My school gives no boost for IBSL classes, a 0.3 GPA boost for Honors classes, and a 0.5 GPA boost for IBHL and AP classes. I understand that most schools give a +1 GPA boost per each AP class.
When I apply to college, will adcoms add the extra boost on, or will they look at my GPA as is?
Thanks
They will look at your actual grades, and will also look at your course rigor.
High schools in the US calculate GPA so differently that the GPA numbers coming out of one school are not comparable to the numbers coming out of a different high school.
You will not get an automatic boost-you may not get a boost. All honors, AP etc classes are not the same from school to school. Admissions will look at your school’s profile, your test scores and many other variables which provide context to your transcript. Many of the most selective schools are aware that AP courses which teaching to the AP tests isnt necessary an indicator of rigor. So–it depends…
The boost different schools gives varies greatly (our local HS gives 0.4 boost, my daughter’s magent 1.0, and the next town over gives 2.0 for AP, the town I grew up in doesn’t use weighted GPA at all). Colleges will look at your unweighted GPA (no boosts) in context with the rigor of your schedule, and might consider your weighted GPA, they might also recalculate it only using what they consider “core” courses. Some explicitly tell you they do this, particularly when considering automatic merit aid.
Comparing the GPA from one school to the next make absolutely no sense, because not only the methodology is different, but the classes are too.
A few comments:
–There is no “standard” weighting system. Many schools do not weight GPA at all.
– Your HS will send a school profile which explains the school’s grading system along with your transcript so it will be reviewed i the proper context.
–Admissions officers are used to seeing many different types of grading systems so there is no reason to be concerned.
–Some colleges go so far as to recalculate GPA based on their own criteria (ex. unweighted, academic subjects only etc.)
So move on, this is a non-issue.
No. They will look at your UW GPA and assess your course rigor. Some schools may recalculate a GPA, but they are few and far between, and they will use their own weighing system.
A school may do one of these things:
A. Take your GPA as calculated by your high school at face value.
B. Recalculate your high school GPA by its own standards.
C. Look at your high school record holistically.
D. Use high school class rank or something else instead of high school GPA.
Some colleges openly state what they do. Others do not say.
Some states’ public universities recalculated standardized high school GPAs. Residents of those states would find schools that recalculate to be more common than “few and far between”.
I’m pretty sure that’s how it is for UC schools, and they don’t look at your freshman grades as part of your GPA either.
My daughter moved schools after her sophomore year. The first high school was the US News #1 STEM public magnet school with a 0-100 grading system. We moved internationally for work, so the second was a German International School with an IB program that has a 0-7 grading system. We never knew what her 4.0 scale GPA was. Colleges admitted her anyway and gave her merit scholarships. The only glitch we had was our State Public U that had an automated system for scholarships based on self-reported data. An email to admissions cleared that up and she was also awarded merit.
My point is, don’t worry about it, the colleges figure it out.
Well @ucbalumnus we can agree to disagree. With 2700 4 year colleges in the US, and 30+ campuses in the UC/CSU systems, I’m will still call that “few and far between.” particularly when the OP is not a resident of California. Regardless, at the end of the day, it is what it is.
@bopper that’s the same case for me, I’m an international student with both Canadian and American passports.
Thanks for your input, it really helped.
And, if you don’t mind me asking, where did you live in Germany? I used to live in Germany for 6 months.
We lived in Erlangen, near Nürnberg