Weighted and Unweighted GPA: Which do colleges prefer?

Hey! My school provides both weighted and unweighted GPAs on our transcripts. Just curious, which one do colleges primarily look at during admissions? Do they place more importance on one over the other?

Hey there! When examining your transcript, colleges actually pay attention to both your weighted and unweighted GPAs. However, they use each one for different reasons.

Your unweighted GPA gives colleges a standard measure to compare all students and is considered a raw indicator of your academic performance. Since it doesn't account for the rigor of your coursework, it helps to show how you perform academically in a broad sense, and doesn't punish or reward students based on the availability of advanced coursework at their particular high school.

On the other hand, your weighted GPA takes into account the rigor of the courses you've taken. This means it considers whether you challenged yourself by taking advanced classes like Honors, AP, or IB. For this reason, colleges also look at your weighted GPA since it provides context about your course rigor.

Ultimately, both GPAs are important. Colleges always have a keen eye for course rigor - they closely consider how you're challenging yourself within your school's offered curriculum. So, they'll definitely pay attention to your weighted GPA, but may rely more on your unweighted GPA when comparing you to other students, who may come from schools that have more or fewer opportunities to take advanced coursework.

Basically, focus on both maintaining a high GPA and challenging yourself with difficult courses when possible. That way, both your weighted and unweighted GPAs tell a positive story about your high school journey, regardless of which one admissions officers are looking at during their review of your application.

If you'd like an even more comprehensive breakdown of how colleges evaluate weighted vs unweighted GPA, I'd check out this blog post from CollegeVine: https://blog.collegevine.com/is-weighted-or-unweighted-gpa-more-important/. Hopefully, this initial overview is helpful, though! Good luck!