Weighted vs Unweighted GPA in U.S. High Schools

U.S. high schools often show two GPAs: unweighted and weighted.

Unweighted GPA: all courses are counted on the same 4.0 scale (A = 4.0, B = 3.0...). Course difficulty is not considered.

Weighted GPA: harder courses — Honors, AP, IB HL — receive extra points (for example, an A can count as 4.5 or 5.0). This rewards students who choose rigorous classes.

Example:

• Regular English, grade B → 3.0
• AP Math, grade A → 5.0 (weighted)
• Honors Chemistry, grade B → 4.0 (weighted)

Unweighted average: (3.0 + 4.0 + 3.0) / 3 = 3.33

Weighted average: (3.0 + 5.0 + 4.0) / 3 = 4.0

What do colleges see? Many colleges read the school profile to understand whether your transcript shows a weighted or unweighted GPA. They want to know: did you challenge yourself, and did you still keep your grades high?

Planning tip: across four years, take the hardest classes you can reasonably handle, especially 5-point/AP courses, but protect your A’s. Too many low grades in regular courses can drag class rank down.