@2FutureBSMDsMom not sure about most high schools,or if not showing both is advantageous/disadvantageous but S20’s transcript shows both.
My kids’ school only shows weighted.
S20 and his dad went to NC State yesterday. S20 was glad he went because he said that the school seemed “less big” in person. (he thought it might be too big for him after viewing the virtual tour). The tour consisted of the tour guide walking everyone to a central point and then pointing at buildings and where the dorms where. Also apparently the guide really focused on places to eat.
One thing they learned though, was that although freshman housing is guaranteed, after that there is a lottery for housing.
DS20’s school reports only Weighted.
About Unweighted and how college get to that number if not reported on transcript - it’s confusing and afaik it differ from college to college. Our GC mentioned that most colleges calculate that (whether its reported or not reported on the school transcript). But in couple of college visits, we asked this question to AO’s and they both said that they don’t recalculate - they explicitly said that they just use the official transcript number and evaluate the students in the context of the school (one of them went ahead and explained that the local college reps know so much about your school - you will be surprised - he claimed that they even know the grading differences between 2 teachers in the school).
In this aspect I think coming from a well known high school may make a huge difference - in our case there are some colleges in DS20’s list where none of his school students even applied earlier (based on naviance) - am not sure how those colleges get detailed info about the school and if they even care to investigate, given this short amount of time.
I think it’s it would be tough to know what most high schools do, but it’s certain that what any given h.s. does does NOT offer an advantage or disadvantage, and also that colleges are only interested in the unweighted GPA. - in part because high schools do things in such a variety of ways.
@hs2020dad Yes, I have heard the same thing - about knowing differences between some very established teachers. My guess is that, over the years, counselors and students have included insight into certain teachers being more difficult (for example, that B- but 5 on the AP situation). Over years, they also receive LORs from the same 11th grade teachers and can differentiate when it is a generic LOR and how well the teacher really knew the student.
Most colleges have local admissions reps that are responsible for knowing high schools in a certain region. If it is a really obscure or small college, they might use the school profile which is sent with each transcript as well as the counselor’s LOR to put the student’s performance in context. I’ve heard of admissions reps calling counselors to ask questions about students or programs at schools so, even after an application is received, it is the local reps job to make sure they know about the high school and the student.
When does the college receive the transcript? My guess is that they first look at grades and test scores entered into the Common Ap and then validate based on transcripts and College Board reports.
Regardless of when they get what, they look at the official transcript / CB reports before they look at self-reported information. Their time with each application is very short - why look twice when you can get the official information with one look.
@chb088 @ShrimpBurrito I’d like to join too, but don’t think I can send PM’s yet.
My D20’s high school transcript shows weighted and unweighted GPA. It also shows the GPA for each year as well as a cumulative GPA. That way it’s easy to see any change in GPA from year to year.
@onthewestfence I can’t tell from your post if you liked or disliked UCSD. Sounds like it was kind of ‘meh’. For a hot second, UCSD was on our list due to the direct admit for Nursing. We try to avoid the ‘cattle call’ days at colleges because it’s too crowded to get a good feeling for things. I learned this after attending a Campus Preview Day at Case Western. It was mobbed (albeit pretty well done). This year, D20 and I are visiting CWRU the day before a Campus Preview Day. Interview and private tour of the new Nursing building. That will be the last visit before apps go in, which starts in about a month and a half.
Our HS lists both Weighted and Unweighted GPA. I’m not sure how AOs really know teachers, except from LORs. I think AOs and Teachers change so much it would be hard to keep track of that. Our HS doesn’t list teachers on our transcript. I think if I had to choose, I’d want the weighted GPA on the transcript. Some schools, as mentioned, just use whatever is on the transcript (USC in SC?), others will recalculate using only core classes or whatever their logic is. Either way, not much to do about it.
DS’ school transcript only has weighted GPA, but has WGPA for each year, and has each grade in percents as well as in letter grade.
I also wonder how colleges do the recalculation, do they even have the time to do that?
According to several adcoms (from Syracuse, DePaul, Dayton) that I talked to last year at College Fair night, the metrics are already organized and summarized (computer program) for the adcoms before they start reviewing the applicants file. They also said they only take between 5 - 15 minutes to review an applicant’s entire file.
The bottom line is that most colleges’ adcoms are not going to be parsing data (evaluate classes taken by certain teachers, etc., did they get an A- or and A in AP Biology, etc.). They will spend the bulk of their time reading the essays, supplemental essays, LORs, and ECs.
With that said, unless we are talking about the top 25-50 universities, highly ranked LACs, or specialty colleges (e.g. Berklee College of Music); GPA, course rigor, and standardized test scores are going to rule the day. When I look at Naviance, the numbers don’t lie for most colleges.
@makemesmart Colleges recalculate by either having kids self-report, or by having students at the college scan/cleanup/re-enter data from the transcript, and running it through a program long before it gets to an AO. Well, that’s what I’ve been told. 
@HarrietMWelsch Universities will often use the self-reported information (SRAR) to make admissions decisions long before (often instead of) AOs look at the application. Although, we may be talking apples and oranges in terms of admit rate of said schools. Not sure if you’re talking about elite schools or not. I certainly am not. But, I can’t imagine any school looking at self-reported information if they have already looked at the real thing? Is that a thing? The transcript is used as a confirmation after acceptance, typically. That way they only have to look at thousands of transcripts, rather than 10’s of thousands.
@bigmacbeth, right. I think that’s the disconnect; the information I have is from LACs and a couple of other schools (use-whatever-term-you-want-I-don’t-like-elites). 
I believe you that there are universities and other colleges that use the Common App data, which is self-reported, for that initial sorting.
You’re nicely pointing out one of the biggest difficulties in a conversation like this (the overall conversation), which is that it’s tough to generalize. Different schools not only may follow a slightly different method (though not THAT different) but will often be putting slightly, or very, different emphasis on different factors. The CDS is the applicant’s best source there. In the same way that my generalization missed the boat about who looks at what when (sorry about that), it’s easy to miss the boat by generalizing about who emphasizes what the most, with holistic schools. Look at section C of the CDS. That actually tells you, straight from the school, where they rank certain elements of a student’s application, from highest to lowest. Interviews, character, interest in the school, ECs , and more; the facts are there.
S20 and I recently attended an info session at TCU. They showed us a pie chart, revealing how much each factor (GPA, test scores, essays, etc) was considered in their holistic admissions process. Refreshingly transparent, I thought.
@Fissie Check your Facebook ?
@HarrietMWelsch You are speaking my language, as I am a big data geek. I have dreams about section C-9 of the CDS.
C20’s transcript only lists weighted.
How would an AO know details as specific as which teachers at a particular school are the difficult graders, when teacher names do not appear on the transcript?
All this talk about local AOs. Is S20 supposed to reach out to them? So they know who he is? Or just leave them alone to do their jobs? I’m sure he could come up with some questions, but honestly with visits, all the mail and the websites, most questions are easily answered.
Our school only lists Unweighted. Nothing we can do about it! The GC did say that most big schools wouldn’t have the time to recalculate for everyone. S20 asked because he gets 100s in his art class and that really helps the GPA!