How I can raise my weighted gpa up from 3.5 to 3.8Answered
I am currently a junior in high school and I have only taken one honors class my whole high school year so far. I haven’t taken any Ap or Ib classes. My weighted gpa is a 3.5 so far and I want it to go up to a 3.8 or higher by the time I graduate. so if I change one of my classes right now to an Ap class, would my grade go up to a 3.8 or 3.7? Also, if I take Ap and honors classes in my senior year, and pass them, would my weighted gpa go up to 3.8 or higher?
Earn karma by helping others:
2 answers
Hi @Mimi_!
It would entirely depend on how many classes you take a semester, and how your school weighs AP and honors courses. Some schools only give you a 1.0 bump for AP classes, while others may give you a 2.0 bump for AP classes and 1.0 for honors classes.
I think @CameronBameron did a great job explaining the math below, so I would just emphasize that the most important part of your GPA is the letter grades themselves — after all, colleges will be looking at your full transcript. If the stress of suddenly making half your courseload AP causes you to get Cs, you will be much worse off than if you'd just taken, say, one AP course and got all As throughout the semester. You essentially lose the WGPA bump if you get a B in an AP course that you would have gotten an A in if it weren't AP.
That's not to say you shouldn't take AP courses; in fact, you should take as many as possible while maintaining high performance. I just want to emphasize that taking AP and honors courses isn't a WGPA solution in and of itself — each class will require significant commitment to fully pay off WGPA-wise.
Hope that helps, and good luck!
This is simple math problem. I'll set it up for your so you can figure out what you have to do to get the highest Weighted GPA.
Since you are a Junior having completed 5 semesters of HS and have a 3.5 WGPA. That is the same as 3.5 (5) = 17.5 pts. If you want a 3.8 WGPA by the time you apply to colleges a year from now that means you will need 3.8 (7 semesters) = 26.6 pts.
26.6-17.5 = 9.1 points. Therefore you need a 4.55 each of the next 2 semesters weighted to get to your goal of 3.8 WGPA. Since I don't know what the weighted classes at your school are I can only guess you get a 1.0 bump for an AP. So if you take 6 or 8 classes a term, that means 1/2 of your classes have to AP classes and you have to get all As in all 6 to 8 classes. That will give you exactly a 4.50 WGPA. If you do that for this Spring term and Fall Senior year you will have 9.00 pts to add to your 17.5 pts or 26.5 pts. You will have a 3.79 WGPA, just shy of a 3.8
Good luck.
Your chance of acceptance
Your chancing factors
Community Guidelines
To keep this community safe and supportive:
- Be kind and respectful!
- Keep posts relevant to college admissions and high school.
- Don’t ask “chance-me” questions. Use CollegeVine’s chancing instead!
I understand, thank you for the help but you said if I take AP classes and pass all with As, I will have a 4.50 WGPA but you also said that at the end of my senior year, I will end up with a 3.79 WGPA. I’m just confused on how that works.