Understanding GPA??

Applying to College
1

<p>Can someone help clarify some GPA information?</p>

<p>There are weighted and unweighted GPA’s.</p>

<p>I get confused when I see (on some financial aid calculators) they ask for your GPA, then ask for what scale it is on, and I am never sure what scale to put. </p>

<p>Our schools grade on a 4.0 scale, but if the classes are weighted, the GPA will be higher than that. So, does that mean the scale is actually higher?</p>

<p>Also, we we put stats into things like cappex (which asks for both weighted and unweighted) and look at the scattergram, it says that D’s GPA is outside the range of most students, or something like that. What’s up with that? (I’m putting 3.something as unweighted, so it’s under the usual 4.0). I’m assuming these scattergrams are generally unweighted, right?</p>

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<p>Yes. You can’t compare weighted and unweighted GPAs as if they’re on the same scale. Often weighted GPA is on a 5.0 scale, but at a lot of schools it’s not possible to have a 5.0 weighted GPA because there are required courses that aren’t weighted. </p>

<p>If the highest possible GPA on a scattergram is 4.0, then it’s probably unweighted.</p>

3

<p>Although the scattergrams are fun to play with, I think you should assume GPAs reported on sites like cappex are largely false. They could be from actual applicants and reflect actual results, or not. As far as I can tell, they primarily come from high school students self reporting anonymously in the course of either bragging about college admissions online or trying to figure their chances of admission.</p>