<p>My kids’ high school weights GPA. Some of the colleges my son and daughter are looking at ask for GPA on a 4.0 scale. That means if they get a B+ in an honors ,the college will look at it as a 3.75? Are they better off taking the regular class and getting the A? This was a discussion among parents the other night. Hopefully the colleges are looking at the caliber of the classes too but there is no guarantee of that. A student who took all regular classes could end up with a higher GPA than a student who took honors and AP classes at our high school.</p>
<p>This is a complicated issue and it varies tremendously among colleges. Most, and I want to stress I am saying most, small and medium colleges recalculate GPA using their own formula. They have to do this because so many high schools have their own system - they will receive transcripts with weighted grades and transcripts that are not weighted. Some are on the 4.0 scale, some use a 6.o scale and some use a 100 point scale. Most colleges want to see rigor - they want to see the honors and AP courses. many will do their own weighting of honors and AP courses. So, in most cases, taking the honors and AP level courses, even if it results in a slightly lower unweighted GPA, is the better way to go.</p>
<p>Then there are the very large universities - they have more apps and less time - and are less likely to recalculate GPAs and more likely to take them at face value. So, a student with a higher GPA but less rigorous coureload might, and I stress might, fare better in this scenario.</p>
<p>this post is an add-on to RM’s: and…it all depends on your school profile that is sent out with your student’s transcript senior year and what your school has to offer…</p>
<p>and one more thing that RM discussed which is very true: it all depends on the college in question…kids from our public HS have been turned away from UMich with all honors and Ap’s, but B+ on their transcripts, while kids with A’s in less rigorous classes were admitted…this “might” change this year with Mich going to accepting the weighted average on the transcript…</p>
<p>so, it depends on the school in question in many cases…</p>
<p>I wondered if it mattered what size college. DS is hoping to get into a pharmacy program. One is at a small school but most are at large, public universities.</p>
<p>^^you may want to have your son find out…or post on the forums for the schools in question…would your guidance counselor know?</p>
<p>I know that for UNC (who has a strong pharmacy program) the most important thing they look at is strength of schedule. They take your transcript and put it beside the HS profile which list their courses. They want to see that you took the most challenging courses at your school. You don’t have to take all of them, but most people, even in-state, don’t get in without taking around 6 if offered at your HS. So yes, take the most challenging courses and do well. UNC will not care about a 4.0 with an easy schedule and I doubt you would be admitted.</p>
<p>Look at your target schools Common Data Set. It will tell you, in order of importance, how it values each piece of the applicants package. I would also call the admissions office of the target schools, you can ask specifically how they calculate GPA without giving your name. One heavily based technical school we have looked at recalculates everything to a 4.0 scale, only using core clases (goodby PE, Art History & Comp Sci), they strip the weighted grades, then add .5 for any AP/IB classes. One school we looked at of similar size doesn’t recalculate at all. In both cases however, rigor of study is very, very important here. Although it may not be reflected in the recalculated GPA, do not assume you should forgo that AP Comp Sci for ‘basketweaving’.
Also keep in mind your rigor of study is judged based on what was available to you. If your school only offered a small amount of AP classes than take what you can. If you have a wide variety, which is the case at speciality and ‘magnet’ high schools in larger suburbs, you will be expected to take full advantage of those classes. You can’t compare your schedule to what the student took at the school that didn’t offer those classes, take the same and think you will be judged the same.</p>
<p>Our school does not weight grades, so even honors classes are on a 4.0 scale. However, we also don’t rank students which is purported to mean that colleges will look at what the kid actually took vs. strictly looking at grades alone (and rigor definitely counts). We used to call honors classes, accelerated, so there has been some shift to align with more common language found on HS transcripts.</p>
<p>Obviously schools want A’s in AP’s. But it has been my experience that you will be a very competitive applicant with A- and B+'s in APs and honors. However, if you start slipping into mostly B’s in honors (especially if taken across the board), you might want to balance things a little bit more to emphasize academic strengths (AP’s etc in English, but regular Science/Math tract or the opposite).</p>
<p>I think the selective schools really look at the balance of all things… and it wouldn’t be to any student’s advantage to be breaking their neck in AP and Honors classes if they can’t also find the time to be involved in some quality extracurriculars.</p>
<p>At the U Mass presentation, the AdCon walked everyone through how they calculate GPA. They throw out all non-academic classes (gym, art, sounded like chorus & band might not make the cut) and weight honors with extra 0.5 and APs with extra 1.0.</p>
<p>At least with top colleges like the Ivies or the former Seven Sisters when asked if it was better to get a B in a regular class or an A in an AP class they regularly said, it was better to get an A in the AP class. I know from both of my kids that a few B’s in the transcript won’t kill you at very good schools.</p>
<p>I agree with others, that generally colleges are looking for the rigor of the schedule in addition to simple GPAs, but how they figure out what your GPA is, can vary wildly from college to college. Our high school reports grades on a 0-100 scale (both weighted and unweighted), gives extensive information about how our weighting system works and also reports a class rank. They let the colleges translate the GPA to a 4.0 scale.</p>
<p>I have found that each college has its own quirks when it comes to recalculating GPA from the transcript. I was amazed at the range of methods! Also, some schools use one method for admissions, yet a different method for merit scholarships.</p>
<p>But, most of them will tell you how they do it, so you can use that information in your selection process. It pays to ASK!</p>
<p>One scenario to be aware of-</p>
<p>At schools that use the 100 point scale, they sometimes convert a 97 to a 3.7 or a 95 to a 3.5 while stating a 94-100 is an “A”. That is a GPA killer for both admissions and merit scholarships at some colleges. For example, a student could have all A’s in high school by handbook definition and a 3.6 GPA sent to colleges (when in fact all A’s is a 4.0 on a scale where A = 4.0). Check the policies carefully and have the GC offer explanatory notes when appropriate. </p>
<p>Be careful out there. ;)</p>
<p>I asked question about weighted during Info session with admissions. Honors are not weighted at D’s HS and very few AP’s are offerred. I was told that most colleges re-calculate GPA, stripping down to UW and they look at class rank (even when HS does not rank, they calculate it out of kid’s GPA and class profile). From personal experience, some of them simply know some schools that send them good number of kids year after year.</p>
<p>^^and to add to that; we were told at a small school that they have “unofficial” ranks of the different HS’s in their region; i.e. a “B” in one school is certainly not a “B” from another…</p>
<p>“when asked if it was better to get a B in a regular class or an A in an AP class they regularly said, it was better to get an A in the AP class.”</p>
<p>Don’t you mean an A in a regular class or a B in an AP class?</p>
<p>rodney,
I had the same feeling although never asked explicitly. I felt that one reason that D. was accepted to very selective program that had only 10 spots for incoming freshmen was the name of her school.</p>
<p>
GTAlum, yes of course. Oops!</p>