I've heard some students mention QPA during college app discussions and I'm not sure how it's different from GPA. Could someone explain the difference between GPA and QPA? Does one matter more than the other in college admissions?
Hey there! Happy to help clarify this for you.
GPA, or Grade Point Average, is the more commonly used term and refers to the average of all your high school grades, typically on a scale of 0 to 4.0 (though some schools use a 5.0 scale for AP or honors classes).
QPA stands for Quality Point Average and it might factor in the difficulty level of your courses more explicitly than a standard GPA would—it essentially is a weighted GPA that’s meant to provide a little more insight into a student’s course rigor.
In terms of college admissions, what matters most is that you're challenging yourself and performing well within that context. Some colleges recalibrate your GPA to their own scale anyway, which means they are looking at the individual grades and the levels of the classes you’ve taken, rather than just the final GPA or QPA number.
Don't worry too much about the terminology. Just keep working hard in your classes, and take challenging courses that interest you!
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