Do college's add points on your GPA for honors classes?

early_college · 07-08-2009, 10:37 AM

In my school, you get .5 added for every AP class. We don't get anything for Honors classes, do college's add points to your GPA for taking Honors classes? I know it looks better, but does it help your GPA at all? I know New College of Florida adds .5 for Honors, but I don't know about other schools. Also, do they take away Theater, Gym/Health, etc. I was planning on taking Drama all four years, but will all those A's just be taken away? I know for some scholarships they take it out, but how about for admission. Thanks!

Erin's Dad · 07-08-2009, 12:26 PM

What colleges consider weighted GPA?

early_college · 07-08-2009, 12:38 PM

I saw that post, that's why I asked this question. Also, there is another part to my question.

SlitheyTove · 07-08-2009, 01:18 PM

Like the other thread said, it depends on the college. There isn't one answer that applies to all colleges.

early_college · 07-08-2009, 06:41 PM

I know but any examples that count honors and some that don't. I have never been on a website and it said it gives .5 to honors except for New College of Florida. That's the only school I found. Also, do they get rid of PE/Health and Theater? Do most get rid of it or not? Will it hurt me if I take all 4 yrs of Theater or not?

J'adoube · 07-08-2009, 10:59 PM

If you want to see a system in action look at UF's weighing policy. I think their explanation is clear. They see everything with around 30k applications/year. The State of Florida has all kinds of schools that offer most options avaliable (honors, APs, IBs, and dual enrollment classes). You can extrapolate from there.

1980collegegrad · 07-09-2009, 06:02 AM

The larger schools that gets tens of thousands of applications cannot afford the time to look too carefully at the academic record and will go by the current GPA as they sort into admit and reject piles. Smaller Liberal Arts colleges take a lot more time evaluating applications and will recalculate the GPA after eliminating non academic courses and will take note of honors classes and APs.

early_college · 07-09-2009, 09:37 AM

Thanks I understand. My school has the following classes:

College Prep
Honors
Gifted
AP

J'adoube · 07-09-2009, 09:56 AM

It must be a simple computer program that does it and they have it down pat because the very large public school (over 50k students) mentioned above, does take the time. What they also might do is set up all applications by SAT/ACT scores, draw a line at some point, and eliminate the thousands that are below it in one swift motion. "Holistic" comes to mind: they stick you in a hole you can't climb out of.

drusba · 07-09-2009, 10:06 AM

Colleges vary as to what they do. Some consider class rank key not GPA. Some redo GPA based on their own weighting system (and that varies among treating honors and AP the same, weighting AP higher than the weight given to honors, weighting only AP, weighting both but having a maximum weight factor such as it apllies to only some maximum number of honors/AP courses even if you have more than the number). Some just use unweighted GPA, others just accept whatever GPA is provided and then evaluate based on knowledge of high school, e.g., your GPA from a high school that does not weight can be lower for admission than the GPA they want to see from another high school that does weight.

One thing that is almost universal is that PE, health, driver's ed, and vocational courses (such as typing) are eliminated for consideration. But even that has exceptions since there are a some schools that consider gym. Theater is another where it may or may not be considered depending on college. Noteworthy is that most of your high ranks tend to rely only on grades in college prep courses -- language, English, Math, lab science, social studies.

early_college · 07-09-2009, 11:05 AM

Thanks, but how do you know if they keep Theater or keep Gym and etc. I have never seen it on any college websites?

SlitheyTove · 07-09-2009, 12:09 PM

OP, it really does seem to vary by college as to what's on the website. For example, the University of California system has the so-called a-g requirements. You can read on the UC admissions website about what courses are a-g, and about how any coursework that is a-g is included in the UC GPA, even if a student has completed more courses than the minimum expected. So that tells you that four years of theater would be counted, but not gym.

On the other hand, when I tried as a random exercise to find out how U Mich recalculates GPA, I couldn't turn up anything. That might just mean that my web-searching ability is abandoning me today

. It might also mean that someone who is really interested in going to U Mich should send the admissions office an email and ask them how they recalculate GPA.

early_college · 07-09-2009, 03:07 PM

Yeah I have never seen a school that does what the UC's do, only New College Of Florida and that was very easy to find. I also have no interest for any of the UCs. Here are some schools I'm interested in:

NYU, USC, Northwestern, Yale, UGA, Flagler, New College Of Florida, Bard, Sarah Lawrence, Hampshire, Bennington, Ithaca, George Washington, American, Muhlenburg, Wesleyan, Reed, Swarthmore, Vassar, Syracuse Newhouse, Kenyon, Villanova, College of Holy Cross, Marlboro, IU- Bloomington, Mizzou, Suny Purchase, Chapman, Loyola Marymount, UNC- Chapel Hil, etc...