If one student took 5 AP’s and no other courses in one semester, they would get a weighted GPA of 5.0. However, if another student took 5 AP’s and three electives, they would get somewhere around a 4.63. This makes it seem like the first student did better than the second, when really the second just took more classes. Why don’t schools add up your total grades to accommodate for the amount of classes you took as well as the rigor? It seems like this would make a lot more sense.
Because some schools give a grade for each quarter and others give a grade for the year. Some allow students summer sessions. They are trying to assess your work quality over your high scool career. And some schools don’t weight. Colleges will look at your transcript and recalculate it using their own standards.
@gardenstategal makes a good point as far as college admissions goes. There are always issues comparing between different systems.
However, within a given high school (for purposes of comparing only within that high school such as for ranking) your idea is intriguing. I can’t see why not. I’m curious if anyone else might see a reason.
If applying from the same school, you should assume that the AO will not view the first example in a positive light if s/he only took 5 classes while another took 8.
As their is no standard HS metric for weighted classes (and some the most selective HS’s don’t weight at all) Many colleges will recalculate a GPA to it’s standards.
Ok I guess that makes sense.