Would colleges count a college Art History Class in GPA for admissions?

Applying to College
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I know art is typically not counted, but what about Art History? The class was VERY heavy on essay writing and research and since I got an A, I’d love for it to count toward my overall GPA. I suspect it doesn’t, but anyone know for sure? It’s now appearing on my high school transcript as a dual enrollment class

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Depends on the university, but generally yes.

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Art History is generally more of a history class than an art class in terms of the teaching methods and the work you do in the class. It should count. (Universities don’t count art classes? I suppose some don’t but we never ran into that issue with my daughter’s college applications.)

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Different schools count different things in gpa. Some simply use a gpa on your transcript. Some recalculate. Sone use core classes. One can’t make a generality like that. Its really school by school to answer your question.

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So some schools just use your transcript even if your high school only reports an unweighted GPA? That would result in a big disadvantage for kids whose schools don’t report a weighted GPA…

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well universities “count” art history as a class, but it seems many don’t include it when calculating your GPA for admissions purposes.

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Not at all.

Weighted gpa is only useful when comparing applicants from the same HS. Since there was s no weighting standard, colleges will either use the UW GPA or will recalculate using their metric.

Bottom line, how a college recalculates, or if they do, or what classes they include or exclude, varies by college. And few tell you what they do.

Again, file it under “it is what it is.” You have zero control over it.

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Here’s the verbiage from one school:

“We will use the highest GPA that is sent to Admissions from your official high school transcript. In most cases this is the weighted GPA.”

Not sure the purpose of your questions.

Schools will do what they will do. Some use unweighted. Some use weighted and all weighting systems are different. Some use core classes. Some use all. And what some say are core may not be core at another school.

Bottom line - you will be in the same evaluation as all other candidates a school evaluates.

So why the concern ?

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ok but when colleges release their middle 50% GPA statistics what is it based on? Are they comparing apples and oranges by including some GPAs that are weighted and some that are not? That just makes no sense. If a school has an average GPA of 4.2 and my school doesn’t weight GPA then I have no shot at that school.

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Again, I really don’t think that’s an across-the-board rule. None of the schools that my daughter applied to recalculated her GPA – they just took the weighted and unweighted GPA on her transcript, including art classes. Other schools or school systems have their own calculations. But I think most probably just take your GPA as you report it.

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I think most reported average GPAs are based on a 4.0 scale, which means unweighted. That said, most probably look at both, because weighted and unweighted offer different kinds of information. If your school doesn’t do weighted GPAs, they your UW GPA will be compared to other UW GPAs. For schools that ask you to use their own calculations, then everyone is compared on that scale.

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The schools would weight you or redo your gpa to their methodology in this case. This shouldn’t be a concern. This is the most common weighting system I’ve seen - .5 Honors, 1 for AP. But there are many weighting systems.

U of Florida has 4.4-4.6 and says this below. Still, you will not be disadvantaged if your rigor, etc meets the schools requirements.

Secondary School Academic Performance:

UF calculates a core, weighted GPA on a 4.0 scale as part of the evaluation process.

  • Dual-enrollment courses in academic core areas and any AP, IB or AICE classes receive an extra 1.0 credit weight, meaning that an A is worth a 5.0 on a 4.0 scale.
  • Pre-AICE, pre-AP, pre-IB and Honors classes receive a 0.5 credit weight, meaning that an A is worth a 4.5 on a 4.0 scale.
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yes, but my high school doesn’t weight. Nothing on my transcript has a GPA. So there is no way for a college to “look at weighted an unweighted GPA” unless they recalculate it.

I think most colleges recalculate so they are comparing apples to apples with everyone

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thanks - this is helpful.

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why the concern? Because I have a 3.8 unweighted GPA and that is all my school reports. I have taken AP and honors classes but because my school doesn’t report a weighted GPA, my GPA is much lower than it would be if it were weighted. Meanwhile, another student from a different school might have a 4.5 weighted GPA but they could have the exact same grades.

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AO’s are very experienced and can eyeball a transcript and quickly estimate GPA.

Again, AO’s are experienced and will know that these are equal. Meanwhile, there are other aspects of the application which will differentiate

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ok thanks, I guess that makes sense. But I still am confused when I see colleges list their “average” GPA or middle 50% GPA. If they don’t recalculate to some standard format, how are they coming up with these statistics?

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Tbh, I think half of them are pulling it out of their butt.

Regardless, the answer varies by college. There is no standard.

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Some state schools or systems (e.g. in California and Florida) do specify what their frosh applicant high school GPA recalculation method is.

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So - just for comfort, add a .5 for Honors and 1 for AP. it doesn’t mean much though. It’ll depend where you apply. But you are worrying unnecessarily .

Some schools - like an Arizona, base merit aid on unweighted and not weighted.

I don’t know who is on your list but if you need help ensuring your list is balanced then do a chance me post.