<p>I was ignorant about the importance/meaning of a weighted GPA freshman and sophomore year and took a few non-honors elective classes (business classes, art, film). I now realize that I should have taken one of the multiple Honors electives at my school that are easy As instead of choosing what I was interested in. My cumulative weighted GPA up until the end of sophomore year would have gone up from a 4.45 to a 4.65 without any additional course rigor if I had taken these honors electives instead of non-honors ones.</p>
<p>My core academic course load has always been the most rigorous possible, and I got a 2400, but I'm just bummed that my GPA isn't in the range of the top schools on Naviance because of stupid elective choices freshman and sophomore year. Other students will have higher weighted GPAs than me even though I probably took more difficult classes and gotten better grades just because I didn't choose honors electives. So I've gotta ask, how badly will this hurt me?</p>
<p>TL; DR - Will I at a disadvantage in college admissions because I did not take easy honors electives to boost my weighted GPA, and instead took easy non-honors electives?</p>
<p>Probably not at all. Many, many school recalculate GPA to UW, and to be blunt, honors courses are only valuable if they lead to APs. It’s the APs (or IB equivalent) that count, not the “honors” class you took as a freshman. Honors bio as a freshman is useful only because it makes it easier to take AP Bio, if you never take another bio class, no one is going to care if you took honors bio as a freshman. They really, really aren’t. And no school will be fooled by an “honors” art class that artificially inflates your weighted GPA.</p>
<p>Actually, what will matters most is 1° overall rigor 2° having 6 to 8 AP’s (or dual enrollment classes) 3°a coherent schedule (ie, you’re interested in Art history: you’ve taken every art and history class your school offers. You’re interested in stem? you’ve pushed yourself in math and science) that shows your personality (you’re interested in film techniques: you’ve taken literature, French, video techniques, broadcast journalism, film, media studies, and PLTW :p)</p>