Quick Question: Unweighted or Weighted GPA?

Hey everyone, I've been hearing talk of both unweighted and weighted GPAs. Can someone help me understand the difference? Also, which one do college admissions officers typically look at? Or perhaps they look at both? Thanks!

Sure, happy to clarify! Unweighted and weighted GPAs measure academic performance, but they do it in slightly different ways.

An unweighted GPA is traditional in the sense that all classes, whether they're regular, honors, or AP/IB, are given the same weight. For instance, you'd get a 4.0 for an A, 3.0 for a B, and so on, regardless of the course's difficulty.

A weighted GPA, on the other hand, takes into account the rigor of the classes you've taken. It typically operates on a 5.0 or 6.0 scale, by giving additional points for harder classes. As an example, an A in an AP/IB or honors course might be worth a 5.0, while an A in a standard class is still worth a 4.0.

As for which one colleges look at, institutions consider both but in different ways. They'll look at your weighted GPA to understand the rigor of your coursework, but also look at your unweighted GPA for a standardized comparison of raw academic performance, as some students might not have had access to AP or IB classes.

Keep in mind, colleges sometimes also like to recalculate GPA based on their own system to normalize disparities between different high schools. For instance, one school might offer far more AP classes than another, which can impact a student's weighted GPA. Recalculation provides a "level playing field" for GPAs across different high school environments.

Or, colleges may want to give weight to the factors that matter most to them. For example, the UC system focuses its GPA calculation on your core academic coursework in sophomore and junior year, but does incorporate weighting as well.

Additionally, colleges understand some high schools may not report weighted GPA. If you go to such a school, don't worry - admissions officers will still account for your course rigor by looking at your transcript, and the school report submitted by your counselor, which provides context for the broader academic environment at your high school. When comparing unweighted GPAs, a slightly lower one earned in rigorous courses can sometimes impress more than a higher one earned in only standard-level courses.

For more detailed information on how colleges evaluate unweighted and weighted GPAs, you can check out this blog post from CollegeVine: https://blog.collegevine.com/is-weighted-or-unweighted-gpa-more-important/. I hope this initial overview helps!