How do colleges calculate gpas from two different high schools?

I transferred from an extremely strict high school to a more lenient high school in my sophomore year. I had 3 B+s in my old school but had a 3.98 gpa in my new one. Neither school does rankings. Overall my cumulative gpa across two schools amounts to 3.89, but I don't know if colleges will calculate that way. However, I know that in my old school my grades are at the top already. Is there any way to explain the lower grades/gpa in my first two years of high school even if the school doesn't provide a ranking?

3.89

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@CameronBamerona year ago

Personally, I would reach out to your old high school and see if your high school counselor there would be willing to send a HS profile from your old school to your current counselor so that the admissions reader would have both a current school profile and one from your old school to compare and contrast.

If the Admissions officer had both school profiles, they can see for themselves which school was more academically rigorous etc. Or write about this in the add'l info section of the common ap

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