Does unweighted GPA matter if I have an incredible weighted GPA?
Colleges looks at both Unweighted and Weighted because they tell 2 different stories.
UWGPA shows admission officers how well you did in any class relative to your peers. So if you have a 4.0 UWGPA you always were the top of your class. While someone with a 3.5 struggled with the material and perhaps took to many difficult classes. Perhaps if they had a more balanced load, they would have received better grades. Sometimes recruited athletes who have 15-20 less hours per week fall into lower UWGPAs because doing a Varsity sport as a starter takes up a lot of time.
WGPA shows admission officers what your course rigor was relative to your UWGPA so if you took only 1 or 2 weighted classes the "spread" or difference between UWGPA and WGPA is not going to be that different. So 3.5 unweighted, 3.6 weighted.But if you took 12-15 weighted courses on your transcript your "spread will be wider" So 3.5 unweighted, 4.1 weighted.
While some colleges will appreciate the effort for taking the hardest course work possible and give you somewhat of a pass on UWGPA, others will scrutinize it more and find it problematic because during your 4 years of HS, you were not able to find the "sweet spot" of balancing selecting classes you can master the material and get As while tempering that expectation with the correct course mix, so you can maintain both a high UWGPA and WGPA. Somewhere in your academic coursework strategy, you miscalculated your ability to perform at the highest level because other things got in the way.
If you have a legitimate explanation for the disparity, make sure you elaborate on this in your additional information section of the common app.
Good luck.
Yes. Unweighted is the GPA colleges usually look at. It allows them to compare students equally because some don't have access to as many AP classes as others.
To keep this community safe and supportive:
Thank you so much this gives me a lot of insight !