Is it unusual to have a 5.0 weighted GPA upon high school graduation?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In MCPS this is only possible if you figure out a way to fulfill the PE requirement with a weighted class- not sure if there’s a DE class for this? Some people do wait until senior year to take gym since most colleges are looking at your end of junior year GPA. Seems pretty ridiculous though.

+1 PE and health are required and unweighted so impossible to get a 5.0. But yes, as PP said, if they wait til senior year to do it, maybe their junior year GPA could be a 5.0.

OP here. It's true DD hasn't taken PE yet. We were waiting til senior year so she could have a stress-free period during college application season.

But she took Honors Health A and B the summer after 8th grade, and apparently this still counts as an advanced class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The scales and weights are all over the place now.

+1. It can be over 5.0, depending on the scale.

[Anonymous]

My MCPS kid had a 5.0 until PE senior year. No, it’s not particularly special for the elite colleges. A bunch of magnet kids have that and still rejected from HYPMS, but do get into top 20 with that plus all the other stuff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In MCPS this is only possible if you figure out a way to fulfill the PE requirement with a weighted class- not sure if there’s a DE class for this? Some people do wait until senior year to take gym since most colleges are looking at your end of junior year GPA. Seems pretty ridiculous though.

+1 PE and health are required and unweighted so impossible to get a 5.0. But yes, as PP said, if they wait til senior year to do it, maybe their junior year GPA could be a 5.0.

OP here. It's true DD hasn't taken PE yet. We were waiting til senior year so she could have a stress-free period during college application season.

But she took Honors Health A and B the summer after 8th grade, and apparently this still counts as an advanced class.

You're, "Gee, golly...we had no idea honors health would have been a grade boost...until now we didn't realize the word "honors" in the title "apparently" had meaning..." is disingenuous. Same with saying you waited until senior year to take PE so she had a stress free period in app season. That may be a tangential benefit, but your family knew long ago doing it this way meant no unweighted grade entered for PE by the time colleges look at the transcript. And planned it out that way.

[Anonymous]

This is because the OG GPA scale is a little weird

A=4.0
B=3.0

so then

A- = 3.7
B+ = 3.3

But what is A+? It has traditionally been the same as A, a 4.0. You could theoretically make a scale where A+ = 4.3 unweighted.

Michigan grad school uses (used) a different scale than ugrad, a 9.0 scale

A+ = 9.0
A = 8.0
A- = 7.0

So you get a bump for A+ beyond A.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In MCPS this is only possible if you figure out a way to fulfill the PE requirement with a weighted class- not sure if there’s a DE class for this? Some people do wait until senior year to take gym since most colleges are looking at your end of junior year GPA. Seems pretty ridiculous though.

+1 PE and health are required and unweighted so impossible to get a 5.0. But yes, as PP said, if they wait til senior year to do it, maybe their junior year GPA could be a 5.0.

OP here. It's true DD hasn't taken PE yet. We were waiting til senior year so she could have a stress-free period during college application season.

But she took Honors Health A and B the summer after 8th grade, and apparently this still counts as an advanced class.

You're, "Gee, golly...we had no idea honors health would have been a grade boost...until now we didn't realize the word "honors" in the title "apparently" had meaning..." is disingenuous. Same with saying you waited until senior year to take PE so she had a stress free period in app season. That may be a tangential benefit, but your family knew long ago doing it this way meant no unweighted grade entered for PE by the time colleges look at the transcript. And planned it out that way.

Obviously the schools will see through the latter. A kid with a 5.0 at the time of application, who is taking less rigor senior year because of the choice to take PE then isn’t going to have an advantage over a kid who chose to save their elective spots for senior year so they could take extra advanced courses.

The 5.0 is one impressive choice but not more so than others.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In MCPS this is only possible if you figure out a way to fulfill the PE requirement with a weighted class- not sure if there’s a DE class for this? Some people do wait until senior year to take gym since most colleges are looking at your end of junior year GPA. Seems pretty ridiculous though.

+1 PE and health are required and unweighted so impossible to get a 5.0. But yes, as PP said, if they wait til senior year to do it, maybe their junior year GPA could be a 5.0.

OP here. It's true DD hasn't taken PE yet. We were waiting til senior year so she could have a stress-free period during college application season.

But she took Honors Health A and B the summer after 8th grade, and apparently this still counts as an advanced class.

