How Do You Calculate Your Weighted GPA? | Albert.io (2024)

Your GPA is a very important part of your college application!

If you earn a high grade point average, it tells the people who read your application that you take your academics seriously. It tells them that you studied hard for all four years of high school so that you could finish strong. A good GPA also tells admissions committees that you will, without a doubt, be able to not only handle, but also succeed in the classes at their university. It basically lets them know that you are a qualified candidate and that they should admit you.

Maybe you’re feeling nervous as you read this, because your GPA is not what you might consider good. Maybe you didn’t take high school seriously for the first few semesters and received poor grades. Take a deep breath – because it’s going to be okay. Admissions officers also like to see drastic improvements over your high school career because it shows a change of heart and dedication.

This is where weighted GPAs can come in really handy.

Finding out what your GPA is should be easy. If you always study hard and get good letter grades, then they should transfer into high numbers. However, it isn’t always that simple.

Does that sound confusing? It’s really not! This blog is your step-by-step guide to everything you need to know about how to calculate your weighted GPA.We will even tell you exactly what weighted means, how it’s different than an unweighted GPA, and how to figure out what to do next once you have calculated yours.

If you are still just wondering what a GPA actually is, you can find the answers you need here.

What is a weighted GPA?

Very simply put, a weighted GPA takes class difficulty into consideration when determining what grade each student receives.

It is reported on a scale that ranges from 0.0 to 5.0, instead of the typical 4.0 of the unweighted scale. So basically, you get 1.0 added to your GPA is you take AP® or honors classes.Pretty cool, right? Even just saying “I have a 4.5 GPA” makes you sound like a super-student to most people, because in their minds, 4.0 is the perfect GPA, and you’ve achieved more than that. Colleges might not think in the exact same way, but keep reading to find out what we mean.

If your school reports GPAs on a weighted scale to benefit students who take AP® or honors classes, then an A in one of these courses would translate to a 5.0, a B’ a 4.0, a C and 3.0, and so on and so forth. It is also important to note that not every class at your school will use the weighted scale, as it only applies to the honors courses.

Let us explain: if you are taking AP® Physics and earn an A it will translate into a 5.0 on the GPA scale, but if your friend is taking academic Physics and she earns an A as well, hers will translate into the traditional 4.0. Some schools also offer intermediate classes that are more difficult than academic, but don’t require quite as much content knowledge and effort as AP® courses. If you earn an A in one of these classes, it will translate into a 4.5.

Basically, the weighted GPA scale was created to prevent students who only took underwater basket weaving and yoga from earning the same GPA as students who took AP® Biology and AP® World History. The bottom line is that if your grades are exactly the same, the student who took the class with the harder coursework will have the better grade.

What’s the difference between weighted and unweighted GPAs?

The main difference between the two GPA reporting scales is that the weighted GPA scale considers the difficulty of the courses each student takes when calculating their average, while the unweighted GPA scale considers all grades to be equal.

You are probably already pretty familiar with the unweighted GPA scale, because it is the one most American high schools and colleges use to report their students’ grades. As we mentioned, unweighted GPAs are reported on the 4.0 scale. So, to earn a “perfect” 4.0 GPA, you would need to be a straight A student. On the other hand, if you failed literally every class, you would have a GPA of 0.0.

If you school only uses unweighted GPAs to report grades, it also means that the difficulty of a student’s classes isn’t considered when calculating his or her GPA. For example, if you only take AP® courses and earn a B in all of them, you will be given a GPA of 3.0. But maybe your slacker friend is in all lower-level classes, and she coasts through them, earning an ” in each, she will have an unweighted GPA of 4.0. Even though her classes are way easier than yours, she will have a higher GPA. Pretty messed up, right?

If you think this is unfair, you are not alone. The weighted GPA scale was literally created by those in education to properly represent the hard work of students who take honors and AP® courses. If your school reports your GPA on a weighted scale, you can rest assured knowing that students who opt to take easier classes will not have higher grade point averages than you do. Because you now get an additional 1.0 added to your GPA if you are enrolled in AP® or honors classes. Basically, if you get a B+ in AP® Chemistry, it’s the same thing as getting an A in regular Chemistry.

