculums, and see how it compares to yours, above and beyond your GPA.</p>
I found the stated GPA's useless. Average GPA 4.0 doesn't tell you diddly when an equally positioned school or maybe higher positioned reports a 3.8 . Without knowledge of how and what they are computing it's meaningless.</p>
<p>Exactly my point Cur. In fact, I've learned to pretty much take a lot of what's reported as "median" information with a huge shaker of salt. You have to dig down to find what "median" really stands for, whether it is GPAs, class rank, or even test scores.</p>
<p>In one of my college admissions counseling classes this week, we had to read the NACAC (National Association of College Admissions Counselors) Statement and Principles of Good Practices for college admissions offices. I just about fell on the floor laughing at the mile wide gap between what colleges say is good practices, and what they actually do. Let's just say that many may believe they're following the standards in their hearts, but they're interpreting them in amazingly strange ways. The one that got me most was the part clearly syaing that admissions officers will not ask applicants to divulge any other schools they're applying to. Yeah, right. Guess the Common Application hasn't quite got up to speed yet on that one, let alone all those admissions' interviewers who ask that question as a matter of course.. :)</p>
<p>I wish there was a set standard for honors and AP classes. Yes, they should receive "more weight" but there should be a standard across the nation so there can be more meaningful comparison. It isn't fair to "unweigh" an AP class because a child who receives a B in an AP class deserves the same 4 points that a child gets for an A in the easier version of the class. </p>
<p>The beauty of AP exams are that they can reveal grade inflation. I wonder if colleges really look closer at AP scores, ACT/SAT scores, & SAT II scores to get a "real feel" for how excellent a student is. GPA's have become meaningless if there is moderate to extreme grade inflation. I wonder if schools have started to just give GPA's a cursory look and then go right to national scores and courses taken.</p>
<p>at my S's private school, report cards use the raw, unweighted score for courses and GPA, but on official transcripts, the cumluative GPA is weighted (honors & AP) and the individual courses are unweighted, but denoted as honors or AP. The latter presumably allows the colleges to do their own GPA formulation, and the school uses weighted GPA for school-wide numbers crunching, like on scattergrams. Unless one asks, you'd never know that the weighting exists until a sit-down with the GC & the scattergrams.</p>