Why don’t weighted GPA’s count more?

[Anonymous]

My understanding is that most schools rewriting the gpa. I assume they weight APs but unclear to me what else they weigh.

My son’s taking a really hard class now that is not AP.l but is being taught on an AP level — about half the kids dropped it at the semester because their grades were so bad. I’m proud of him for staying in it and taking the B rather than dropping to the easier course but I doubt he’ll get any credit for that from the colleges.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unweighted GPA’s seem to be the gold standard when measuring students. Even scholarships and merit use UW GPA. So, if that’s the case, is rigor for nothing? Outside of the top 30 colleges, are students better off mixing in easier classes and sweeping up with A’s?

Not true. At all. A lot of public schools use unweighted GPA for admissions and automatic merit aid. Rigor absolutely matters. A B in an AP class has the same mathematical value as an A in the base version of that subject but has more value during the assessment process.

Can you share schools that use weighted GPA’s for scholarships?

Michigan State, WVU, and UMW all use weighted GPA for automatic merit scholarships.

VCU uses weighted GPA for their guaranteed admissions program. The Iowa regents index (which is for admissions) uses weighted GPA too.

I don't get it. Our school doesn't weight GPAs (overseas). So kid takes a AP class and gets an A, it's a 4.0. Kid takes a basketweaving, it's a 4.0.

Basketweaving could be a very difficult course! It was when one professor I know taught it. So many students got a wake up call on that one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My understanding is that most schools rewriting the gpa. I assume they weight APs but unclear to me what else they weigh.

My son’s taking a really hard class now that is not AP.l but is being taught on an AP level — about half the kids dropped it at the semester because their grades were so bad. I’m proud of him for staying in it and taking the B rather than dropping to the easier course but I doubt he’ll get any credit for that from the colleges.

He should explain that in the “additional info” section there is no way the college would know that he stayed in that class /why etc: for the knowledge and not the grade, though he considered the easier course - like so many others - he knew he wanted to understand the material….

[Anonymous]

Talk to people in your HS….this is so HS specific.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Unweighted GPA’s seem to be the gold standard when measuring students. Even scholarships and merit use UW GPA. So, if that’s the case, is rigor for nothing? Outside of the top 30 colleges, are students better off mixing in easier classes and sweeping up with A’s?

Doesn’t almost every college admissions office recalculate HS GPA based on their own weighting?

[Anonymous]

Some schools like Michigan recalculate GPA: A+ or A or A- =4.0. B+ or B or B- =3.0. The recalculation process might change your UW GPA much different from your high school UW GPA. Are there other schools use only the absolute value of the grade in the recalculation process?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some schools like Michigan recalculate GPA: A+ or A or A- =4.0. B+ or B or B- =3.0. The recalculation process might change your UW GPA much different from your high school UW GPA. Are there other schools use only the absolute value of the grade in the recalculation process?

Fair because many other schools use this system to calculate GPA in the first place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unweighted GPA’s seem to be the gold standard when measuring students. Even scholarships and merit use UW GPA. So, if that’s the case, is rigor for nothing? Outside of the top 30 colleges, are students better off mixing in easier classes and sweeping up with A’s?

Doesn’t almost every college admissions office recalculate HS GPA based on their own weighting?

Not every school does….

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unweighted GPA’s seem to be the gold standard when measuring students. Even scholarships and merit use UW GPA. So, if that’s the case, is rigor for nothing? Outside of the top 30 colleges, are students better off mixing in easier classes and sweeping up with A’s?

Doesn’t almost every college admissions office recalculate HS GPA based on their own weighting?

Vanderbilt does not…..

[Anonymous]

What about UMD? I've looked it up but haven't found a clear answer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What about UMD? I've looked it up but haven't found a clear answer.

UMD recalculates GPA. Full explanation via podcast episode: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-col...2810?i=1000590579299

Start at 40:20

[Anonymous]

It seems to me that colleges need to re-calculate GPAs or the whole thing doesn't make sense.

My kid is at a school that doesn't weight at all. So, the highest possible GPA is 4.0.

He has a cousin at a district in Texas that weights DE and AP classes at 6.0. The top quarter of the classes at their high school generally have GPA's well over 5.0. Does that mean that there are 100 or more students at that school who are stronger applicants to college than the valedictorian at my kid's school? Of course not.

The only way to compare is by looking at the rigor and the unweighted grades. Which seems to be what schools do since my kid's school has strong college placement.

[Anonymous]

I'm stunned that this is a question.