Weighted GPA vs. unweighted GPA. It’s a debate as old as time itself.

Well, it’s not really. But, if your school reports grade point averages on both of these scales, figuring out which one is more important for college can be quite confusing. But you don’t need to worry, because we are here to help!

We will walk you through the ins and outs of weighted and unweighted GPAs. By the time you are finished reading this blog, you’ll know what each one means, how it is calculated, and which one looks better on a college application. We’ll even walk you through the policies of a few specific schools, so even if the ones we chose aren’t on your list of favorites, you’ll know what to look for when you do your own research.

Planning your course load, especially if you are taking honors or AP® classes, can be tough, but we’ll make sure you know how to make the choices that are best for you when creating a schedule to achieve your best GPA.

Let’s get started!

What’s an unweighted GPA?

An unweighted GPA is the most popular grade point average reporting scale. It is used in high schools and colleges across much of America. You probably already know a lot about it, but let us refresh your memory, just in case.

It is reported on a 4.0 scale. This means that if you get straight A’s, you will achieve the “perfect” 4.0. If, however, you fail every class that you take, you would have an unweighted GPA of 0.0. It’s that simple. Each letter grade has a numerical value from 0.0 – 4.0, but don’t just take our word for it, here’s the official list:

You can read an in depth post about how to calculate your unweighted GPA here, but the gist of it is that you:

• translate each letter grade into its corresponding number above
• add up the “grade points” from each class you took each semester
• divide that number by the total amount of classes you took

And voilà! There you have it, your unweighted grade point average. Now do you see where the word average comes from?

This system was nearly perfect until the introduction of honors and AP® classes. You see,the unweighted GPA scale does not account for class difficulty when assigning you your grades. Unfortunately, this way of doing things means that you could be slogging through all AP® classes and have a 3.0, and your under-achieving friend could be taking gym and study hall and have a 4.0.

Of course, your friend’s so-called “perfect” GPA would be exposed during the college admissions process, when the people who read his application checked his stellar grades against his transcript. However, those in education decided that there needed to be a better way of setting high-achieving students apart from those who simply took academic classes.

And thus the weighted GPA scale was born.

What’s a weighted GPA?

As we mentioned, the weighted GPA was created to take into account the difficulty of a student’s classes when calculating his or her GPA. Basically, this means that someone with a B in AP® Spanish would not have a lower GPA than someone with an A in academic Spanish, because technically the AP® student is doing more work. In essence, it is supposed to encourage students to try out higher-level classes without having to be too scared that their GPAs will take a turn for the worse.

So, this new GPA is reported on a 5.0 scale. Basically, you get an extra 1.0 added to your GPA just for taking an honors or AP® class. Only honors or AP® classes are reported on the weighted scale. If you are not taking all upper-level courses (which is the likely scenario) then only a few of your classes will be graded out of 5.0 – the rest will be on the “normal” 4.0 unweighted scale.

Let us show you.

You will notice that an F is still 0.0 grade points. This was put up as a safeguard against sneaky students taking advantage of the system. It means that you can’t fail a class and still receive credit for it, even if it is an AP® or honors class. But nice try!

You can read our post about to calculate your weighted GPA here, but let us give you a quick summary.

So, to find your weighted GPA, first follow the steps above to find your unweighted GPA.

Now, to convert this to weighted GPA, you should do the following

• Multiply your unweighted GPA by the total number of classes you have taken
• Add .5 for each intermediate class and 1.0 for each AP® or honors class
• Divide that number by your total number of classes

And there you have it. Your weighted GPA.

You also might have noticed that adding “.5” grade points is an option if you take intermediate classes. You will need to talk to your guidance counselor to make sure, but many high schools offer these “middle of the road” classes to help students transition into upper-level work. They are not as easy as academic classes, but they don’t require as much work as AP® or honors classes. Essentially, they are perfect for getting your toes wet.

Weighted GPA vs. unweighted GPA – which is better for college?

