Do transfer colleges prefer cumulative or weighted GPA?

In the transfer process, is there a preference for cumulative GPA over a weighted one when evaluating my application? Or do colleges consider both equally important?

Transfer colleges are generally more interested in your cumulative GPA because it represents the breadth of your academic performance across all of your courses. The cumulative GPA includes all coursework you have taken and gives admissions committees a holistic view of your academic performance over time.

On the other hand, the weighted GPA, which takes course difficulty into account by giving extra weight to challenging classes like APs or Honors, may not be as universally accepted or understood by colleges. Not all schools or programs offer the same range of GPA-boosting coursework, so the weighted GPA may not provide a standardized measurement for comparing students from different schools.

Remember, admissions committees are trained to evaluate applicants from a diverse range of schools, each of which may define or calculate GPA a bit differently. Therefore, your college application will likely be considered in the context of the opportunities and curriculum at your specific institution. This also means that admissions officers often look beyond the GPA to the transcript, course selection, major, grades in course related to your intended major, along with your extracurricular activities, essays, and letters of recommendation. They want to see consistent academic progress as well as depth in the academic areas aligned with your intended major.

In summary, while both cumulative and weighted GPAs have a role in the evaluation process, the cumulative GPA likely holds more weight in the eyes of transfer admissions committees. However, the strongest applications demonstrate both strong grades (reflected in GPAs) and a challenging course load (reflected in the weighted GPA), along with a strong match between the applicant and the school/major they’re applying to.