What is the difference between academic GPA and total GPA?

What is the difference between a GPA and a unweighted GPA?

• Answer:

  There are two types of GPAs that high schools can report to colleges. Depending on your high school, your transcript can report a weighted GPA or an unweighted GPA (or both). Check with your guidance counselor if you're unsure of your school's policy. A weighted GPA is going to give you brownie points for challenging yourself with harder classes. For example, Advanced Placement and Honors classes are generally more difficult and demanding than Academic classes are. Therefore, many schools offer an extra quality point that can be added to the GPA to "make up" for the difficulty. For example, a "B" in an AP class may be translated into an "A" in an academic class, based on a weighted GPA. Weighted GPAs can also factor in any +'s you might have. For example, an A+ would be given extra points over an A. An unweighted GPA however strips all these brownie points away and leaves you with exactly what you've earned in your classes. A B is a B is a B, according to an unweighted GPA, and an A+ becomes a regular A. In the American education system used by most high schools, the highest unweighted GPA is a 4.0. (Weighted varies widely). SAMPLE GPA SCALE Grade Earned/ UW GPA/ W GPA A....................4.0...........5.0 B....................3.0...........4.0 C....................2.0...........3.0 D....................1.0...........2.0 F................No credit......1.0 It's important that you challenge yourself with AP/Honors classes. The weighting can really help out your GPA. You should be warned though, most colleges will recalculate weighted GPAs on their own scale (which is always unweighted).