We are clueless and D25’s guidance counselor is no help. The school provides only an unweighted percentage grade. For DS it is an 88. They have taken three AP classes, two honors, and one college level class.
For an unweighted percentage GPA, average all of the percentage grades from the classes.
For an unweighted 4-point GPA, convert each percentage grade to A, B, C, D, F according to the school’s conversion, then average them using A=4, B=3, C=2, D=1, F=0.
Where weighted GPA is given, there are numerous different weighting systems, so it is usually not relevant unless a specific college of interest has a specific weighting method to use. In that case, you can recalculate using that weighting method for that specific college (but it may not be relevant to any other college).
If your HS does not calculate weighted GPA then don’t bother with it. Many high schools do not weight GPA and those that do utilize many different methodologies. FWIW my kid’s HS did not calculate a weighted GPA and it was no issue.
If you want to convert the number grade to a GPA for informational purposes you can google an online GPA calculator. I’d say an 88 average is equivalent to a B+ or 3.3 GPA.
For applications the GPA should be reported to match the HS transcript.
3 Likes
But you’d need to convert course by course and then average, not convert based on the average.
But really, the exercise is for giggles. You take what is in the transcript using the grading scale provided.
2 Likes
I can’t think of a situation in which a student would need to extrapolate a weighted GPA if the school doesn’t weight classes.
The situation is typically the reverse: The school provides a weighted GPA and the student/parent needs to unweight it to figure out how colleges will view the transcript.
For the most part, colleges calculate their own GPAs using relevant/core courses and removing the weight. The rigor will be noticed and matter, but not necessarily represented in the recalculated GPA.
3 Likes
Some colleges will recalculate with their own weighting (not the high school’s weighting).
2 Likes
It can be useful for CA students (and others interested in CA publics) to calculate their own UC weighted GPA (both capped and uncapped). I don’t know if other states have a standardized weighted GPA like this, though.
Although many students in California initially post their useless HS weighted GPA and get asked to recalculate their UC / CSU GPAs.
Florida and South Carolina have their own standardized weighted GPA calculations. The South Carolina weighting is very heavy.
1 Like
I think my daughter had to weight the number of classes in the unweighted average because she had a few one semester classes. Each full year counted as one, and each half year counted as 1/2.
The Common App allows you to enter percentage grades (weighted or unweighted, use whichever is on the transcript) so there is no reason to convert to a 4.0 scale. Our school provided weighted percentage grades so that’s what was used on my kid’s CA.
When I first started following CC and everyone was providing 4.0 scale grades I was worried we’d need to convert, but thankfully that wasn’t necessary.
4 Likes
I should have mentioned California’s calculation separately. I don’t know if other state systems who do that, so I didn’t specify, but you are correct, of course.