Now that you understand both grade point average reporting scales, it is time to talk about which one will make the college admissions process easier for you. In short, colleges don’t really have a preferred GPA reporting scale. Both have their pros and cons.

For example, the unweighted GPA is the easier to work with because its letter grade to number conversions are very straightforward. It’s also the scale used during college, so your unweighted GPA might give college admissions officers a better idea of how you’ll do at their school. However, the weighted GPA indicates that you took challenging classes all throughout high school, in a way making you even more prepared for college. Because of this, your GPA isn’t considered by itself, but rather it is looked at side by side with your transcript. Your transcript is the list of all the classes you took in high school, and how you did in them.

Admissions officers also consider the differences between separate high school’s and their standards. That is, the performance of a student from school with a lot of funding from Connecticut can’t be directly compared to that of someone from a smaller school in rural Kentucky. If you have over a 2.5 GPA (weighted or unweighted) most admissions committees will really take the time to look through your academic records, course by course, to make sure you are a good fit for their school.

If you are taking lots of AP® courses and have a good weighted GPA, also keep in mind that certain AP’s and honors classes are considered easier than others. While you can read about the easiest AP® classes here and the hardest ones here, admissions officers will notice if you earned your 5.0 in notoriously easy class like AP® Environmental Science or if you took a harder alternative like AP® Calculus BC. Even though both classes are upper-level, the latter was a lot of more work, and covered more difficult material – thus the A is more impressive.

The bottom line is that colleges more than you did excellent while taking progressively more difficult classes, rather than your final weighted or unweighted GPA. So don’t be complacent. If you are getting straight A’s in academic classes, talk to your teachers and guidance counselors about moving into AP® and honors courses. If you are already in advanced classes, keep up the good work!

If my school reports both scales, which one do colleges ask for?

Let’s take a look at the admissions policies of a few different schools. For the sake of brevity, we will only list a few. So, if your favorite school isn’t listed below, you’ll just need to look up “X GPA policy” or “X GPA requirements” and replace X with the name of the university.

Yale University GPA Policy

 Ah, the Ivy League. Let’s see what Yale’s GPA scale stance is.

 “Since each high school has different ways of measuring student grades, Yale does not have an average GPA calculated for accepted students. The admissions committee does not prefer weighted or unweighted GPAs, instead they prefer to see that students have challenged themselves with the strongest curriculum possible at their high school.”

Information via the Yale Admissions Office.

So as you can see, the Yale stance is pretty much everything we’ve been telling you. They care more about the holistic picture of you as a student, rather than a simple number.

University of Southern California GPA Policy

USC sings the same tune as Yale.

“There is no minimum requirement or absolute “cutoff” for grades, class rank or test scores. USC evaluates prospective students through an individualized, comprehensive review process that takes these, and many other factors, into account.”

They seem to care more about the big picture of each student’s academic, although they did list unweighted GPA’s on their 2015-2016 freshman class profile.

Mount Holyoke College GPA Policy

Mount Holyoke hardly mentions grade point averages at all on their admissions website.Instead, they seem to focus on each student’s personal talents and accomplishments when selecting their class.

There are plenty of schools that are more accomplishment-orientated, rather than academically inclined. If you find yourself talented in less mainstream pursuits, don’t worry. There is a school out there for you.

Ole’ Miss GPA Policy

The University of Mississippi seems to consider GPAs on the unweighted scale. You can read through all of their admissions requirements on the website here, but the gist of is you need to have at least 2.5 to be considered for admission. You got this!

 A quick review

You’ve read a lot. So, let us take a few things off your plate by pointing out the few things you really need to remember from this article.

• Unweighted GPAs are reported on a 4.0 scale and consider all classes equal.
• Weighted GPAs are reported on a 5.0 scale and consider class difficulty when awarding grades.
• Colleges consider both when reading your application for admission.
• A strong transcript full of good grades in difficult classes is better than just a high GPA.

So remember, in the great weighted GPA vs. unweighted GPA debate, the answer is to work hard and take challenging classes.

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