<p>my school only ever shows us our weighted gpas. if i really wanted to know my unweighted, i could calculate it myself, but i'm sure it's like a whole point lower. </p>
<p>so will colleges only see my weighted (since that's what my school only really uses) or will they see unweighted? or both?</p>
<p>also, my class rank depends on weighted, so if i have a high rank, does it matter if my unweighted gpa kinda sucks?</p>
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<p>That’s pretty much always the case (weighted GPA is on a different scale), but unweighted GPA is still more “real” in a way. Weighted grades are inflated and they really only exist for class rank purposes.
Colleges won’t get an unweighted GPA from your school, but it’s highly likely they will calculate one for themselves. They aren’t going to compare your weighted GPA to the GPA of someone who goes to a school that doesn’t weight anything. </p>
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<p>This doesn’t really have anything to do with weighted GPA…if you have a high class rank and a “low-looking” GPA, colleges will assume your high school is more challenging than most. And they’ll get a School Profile to help them figure everything out.</p>
<p>Weighted GPA isn’t typically standard amongst most schools - our school weights on a 4.5 scale, adding .5 points for AP classes, while the next school over weights on a 7 point scale. As Halcyonheather had said - they’re inflated and typically designed just for class rank purposes (because most schools feel like kids should have somewhat of an advantage in terms of ranking if they take more rigorous courses, I presume.) </p>
<p>If your school doesn’t provide you with unweighted GPA, and your weighted is what appears on your transcript, that’s what colleges will see - however, its unlikely that they’ll use that, they’ll most likely just recalculate it using their own scale or whatever.</p>
<p>On a side note: The disparity between your weighted and unweighted doesn’t necessarily have to be so severe. Depending on how heavily your school weights certain classes (Honors, AP, DE, etc) and your general performance, the difference between your weighted and unweighted could actually be quite minor.</p>
<p>Yeah, kinda the same issue here.</p>
<p>I’m ranked number one in my class but my un-weighted GPA is like a high 3.7, low 3.8? Not terrible but I’ve gotten a couple B’s and two C’s. But at the same time my school isn’t competitive or anything.</p>
<p>@Rob1995 - LOL, you’re really lucky. At my school, two C’s would basically condemn you to nothing higher than the top 30% at best.</p>
<p>@preamble1776: Yeah, it’s weird. There are kids that have unweighted 4.0’s that are like twenty ranks below me… I just take a lot of AP classes. One of my C’s was in a school-sponsored online AP Physics course and the other was in second-semester calculus. </p>
<p>My school is also weird that there is a lot of disparity across classes. There were two sophomore English classes. One was new and gave out A’s like candy. The other was an old teacher who supposedly hadn’t given out anything higher than a B in more than a decade… lol.</p>
<p>@Rob1995 - LOL, yeah, a lot of kids who are above me in rank have just taken more APs than I have (because they had been on accelerated math tracks, etc.) - so while my friend is ranked #4 and has received three C’s and a D (she will have taken 14 APs by graduation) - I’m pretty much stuck at #12 with almost all A’s and a two B’s (since I’ll only have taken 9 by the time I graduate).</p>
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<p>they literally sit around and recalculate gpas? sorry for them. mostly sorry for me, since my uw sucks LOL</p>
<p>Weighted GPA calls a B an A. Unweighted GPA calls grades what they are. They’re on different scales, so it’s completely unfair not to recalculate (some larger schools don’t, though). It would be like saying 60 inches is taller than 6 feet just because 60 is a bigger number.</p>
<p>I’m assuming it’s mostly computerized, though. Or they just look at letter grades.</p>
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<p>omg my school has the same problem. certain classes are harder than others with the same name. this even happens in ap classes.</p>
<p>and ack, i didn’t realize that was preamble1776 -.- off my thread</p>
<p>LOL my school is even worse. Freshman year, one of the honors class was REALLY hard. almost no one got an A, which got them a 4.5 . On the other hand, the GT( gifted and talented) class i was in was taught by a really easy teacher. I got an A with little effort, which got me 5.0. People in the harder class got a lower weighted GPA than those in the easier class</p>
<p>it’s so unfair. everyone who takes the same class should have to take the same tests. i also think it’s ridiculous how all teachers get paid the same, at least at my school, despite how some should clearly get paid more. the gym teachers’ starting salary is the same as all the other teachers’. what the frick is that about. gym teachers don’t even grade anything /rant/</p>
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<p>but isn’t that the point of class rank? and how are they supposed to factor in everyone’s schedules? what if someone from a different school didn’t take all advanced classes, so they have more a’s because of the easier workload? what then??</p>
<p>and some schools are easier than others, with grade inflation, etc.</p>
<p>Your weighted GPA indicates class rigor, which they can see from your actual transcript, while unweighted GPA indicates general performance which may be less easily discernible from your transcript (because of +/-, P/F, etc.) - so I don’t think anyone is at a disadvantage because they happen to have a lower unweighted if they are also in a much more rigorous schedule. I don’t really see there ever being an instance where someone with a 4.0 w/ all on-level or CP courses is given priority over someone with say, a 3.7, who is in multiple AP/Honors/DE courses.</p>
<p>The only time the former would be advantageous is if they had a 4.0 in easier courses and the student with the more rigorous courses had a staggeringly low unweighted GPA of like, 1.3 or something, but that’s not the case for you, so I wouldn’t worry.</p>
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<p>The last thing we need is more standardized testing. </p>
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<p>The point of class rank is to show colleges how you performed compared to other people in your school. This is the only purpose of weighted GPA. </p>
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<p>They look at your whole transcript, with your courses and letter grades, and they get a School Profile that tells them whether your school has a lot of advanced courses or not, and your GC has to fill out a form assessing the rigor of your schedule compared to that of other students at your school. They aren’t especially concerned with your actual GPA as long as you have almost all As in the most rigorous classes possible. </p>
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<p>Then colleges see the lack of advanced coursework on their transcript, and it counts against them. </p>
<p>The reason why colleges can’t compare weighted GPAs is that not every school has the same number of advanced courses and not every school weights the same. My high school doesn’t weight at all…it wouldn’t be fair to compare someone’s 4.5 weighted GPA to my 3.9 unweighted GPA. You would conclude that the 4.5 person was better even though I could have taken more advanced courses (relative to others at my school) and gotten better grades. You can’t compare things on different scales and expect anything to be fair. </p>
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<p>You’re stacking the deck. There are plenty of applicants with 4.0 unweighted GPAs and five million advanced classes, and if the OP applies to top schools that’s who she’ll be competing against.</p>
<p>okay, thanks!</p>
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<p>i just meant that in my school, for classes like honors and ap, all the students should have the same tests. because it’s really unfair if someone gets an a with an easy teacher, but someone else gets a b, in the same class, but with an especially difficult teacher.</p>