Do universities consider weighted GPA?

Hey everyone! I'm just curious about how colleges view our GPAs when evaluating applications. Do they look at weighted GPAs or just focus on the unweighted ones?

Universities typically consider both weighted and unweighted GPAs during the admissions process, but they tend to focus more on the unweighted GPA. The reason for this is that unweighted GPAs provide a standardized way to evaluate a student's academic performance across high schools with varying grading scales and weighting systems.

Weighted GPAs can still be helpful for universities in understanding the rigor of a student's coursework. Weighted GPAs often account for the level of difficulty in courses like honors, AP, or IB classes, and a higher weighted GPA can indicate that a student took on more challenging courses.

It's also important to note that many universities recalculate GPAs based on their own criteria, which can include using a specific scale (4.0, 5.0, etc.) or only considering core classes (English, math, science, social studies, and foreign languages). This means that the GPA a university considers may be different from the one that appears on your transcript.

In summary, both weighted and unweighted GPAs are considered by universities, but unweighted GPAs are generally prioritized as they provide a more consistent measure of a student's academic performance. Weighted GPAs can still be beneficial in demonstrating a student's willingness to take on challenging courses. Just keep in mind that the university may recalculate your GPA based on their own criteria.