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@Elliot
3 answers, 19 votes
 • 4 years ago •
Admissions Advice

Should I input my unweighted gpa into Collegevine's chancing engine to see a more accurate representation of my chances?

My school only does a weighted scale so I can't see my unweighted GPA. Should I put the weighted GPA that is on my transcript into the chancing engine? My school has a WEIGHTED scale that is out of 4, not 5. What do you guys think I should put? Thank you!

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3 answers

6
@CameronBameron
2,264 answers, 8,664 votes
 • 4 years ago

The CollegeVine chancing engine is designed to use your Unweighted GPA, not your Weighted GPA.

99.99% of college admissions use the Unweighted GPA because in general, few schools calculate their weighted GPAs alike. Some use a 4.0 scale only while others use a 5.0 or 6.0 scale and I've also even seen an 11 point scale. Also, some schools give a 0.50 pt weight to APs other 1.00 pt bump. Some schools give a 1.0 pt bump for IB classes and others a 2.0 pts. So you see the only way to normalize the data set for everyone is to submit an unweighted GPA and then CV can compare and contrast you with your peers. If you submit your weighted GPA, you will get a wrong % percentage probability range for your college acceptance to all the schools on your list.

Putting in anything except your UW GPA is like comparing Apples to Grapefruits, not Apples to Apples.

And if you don't know what your UWGPA is just assign the following numerical values to your letter grades.

https://blog.collegevine.com/how-to-calculate-your-gpa-use-this-step-by-step-guide/

A=4.0, A-=3.7, B+=3.3, B=3.0, B-=2.7, C+=2.3, C=2.0, C-=1.7, D+=1.3, D=1.0, F=0.0

Good luck.

6
@Bethany3 years ago [edited]

This seems rather inaccurate to use the unweighted gpa to compare gpas from honors and AP/IB classes especially in comparison to non-honors or non-AP classes. Colleges use unweighted gpa but it’s very clear they do their own recalculation of gpas based on classes so it’s not just a straightforward unweighted gpa from the transcript.

@CameronBameron3 years ago

Until the 15000 plus American high schools and the other 15000 schools around the world come up with some better base scale, colleges will evaluate grades on an unweighted 4.0 or 100 point scale. Since there is ZERO consensus what a AP or IP or DE or Honors course "bump" is worth (+0.50, +1.00, +2.00) comparing weighted GPAs is like comparing apples to bananas. And then there is rampant grade inflation across both public and private schools to boost their rankings, funding and reputation.

@CameronBameron3 years ago

Colleges don't necessarily recalculate GPA but they do examine the school profile to understand how the school weighs course rigor in the context of their base scale. So a private school might have no "Bump" for APs or honors classes but their base scale might be on a 6, 7 or 11 point scale.

@Bethany3 years ago [edited]

Yes, the majority of high schools in US inflate grades. Our high school unfortunately doesn’t and so our grades suffer somewhat. The AP classes in our school are truly like college classes where we have midterms and finals that accounts part of the class grade. The calculus class is graded based only on exam grades. Homework and or projects are not graded at all and do not play a role in the class grade. So, the calculus grades at our schools are…. Standards across HS differ in the US.

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@ACE22
1 answer, 0 votes
 • 4 years ago

To the right of the GPA field is an info box with a link to a guide for calculating GPA. If you have a letter or percentage grade for each class you should be able to figure out your unweighted GPA.

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@swazzy.k
5 answers, 11 votes
 • 4 years ago[edited]

My school does the same as yours. I put in my weighted and unweighted (calculate yours on CV) to see the differences and to get the best report possible. I would recommend that you use your weighted GPA as most schools use whatever is written on your high school transcript. There usually isn't that big of a difference unless our GPA is 3.7 UW and 4.3+ Weighted. But, try both and see where it places you.

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@questionera year ago [edited]

As much as I would like to think this calculator works, I think there is something not right about it….Student 1: Unweighted 3.6 vs. weighted 4.4 ; Student2: unweighted 3.6, weighted 3.6. Who would you guess to be the stronger student?

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