You're, "Gee, golly...we had no idea honors health would have been a grade boost...until now we didn't realize the word "honors" in the title "apparently" had meaning..." is disingenuous. Same with saying you waited until senior year to take PE so she had a stress free period in app season. That may be a tangential benefit, but your family knew long ago doing it this way meant no unweighted grade entered for PE by the time colleges look at the transcript. And planned it out that way.

Obviously the schools will see through the latter. A kid with a 5.0 at the time of application, who is taking less rigor senior year because of the choice to take PE then isn’t going to have an advantage over a kid who chose to save their elective spots for senior year so they could take extra advanced courses.

The 5.0 is one impressive choice but not more so than others.

Of course...but OP is the one who said, "apparently" the honors health courses she took during the summer boosted the kid's grade. That's what the "gee, golly" is addressing. AOs won't be saying it.

[Anonymous]

Anyways, if the school recalculates GPA using the same scale for everything, this non-sense is all mooot

[Anonymous]

Shit in Florida that's like a B average.

[Anonymous]

It’s really odd that people obsess on this when we all know that the colleges are not beholden to how the high school calculates.

[Anonymous]

OP, no, this will hurt the kid's chances, unfortunately. A lower GPA with less rigorous courses would have been the better option.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I don't know. I'm looking at the report right now and it says 5.0 wgpa. 4.0 gpa. This is MCPS.

I thought MCPS weighted 1.0 for honors whereas in FCPS, it's only .5 for honors?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In MCPS this is only possible if you figure out a way to fulfill the PE requirement with a weighted class- not sure if there’s a DE class for this? Some people do wait until senior year to take gym since most colleges are looking at your end of junior year GPA. Seems pretty ridiculous though.

+1 PE and health are required and unweighted so impossible to get a 5.0. But yes, as PP said, if they wait til senior year to do it, maybe their junior year GPA could be a 5.0.

OP here. It's true DD hasn't taken PE yet. We were waiting til senior year so she could have a stress-free period during college application season.

But she took Honors Health A and B the summer after 8th grade, and apparently this still counts as an advanced class.

You're, "Gee, golly...we had no idea honors health would have been a grade boost...until now we didn't realize the word "honors" in the title "apparently" had meaning..." is disingenuous. Same with saying you waited until senior year to take PE so she had a stress free period in app season. That may be a tangential benefit, but your family knew long ago doing it this way meant no unweighted grade entered for PE by the time colleges look at the transcript. And planned it out that way.

OP here. We didn't think like that. Why do you doubt it? And now, I'm sure you'll think we're dumb for NOT thinking like that. With that sort of mindset, PP, no one can win with you. You either see cold hard calculation, or you see naivete. And you seem to hate both.

Thank you to everyone who responded.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In MCPS this is only possible if you figure out a way to fulfill the PE requirement with a weighted class- not sure if there’s a DE class for this? Some people do wait until senior year to take gym since most colleges are looking at your end of junior year GPA. Seems pretty ridiculous though.

+1 PE and health are required and unweighted so impossible to get a 5.0. But yes, as PP said, if they wait til senior year to do it, maybe their junior year GPA could be a 5.0.

OP here. It's true DD hasn't taken PE yet. We were waiting til senior year so she could have a stress-free period during college application season.

But she took Honors Health A and B the summer after 8th grade, and apparently this still counts as an advanced class.

You're, "Gee, golly...we had no idea honors health would have been a grade boost...until now we didn't realize the word "honors" in the title "apparently" had meaning..." is disingenuous. Same with saying you waited until senior year to take PE so she had a stress free period in app season. That may be a tangential benefit, but your family knew long ago doing it this way meant no unweighted grade entered for PE by the time colleges look at the transcript. And planned it out that way.

Obviously the schools will see through the latter. A kid with a 5.0 at the time of application, who is taking less rigor senior year because of the choice to take PE then isn’t going to have an advantage over a kid who chose to save their elective spots for senior year so they could take extra advanced courses.

The 5.0 is one impressive choice but not more so than others.

Of course...but OP is the one who said, "apparently" the honors health courses she took during the summer boosted the kid's grade. That's what the "gee, golly" is addressing. AOs won't be saying it.

That was in response to an earlier PP who said Health was not weighted. Don't jump down people's throats with accusations when you haven't read the natural back and forth.

I think Health in MCPS is now exclusively Honors, so kids don't even have a choice. Plus, it's boring as heck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anyways, if the school recalculates GPA using the same scale for everything, this non-sense is all mooot

But applicants do get a nod for taking the hardest courses, no matter how the GPA is recalculated.