Reefgazer Posted October 21, 2015 Share Posted October 21, 2015 The recent thread on whether or not to weight grades on the transcript has prompted this question. I always figured I would not weight grades, but then, that thread... Anyway, I have only a vague understanding of weighting a transcript and need some clarification. How do you decide what courses to weight? Just honors courses? What exactly qualifies as an honors course? Perhaps it is just AP courses, but I am not sure. How do you weight grades? I thought an "A" was worth 4 points, a "B: worth 3 points, and so on. But in a weighted course, what is the point scheme? I guess I just generally want to know what it means to weight a course and how to do that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted October 21, 2015 Share Posted October 21, 2015 Can't find the instructions webpage for my district so copied this from a nearby district. "2) How do you calculate weighted GPA? Students should convert every letter grade they have received to grade points. A=4, B=3, C=2, D=1, F=0. For honors and AP classes, you should give yourself one additional point for every semester of an honors or AP class that you have completed with C or better grade. You would then add up all the grade points and divide by the number of classes taken. When calculating academic GPA use only the courses that are on the approved course list. https://doorways.ucop.edu/list/ 3) What GPA do colleges use to evaluate my application? UC’s and CSU’s will use all academic courses (https://doorways.ucop.edu/list/) in 10th and 11th grade. Ninth grade marks will be viewed but not used for calculating GPA. They will only take a maximum of 8 semesters of honors and AP weighted work in the 10th and 11th grade. This does not mean they do not value more than 8 semesters, they just cap the weighted GPA at that point. Private and out of state school’s vary on what GPA they use for evaluating purposes. Students are encouraged to do their research when it comes to questions on private and out of state universities." My distict has the info in the high school student handbook which is a pdf. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie in MN Posted October 22, 2015 Share Posted October 22, 2015 You can do your transcript any way you want, as long as you make it perfectly clear to colleges how you did it, in part because some colleges will re-calculate the GPA. This is what I put at the bottom of my youngest's transcript, and I never had any questions. But I only weighted dual credit courses so it might be more murky if you are calling an at-home course "honors," not sure. Grading Scale A = 90-100 4 points B = 80-89 3 points C = 70-79 2 points D = 60-69 1 point * Dual credit college courses 0.25 high school credit per credit +1.0 weighted college grades 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reefgazer Posted October 23, 2015 Author Share Posted October 23, 2015 Could you explain the bolded more. I'm not sure I understand this. Does this mean you added a certain number of points above and beyond the typical 3 points for a B/4 points for an A scheme? What does 0.25 high school credit per credit mean? Sorry if I am dense about this; I have no clue. You can do your transcript any way you want, as long as you make it perfectly clear to colleges how you did it, in part because some colleges will re-calculate the GPA. This is what I put at the bottom of my youngest's transcript, and I never had any questions. But I only weighted dual credit courses so it might be more murky if you are calling an at-home course "honors," not sure. Grading Scale A = 90-100 4 points B = 80-89 3 points C = 70-79 2 points D = 60-69 1 point * Dual credit college courses 0.25 high school credit per credit +1.0 weighted college grades Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie in MN Posted October 23, 2015 Share Posted October 23, 2015 Could you explain the bolded more. I'm not sure I understand this. Does this mean you added a certain number of points above and beyond the typical 3 points for a B/4 points for an A scheme? What does 0.25 high school credit per credit mean? Sorry if I am dense about this; I have no clue. Yes, a weighted course gets extra points. I've heard of adding 0.5 weight and 1.0 weight. However, remember that the college may take that extra weight off and do its own calculation. Some colleges also take non-core classes completely out of their GPA calculation. So, again, your GPA may not matter, but if it does, I felt it was nice to be on par with public schooled students who may have the advantage of a weighted GPA. My 0.25 system is very unusual so you may want to ignore it. I only give it as an example that you can do all different things, as long as you are clear. My son took 3- and 4-credit courses through Christian colleges during high school, and my mathematical mind didn't like the options of full credit for both or giving one twice as much credit as the other, so I gave 0.75 high school credit for a 3-credit college course and 1.0 high school credit for a 4-credit college course. Most folks, including HSLDA, recommend 1.0 credit for 3-4 credit college courses. Others give 0.5 credit for all college courses. In some high schools around here, certain courses like physics are given 1.0 credit while other courses like art history are given 0.5 credit. (Dual enrollment is very common in MN, as it is state-sponsored.) As you can see, these things are done all different ways. The most important thing, in my view, is to be very clear about what you have done so that the college can compare your student to others in an accurate and fair way. The second most important piece of advice I'd give is to make sure the credits (and weights) you give at home are not far different from ACT/SAT scores or college grades or anything evaluated outside your homeschool, making your homeschool grades look like mommy doesn't know what she's doing. Julie 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom22ns Posted October 23, 2015 Share Posted October 23, 2015 You can do your transcript any way you want, as long as you make it perfectly clear to colleges how you did it, in part because some colleges will re-calculate the GPA. This is what I put at the bottom of my youngest's transcript, and I never had any questions. But I only weighted dual credit courses so it might be more murky if you are calling an at-home course "honors," not sure. Grading Scale A = 90-100 4 points B = 80-89 3 points C = 70-79 2 points D = 60-69 1 point * Dual credit college courses 0.25 high school credit per credit +1.0 weighted college grades I didn't include my grading scale or weighting, but I really like how clear and concise this is. Thanks for sharing it Julie. I added 1 pt for CLEP, AP, and Dual credit. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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