Weighted or Unweighted GPA? Which One Counts In College Admissions?

Wed, Dec 7, 2022 11:30 AM

A student’s weighted GPA is the extra bump they receive for taking Honors, Dual Enrollment, Advanced Placement (AP), or International Baccalaureate (IB) courses. This means a student’s GPA can be greater than the regular unweighted GPA measured on a 4.0 scale. This GPA bump can make a difference in your students’ chances of getting admitted and receiving the big dollars. When researching which colleges your student is considering applying to, it is important to identify whether or not they accept a weighted or unweighted GPA for admissions or scholarship consideration or both. It is also important to remember that many high schools only send out a student’s transcript showing grades from the beginning of their freshman year to the end of their junior year. This is especially true for colleges that have Early Action (EA) deadlines in the fall of their senior year, and please note that many of these colleges use this same deadline for scholarship consideration as well.

Regardless of whether a college accepts a student’s weighted or unweighted GPA, they definitely look to see if they have pushed themselves academically throughout their high school career. Colleges review the rigor of the courses taken compared to what their high school offers and the difficulty of the subjects they have taken in previous years. Be sure to check each college’s website to confirm how they handle weighted or unweighted GPAs and do your research on how your son or daughter compares to other incoming freshman so they can pick the right colleges to apply to in the future.

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