My daughter is top 5 in her class with a 3.8. They do not weigh their classes. Sometimes I think these 4.++++ GPAs are disingenuous and get ridiculous after a certain point. It should be more about the rigorousness of the curriculum.
That is at least one purpose of weighting a GPA. Who has “better” GPA: 1) kid who took easiest classes and got As in each and thus a 4.0 or 2) kid who took harder classes, got mostly As but a few Bs and a 3.7 GPA (unweighted). Weighting GPA incorporates rigorousness of curriculum. How much weight should be given for honors or AP classes is another issue.
My DS’s school’s highest GPA possible is around 4.65ish (+.05 Honors and +1.0 for AP). But, I heard recently of a school in another state that weights AP 1.0 and IB 2.0… So, it would be easy to get above 5.0 if you are IB. School probably do unweighted when comparing student to student, but then report weighted to bolster their stats.
The colleges recalculate using their own system anyway. I like the weighting, because straight A’s in regular classes and straight A’s in AP or Honors are very different things.
Our school only weights for duel enrollment classes and only at 0.25 and what they term advanced classes (Calc 3, 4th year of language, very upper level English). Very few kids have above a 4.0.
Oh, I know that every school calculates weighted GPAs differently—mine was a rhetorical question. (FWIW, my daughters’ school district weights IB and AP classes, but not honors.)
The weird thing is that Alabama’s admissions office makes a big deal of not recalculating GPAs, but rather just taking what’s on the transcript—thus my rhetorical+tongue-in-cheek question about Alabama high schools’ weighting practices.
I think the colleges know that a kid who takes 4 years of every subject, with accelerated, AP and Honors designations and pulls a couple of Bs is still a higher level student than one who takes basic college prep classes. It’s gilding the lily IMHO.
honor, AP and IB +1. highest weighted gpa is 4.7X. those in advance math get highest.
In many NYS districts, including ours, grades are out of 100.
Our district doesn’t weight for rankings or transcripts. PE (every other day) is worth the same as a half year of AP Calc BC. I can only assume that (most) colleges must take grades out of 100, convert each class grade into a 4.0 scale, then apply their own weighting for AP, Honors, and other advanced classes.
A plus of no weighting is that a student isn’t penalized for continuing with band, chorus, art or another favorite elective through HS instead of taking another AP. The minus is, as @saillakeerie says, ranking can be gamed by taking less rigorous classes.
@dfbdfb Except I am not sure how many kids in CBH are from AL. Ok, I looked and I found 2015’s list, only 8 out of the 40. http://uanews.ua.edu/2015/08/uas-computer-based-honors-program-announces-freshmen-for-2015/
@dfbdfb D17’s gpa as bama calculates it is 3.9, as her school calculates it is 4.3. Somewhere in all the bama stuff is what your kid’s gpa is as calculated by them…
No weighting here; no class rank; the transcript speaks for itself; only allusion to rank is Cum Laude designation with Jr induction (top 10%)…
DD’s school adds 1 for honor or AP. But there are no honors or AP classes offered freshman year. And even in later years, there’s no way to take only honors classes. For example, no honors foreign language until 3rd year. Senior year, she’s taking probably the most rigorous course schedules possible. But linear algebra, which is probably the most advanced math class at the school, isn’t considered an honors class!
Anyway, I was just pointing out that even if you get a point for honors classes, there’s still often an upper bound which is much less than 5.0.
S’s school adds 0.75 for AP and 0.50 for honors. Highest possible GPA is roughly 4.35, and I’m not sure if anyone has ever achieved it. So his weighted 4.15 is pretty good. Unfortunately, it looks measly compared to some of these kids with high 4s. No ranking either.
Thankfully most colleges get it.
I’m putting this out there to you parents, a question that I don’t quite understand the answer to, but one that I hope you can help me answer.
I was recently accepted to USC as a full tuition scholarship finalist. Needless to say, I was ecstatic about this: a top 25 school (hopefully) for free. However, my parents told me that they’d much rather pay full price for me go to a top 10 school, believing it’s a sure bet that I’ll get into one of them. This is already a stretch, my counselors told me (and my parents - multiple times) that I have a very minimal shot at getting into any Ivies, or any top 15 schools. My parents can afford to pay full tuition, but I have two younger siblings, both of whom will be going to college in the next few years. I’m going into a STEM field so I heard the college I attend doesn’t matter as much.
I would understand their objection if USC was in the mid-50s in rank, had a bad reputation, or didn’t offer me a scholarship. However, this is not the case. USC has been one of my dream schools for the past 6 years, and - yes I’ve told them this - I feel like they’re not taking into account my feelings.
I guess I understand that they want name-brand, but please enlighten me as to why they feel this anti-USC in favor of schools that I have a minimal shot at getting into. They haven’t elaborated on why they feel this way aside from the stern “because we pay for it/because we said so/because going to college isn’t supposed to be fun” excuses.
If I don’t go to the interview I will have no shot at any sort of scholarship and it seems like a tremendous chance to blow.
^^Cross that bridge when you come to it.
They won’t let me sign up for USC scholarship interview, which means that no matter where I go I have to pay full tuition cost, even if that means paying 52,000 + room and board to USC, a school that I could be going to for free if I interview. Likewise, it means that I get basically no say on where I go, because they’ll be paying for it. (I know I sound like a brat, complaining that my parents will pay, but what I’m trying to explain is that I really want to go to a school where I don’t have to pay full price to get the exact same education that I would at a slightly higher ranked school)
@akiddoofthe1990s - Ask your parents to read top 10 results threads on this site. Just curious. why are your parents so confident about you securing Ivy league admission? did you invent something or have some special skill? Did you try any EAs?
If your parents’ heard you say that you want to go to the interview for practice because you will have to hone this skill for many interviews in the next few years, they will be very proud of your sensible thinking and send you to USC for the interview.
Good luck!!
@srk2017 I have no idea why they’re so secure. I think it’s because of my older sibling, who got into every school (but he had much more of a resume/extracurriculars) I have the same (slightly lower) stats as well as the same extracurriculars as the other students who apply and get rejected every year. I did not do EA. Multiple people telling them not to get their hopes up, they won’t listen