College Roadmap : 1. GPA

GPA  is one of the most important criteria for colleges. This metric usually serves as a filter and determines if your child's application is even seen by a college. Each college publishes a GPA range. The higher end of the range is required for the more competitive fields like computer science.

Few points about GPA

• GPA is important for both public and private colleges. Private colleges emphasize other criteria whereas public colleges give more weight to GPA
• UCs use grades from 9th grade summer to 1st semester of 12th grade for the GPA calculation
• Private colleges and other states consider grades from all the four years
• Few colleges use  weighted GPA while others use unweighted GPA. 
• You can improve your GPA by taking courses during summer or online courses from accredited colleges. 

Unweighted GPA

   Here GPA is calculated using an unweighted scale irrespective of how difficult the coursework is. So each class is given 0 to 4 with A being assigned 4. 

Weighted GPA

    Weighted GPA takes into account the rigor of the course work. For instance a honors course or an AP class scale is from 1 to 5. 5 being assigned for an A grade.