On the other hand, if your high school only uses the unweighted GPA scale, you don’t need to panic. College admissions officers don’t rush when they read your application. Because the office is divided into regions, they are very familiar with the way your school does things. They will know about your school’s policies and will be sure to check your transcript. So, your B+ in AP® United States History will not be overshadowed by another student’s A+ in gym.

If you are still a little worried, you can read our in-depth look on how colleges view unweighted and weighted GPAs, and what you can do about it, here.

How do weighted GPAs affect the college admissions process?

Your weighted GPA will have a pretty large influence on your college admission chances. This is because, as we mentioned, the unweighted 4.0 scale is the most popular one – so when you research the GPA requirements for different colleges, it’ll probably be the one that they use.

If you are trying to determine if you are a competitive applicant, or even if your GPA is above the national average, most of the numbers reported are going to be on the unweighted scale. Because of this, your weighted GPA could lead you astray. You might notice, for example, that the majority of students admitted to Ivy League universities have over a 3.5 GPA. If you have a weighted 4.0, you might think your acceptance would be a no-brainer…but that’s only because you didn’t notice that those 3.5s were unweighted.

Essentially, if you have a 4.0 weighted GPA, it’s the same thing as having a 3.0 unweighted GPA. Because in this situation, you are either in academic classes earning all A’s, or taking AP® and honors courses receiving B’s.There is an age-old argument about whether an A in an academic class or a B in an AP® class looks better on a college application. The reality is that you should try to get all A’s in your AP® classes. However, if you never enroll in AP® classes in the first place, you can never achieve this goal. So always take the risk!

If you want to go to a top university, your GPA needs to be solid, so obviously you want to earn high marks in all your classes. However, Stanford will notice if your high marks were given to you through study hall and remedial math.

Remember, even if you get that perfect 4.0, if AP® and honors classes were available to you and you didn’t take them, it will handicap you in the college admissions process.

Here’s how to calculate your weighted GPA

Okay, now we’re at the good part! Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to calculate your weighted GPA.

All you have to do it look at the unweighted scale and add .5 for any class taken at the intermediate level, and 1.0 for each class taken at the AP® or honors level. Simple, right?

This chart illustrates how each letter grade translates into an unweighted GPA.

First, you’ll need to find your unweighted GPA. Here is a great guide to help you. Now, to convert this to weighted GPA follow the steps listed here:

• Multiply your unweighted GPA by the total number of classes you have taken
• Add .5 for each intermediate class and 1.0 for each AP® or honors class
• Divide that number by your total number of classes

Voila! You now have a weighed GPA.

Now we’ll show you some examples of these grades in action.

For the sake of brevity, let’s say you just finished your freshman year of high school. Even though you usually don’t start taking AP® classes until a littler bit later, let’s pretend your first semester looked a little something like this:

The weighted GPA for this semester would be a 3.78, or the average of all the grades in the last column. Remember: if you are taking more or less than the six classes we listed, simply adjust the chart to suit your needs.

The process for subsequent semesters is slightly different. Imagine that these were your grades for the spring of your freshman year:

Your weighted GPA for the spring semester would be 3.85, but to find out your grade point average for the entire year, you’ll need to calculate the average of these two GPAs, which in this example is about 3.81.

Remember, this formula will only help you if your course load is consistently the same. If you take more or fewer classes, then you will need to go through and manually add up each of your final grades, then divide it by the total number of classes that you have taken.

A quick review

Here are a few key things you should take away from this article:

• Your GPA is an important aspect of your college application.
• An unweighted GPA is scored on a 5.0 scale.
• An unweighted GPA considers your classes’ difficulty when assigning grades.
• Calculating your weighted GPA is easier than you think!

A final note: it is easier to raise your GPA earlier in your high school career, when you have taken fewer classes. If you wait too late to take school seriously, your final GPA will suffer.

What should you do next?

You should make sure to check out this article on what the average GPA is to see how you compare to you fellow classmates. Also read this in-depth look about how colleges consider weighted and unweighted GPAs.

If your school reports GPAs on an unweighted scale, we covered how to handle that as well.

Best of luck, and remember, make sure to use Albert.io as your study source.

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