Which is more important: the weighted or the unweighted GPA?

Question

Which one do colleges consider first or at all? What's the difference between them?
Thanks!!!

Answer 1

Unweighted GPA is what colleges look at. Weighted classes are tougher and your gpa is rated out of 5.0 not 4.0 like unweighted. Your Weighted GPA could be something like 4.8, which is unrealistic. ALthough colleges are impressed with the number of weighted classes you have, they unweigh it to get your real GPA

Answer 2

Weighted GPAs were created to try to give students more credit for taking higher level courses. For example, at my high school AP (advanced placement) courses were worth 5 points instead of the normal 4 when calculating a GPA (A=5, B=4, and so on, though I think F was still 0 points for us). Therefore, it was possible to have a GPA higher than a 4.0.

Unweighted GPAs are that do not take into account the level of the course taken. All classes are worth 4 points.

As for what colleges consider first, most, if not all of the ones I came in contact with when applying looked at your unweighted GPA. GPA was, however, not considered as important as things like interviews and essays.

Answer 3

Weighted GPA is the first thing colleges look at. The difference between weighten and unweighted GPA is if you took Advanced Placement Classes throughout school. Advance Placement Classes give you a 5.0 for a A as an example instead of a 4.0. The more advanced placement classes you have with good grades, the more chance you get that college acceptance letter.

Answer 4

Actually the colleges look at both your weighted and unweighted GPAs. Usually they look at the weighted however what is more important is looking at your schedule of classes you have taken and how well you have done in them. If you took simple classes like art, etc. obviously this will boost your gpa since it's usually a simple A. If you took hard classes like Advanced Placements and got a B, this looks ABSOLUTELY alot better than the A in art. So really, it's more about the classes you took because all of them are at different difficulty levels.

Answer 5

Weighted is the only GPA that is used, because it takes into account how much "time" was spent in the course. The major classes (Math, English etc) have high weightings, while other classes like gym, shop, computers have much lower weightings.

These weightings make it so it is difficult to get a good mark unless you did good in the core classes. Heres an example of how unwieghted GPA could be unfair to some students:

Student 1:
Math C-
Science D
English C+
Gym A+
Art A

Student 2:
Math B
Science B-
English C
Gym F
Art D

Even though Student 1 did poorly in all the core subjects (the ones that are required for most college courses), he would still get a B- average. Student 2 did good in all the core subjects, but would get only a C average with an unwieghted GPA.

Answer 6

This is completely dependent on the college you plan on applying to. Some schools drop the weighting completely while others weight classes your high school may not. You need to check with the school you are applying to to find out how they calculate GPA for admissions purposes.

Also keep in mind that some universities, i.e. the UC system, even have different criteria from school to school in terms of which classes are weighted. Most colleges do apply some quality grading to high schools to determine the relative weight of an overall GPA or course load. If you attend a highly rated school with a challenging curriculum, you'll have a better chance than someone attending a lesser high school with the same grades. Of course, that cuts both ways. If your school offers a more challenging array of course, colleges will expect you to take more of them or will assume that you're not a dedicated student. At a school with less opportunity they will want to see that you have made the most of your opportunities but understand that there is less to choose from. This is another reason why some schools don't weight grades from AP courses.

Honors and AP courses are looked on favorably. Not having them can be a negative but how they are valued varies from college to college.

Many other criteria come into play including GPA, Class Rank, Quality/Difficulty of course load etc. etc. if you are looking at smaller/private schools they have the capacity to take many other criteria into consideration as well, i.e. personal statements, recommendations, internships and volunteer work etc. Many schools list these as important but the weighting varies and smaller schools tend to weight them heavier.

Try looking at the admissions pages of the schools you are looking at for more information. Give the admissions office a call. They are happy to help and, often, they count contacts, i.e. phone calls, interviews, emails, as points in your favor in the admissions process. It shows interest in the school and a greater likelihood of accepting admission. So, there's nothing to lose.

good luck

Answer 7

I think that your unweighted gpa is the the one that colleges will look at. For my school, the weighted gpa was used to calculate the unweighted gpa, so it wasn't like the weighted classes didn't matter, it was just adjusted accordingly. Hope this helps a little.

Answer 8

Weighted GPA just means that the class is on a weighted scale. At my school, weighted classes are on a 5.0 GPA scale instead of 4.0. Weighted classes always help your overall GPA if you do well in them. Weighted classes are usually AP and honors/enriched classes. Colleges look at how many AP/honors/enriched classes you took in high school and what your grade in that class was. So the difference is that weighted GPA is on a different GPA scale than unweighted GPA. More weighted classes means a better overall GPA (if you do well in the weighted classes).

Answer 9

A weighted gpa is the gpa that if you took an honors or advanced placement class over a regular one, you automatically get "points" on your gpa for doing that. Unweighted considers a class as a class whether its honors or not.
Colleges tend to look more at the weighted gpa first and foremost to see if you value hard work and dedication to take the harder class

Answer 10

weighted GPA is very important for people who take AP/honors courses. however, since not all high schools have weighted GPA, colleges often look at your unweighted one as it is what most high schools have. although, colleges do often look at weighted GPA so that they get a gage for what type of student you are, hard working or lazy. if you have a weighted GPA this would mean that you took part in an AP or honors type course thus meaning that you had the critiria to get into that class showing you worked hard to get in...(since most schools you can't take a honors or ap course without teacher recommendation or a grade) therefore, i would say weighted is most importnat because colleges get a better idea of the type of student you are.