<p>Does Upenn (and also the other Ivies + top schools) weigh the weighted or unweighted GPA more (and thus the weighted or unweighted class rank)???</p>
<p>Top colleges (from what I understand) take the unweighted GPA. That is because each school weights their GPA differently (one school might add a .5 for AP/Honors course while another school adds a 1). Because each school is different, colleges look at the unweighted GPA which is relatively the same for all school. Class rank depends on which one your counselor puts down.</p>
<p>You are told that schools take the unweighted GPA, but this is simply not true. Schools look at your weighted GPA and then look at the grade scale to see what kind of extra points you get for taking difficult classes. If they did not look at weighted GPA, then there would be little incentive to take honors and/or AP courses!</p>
<p>Honestly, colleges don’t care about GPA. They don’t need weighted GPA to tell you if you took AP/Honors courses. And the incentive to take honors/AP classes should not be just to boost your GPA, it is the show that you are academically challenge. I highly doubt students take AP classes to boost their GPA to a weighted scale. So to say if there is no weighted GPA, then there will be little incentive to take honors/AP classes makes little sense given that a bright student cares more about being challenged than getting an extra .5 or 1 point. Also there is no place on Common Apps to say how the weighted GPA works. It simply says: “Cumulative GPA: ________ on a _________ scale”, “This GPA is __ weighted __ unweighted”. They don’t ask for an explanation for how your GPA is calculated. </p>
<p>I don’t see how if there wasn’t a weighted GPA, then there will be little incentive to take honors/AP courses. I mean there is something called a transcript. Yes it contains all the classes you took and the grade you got in them. College don’t rely on 3 numbers with a period in between them. No GPA is like barely cared by the colleges because that reveals little about the person. They look at the classes you took, how rigorous your schedule is and the individual grades you got (hence why you send in a transcript). They will see if you took honors/AP classes and what you got (you don’t need a weighted GPA to tell you that). </p>
<p>Also weighted GPA is sometimes flawed. You can have 2 people get the same GPA in a weighted system but one student took 2 honors classes all year and got all A’s in all of his class and the other took 4 and got a B in one of his honors class and A’s in all of his other classes (and an honors/AP class is .5 high). You can also have the kid taking more AP/honors have a lower GPA than the kid taking less. It doesn’t require weighted GPA to tell a kid to take AP/honors classes nor does it help reveal how academically challenged they are.</p>