common app weighted vs unweighted

[sbgrace]

One of the schools, my son's first choice, makes scholarship decisions based on weighted GPA.

I never planned to give weighted grades/over 4.0. I suppose I could retro consider two (only two) courses he took which the provider designated as honors as honors but I'm not sure that's wise, given it is only two. I don't feel comfortable designating my courses as honors. Because of COVID, he has no de. I didn't realize homeschoolers could do AP. Mostly I feel like I've failed him. 

On the common app, I think there is an option to say you are weighted or unweighted. If I say he is unweighted 4.0, would that hurt him? Should I instead say weighted and give him a 4.0 anyway? Or give him two half credits..on a 5.0 scale (I think that is how it works). 

Edited August 5, 2022 by sbgrace

[Lilaclady]

I believe in putting my student’s best foot forward and give both a weighted and unweighted gpa. Some schools use the weighted for scholarships etc and I don’t want to hurt my student by not having one but my students have lots of DE and AP credits and that’s why I weigh. I don’t weight honors courses. 

[teachermom2834]

I think if you are only going to weigh two courses it is better just to go unweighted 4.0. 
 

Or you could reconsider whether you could call more of your courses honors. I used to be pickier but over time I realized the bar for what the public schools and other homeschoolers were calling “honors” was really low. I could have my principles or I could level the playing field for my kids. 
 

That said, I think as long as the unweighted GPA is a 4.0 you are probably just fine to leave it that way. Weighting grades saved my two oldest kids with merit aid that required 4.0 weighted and they had some Bs on their transcripts. But they would have been fine with unweighted 4.0. 

I am no admissions officer but I’ve kind of always figured that once you are over a 4.0 it’s kind of a wash. Do they really sit around and rank a 4.4 higher than a 4.3? What about a 4.6? A clearly marked unweighted 4.0 should be as high as a GPA should go for a reasonable person evaluating it. 
 

So that is just my .02- worth less than that I am sure but you can throw it in with the other opinions you get. Good luck to you!

[EKS]

7 hours ago, teachermom2834 said:

I am no admissions officer but I’ve kind of always figured that once you are over a 4.0 it’s kind of a wash. Do they really sit around and rank a 4.4 higher than a 4.3? What about a 4.6? A clearly marked unweighted 4.0 should be as high as a GPA should go for a reasonable person evaluating it. 

What bugs me about weighted grades is that it is as much about what the school offers and the rules surrounding who gets to take what when as it is about the kid.  Then there's the fact that Washington state (where we live) does not allow public high schools to report a weighted GPA.

Honestly, the only proper use for a weighted GPA would be in the context of a single school where you want to separate those with good grades who have taken challenging coursework from those who haven't.  In other words, for determining class rank.

Edited August 5, 2022 by EKS

[Lecka]

Here all the high schools do weighted and I would advocate doing weighted and considering more classes as honors.  
 

That’s my honest opinion.

 

[daijobu]

21 hours ago, sbgrace said:

One of the schools, my son's first choice, makes scholarship decisions based on weighted GPA.

I never planned to give weighted grades/over 4.0. I suppose I could retro consider two (only two) courses he took which the provider designated as honors as honors but I'm not sure that's wise, given it is only two. I don't feel comfortable designating my courses as honors. Because of COVID, he has no de. I didn't realize homeschoolers could do AP. Mostly I feel like I've failed him. 

On the common app, I think there is an option to say you are weighted or unweighted. If I say he is unweighted 4.0, would that hurt him? Should I instead say weighted and give him a 4.0 anyway? Or give him two half credits..on a 5.0 scale (I think that is how it works). 

First of all, you haven't failed your student.  

Grade inflation in regular schools is real and widespread.  Schools that don't keep up with lowering standards and awarding A's run the risk of poor college placement.  Don't undersell your student.  If your student is doing work consistent with a regular class in the 1980s, it's probably honors level now.  

This is a telling graph:  https://www.insidehighered.com/admissions/article/2022/05/16/act-says-high-school-gpas-are-rising

Average ACT score has fallen 1 point in the last ten years, while GPAs have climbed from 3.22 to 3.39.  That's the average GPA.  At the upper end, GPAs are routinely exceeding 4.0.  

Edited August 6, 2022 by daijobu

[Library Momma]

Here in CT most public schools only weight grades for class rank.  Isn't it sort of irrelevant anyway? Most colleges use their own metric to weight grades to determine GPA.  It doesn't necessarily matter exactly what has been reported on the application, it is the individual grades that matter and the class level.

GPAs here are also listed out of 100.   The difference between valedictorian and salutatorian could be GPAs of 101.62 vs 101.35.    A problem we ran into is that while that scale is an option for GPA on college applications, they request that you do not round but also do not accept the decimal places. 

 

 

[sbgrace]

I really appreciate the thoughts here. Thank you.

His top choice school says that they will consider the highest GPA the school reports, and "in most cases this is the weighted GPA." 

I wish I knew if it was going to hurt him to just report a 4.0 and say he wasn't offered honors or AP courses. I just feel bad about going back and calling courses honors when that wasn't on my radar at the time, even if he probably did more than local school teens. I think I feel like he might need to study for and pass CLEPs or something like that to justify. He could do that I'm sure, but it would delay transcripts and take time I'd rather spend moving forward.

Ugh. I do feel like I failed him.

 

[teachermom2834]

You did not fail him. I don’t think college admissions looks at CLEP as justification of much of anything. I really think that wouldn’t be worth your time as much as adjusting what you call honors. I get that you are hesitant to do that but it seems more reasonable and more effective than CLEP.
 

If they are telling you they are looking at GPA you should address GPA not try to give them CLEP instead. But I’ll bow out because others here really are more knowledgeable. Good luck to you.

Edited August 9, 2022 by teachermom2834