Weighted GPA Doesn’t Matter

Weighted GPA is an arbitrary number that high schools use to convince parents to enroll their children there. One school might weigh AP classes by 1.5, while another by 1.75. Where do these numbers come from? Certainly not the College Board, and most certainly not the colleges themselves. Some schools have weighted GPAs on a scale of 5.00, others on 7.00. What? So all of a sudden, by the wave of a school administrator's hand, even C students at one school can have a higher weighted GPA than an A student at another school.

Focusing on weighted GPA is a distraction which costs students dearly during the college admissions process. Colleges know how worthless a given school's weighted GPA is in assessing classroom performance and evaluating course rigor. That is why all colleges have their own unique proprietary ways of recalculating your GPA. Fixating over weighted GPA, or even how colleges recalculate your GPA, is falling victim to the noise that often distracts parents and students from taking actions that will actually increase their chances of getting into college.

If you want to maximize your chances of getting into your dream school and are generally considered a very strong student, then instead of fixating on weighted GPA or how colleges recalculate your GPA, take the most advanced core classes your school offers every year (AP, IB, A-levels, etc.). For classes that align with your intended college major and will prepare you for achieving the career objective you will report in your college application, go the extra mile by enrolling in community college or 4-year college classes, either in person or online.

If you were to follow weighted GPA, you'd think colleges value AP Statistics (an algebra-based math class that barely counts as a real 1-year college math class, since most introductory statistics classes at 4-year colleges are calculus-based) over Multivariable Calculus, a formal 2nd-year university-level math class. Following this logic, you might take AP Statistics in your senior year instead of Multivariable Calculus, simply because it's weighted 1.5 as opposed to 1.0. I hope this example illustrates how silly weighted GPA is.

Remember, it is course rigor that colleges care about, not some made-up number your high school uses as marketing material to draw parents to enroll their children. They can see through the game high schools are playing, and hopefully after reading this article, you can too.

If you want to make sure you are taking the right classes in high school that will actively persuade admissions officer to admit you into your dream college, schedule a free consultation with an admissions expert today.