Weighted or Unweighted GPA: Which do colleges look at more?

Hi there! I'm a little bit stressed about how colleges evaluate our GPA. Do they look more at our weighted or unweighted GPA? How does it affect admissions?

Hi! It's understandable that you're curious about which GPA is more important in college admissions. In general, colleges look at both weighted and unweighted GPAs, but they might emphasize different aspects depending on the institution.

Weighted GPAs take into account the difficulty of the classes you've taken, like honors or AP classes, while unweighted GPAs provide a more standardized measure of your academic performance without accounting for course difficulty. Colleges may use a mix of both when evaluating applicants to get a well-rounded impression of academic achievement.

Admissions officers typically recalculate your GPA using their own system as well. This process standardizes GPAs from different schools and allows for fairer comparisons of applicants. They tend to focus on your course rigor (the level of challenge your courses presented) and your performance in core classes (English, history, science, math, and foreign language), more so than your standard high school GPA might.

If you're wondering how your GPA stacks up at your top choice colleges, continue checking out CollegeVine's free chancing engine, which factors in not only your GPA, but also your course rigor, extracurriculars, standardized test scores (if you have them) and so on to give you a comprehensive sense of where you stand as an applicant: https://www.collegevine.com/admissions-calculator.

At the end of the day, both weighted and unweighted GPAs provide valuable information for colleges during the admissions process. Focus on performing well in your classes, taking challenging courses, and engaging in meaningful extracurricular activities to build a competitive application. Good luck!