Why don’t weighted GPA’s count more?

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[Post New]05/09/2024 13:31
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Anonymous
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?

[Post New]05/09/2024 13:41
quote
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?



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.
[Post New]05/09/2024 13:42
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Anonymous
Most colleges look at GPA and rigor separately. Unweighted GPAs on a 4.0 scale are at least standardized compared to weighted GPAs, which can be in a range of 4.3-10 on some scales.

So yes, rigor does count, especially for T50 school.
[Post New]05/09/2024 13:44
quote
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?



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?
[Post New]05/09/2024 13:45
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Anonymous
Because you have school systems like MCPS that basically weight everything up. Or other school systems that do not weight. It is incomparable,
[Post New]05/09/2024 13:55
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Anonymous
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.
[Post New]05/09/2024 13:55
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Anonymous
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?


Don't have a list but anecdotally, Alabama comes to mind for scholarships. I recall another college (USF, I think) telling us that they base scholarships on weighted GPA and SAT combo. You can check out the websites of colleges you are interested in and their formula for automatic merit aid.
Indiana Business school is direct admit with a 3.8 GPA. This can be any GPA (weighted/unweighted) as long as it is the one reported on the transcript.
[Post New]05/12/2024 08:22
quote
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?



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.


+1. not true at all. Top schools want to see the applicant has taken the most rigorous courses that the school offers. That equates to a high weighted GPA.
[Post New]05/12/2024 08:27
quote
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Because you have school systems like MCPS that basically weight everything up. Or other school systems that do not weight. It is incomparable,


This. MCPS is nuts with the grade inflation
[Post New]05/12/2024 09:01
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Anonymous
My own university unweights and recalculates the GPA and then studies the transcript and assigns a rating for rigor according to unified criteria. That way each candidate has a new set of stats that are measured on the same scale and can be compared with one another more easily.
[Post New]05/12/2024 09:50
quote
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Because you have school systems like MCPS that basically weight everything up. Or other school systems that do not weight. It is incomparable,


This.

Needed for admissions first pass for T20:
- Uw GPA (most important)
- Rigor (sep from gpa)
- Test scores (weighed less than both above)
[Post New]05/12/2024 09:51
quote
Anonymous
My kid had an uw 4.0 and did exceptionally well this year. It was about a 4.39 w since his private has prerequisites for APs. He has 8.

I really do think so many kids have very high weighted GPAs, but a much smaller amount have all As all 4 years
[Post New]05/12/2024 09:53
quote
Anonymous
Oh why can’t schools do the exact things that would benefit my kid?
[Post New]05/12/2024 10:52
quote
MayBug
Member Offline
Anonymous wrote:My own university unweights and recalculates the GPA and then studies the transcript and assigns a rating for rigor according to unified criteria. That way each candidate has a new set of stats that are measured on the same scale and can be compared with one another more easily.

I know that a friend's college follows the same procedure. In my opinion, this is a very fair solution. But if it is true that some colleges take a relatively lax approach, then that would be questionable.
[Post New]05/12/2024 11:19
quote
Anonymous
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.
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