GPA (Grade Point Average) is the average grades of students’ GPA and is used to evaluate students’ overall performance. The higher a student’s GPA is, the higher his or her academic achievement and the better his or her learning potential is. Therefore, the GPA performance is often an important reference indicator for US college admissions.

Each College has its own Calculating System.

For colleges, there’s no preference for a specific GPA calculation method. Weighted GPA is more likely to showcase the actual level of students, which we recommend students who go to international schools submit their weighted GPA when applying to colleges. Same as universities, different high schools have different GPA systems, some local schools do not even provide a weighted GPA scale for their students.

If students are in any need of applying for scholarships, wanting to join honors program or society, applying for a master’s or doctoral degree, etc., having a good GPA is always beneficial.

What do the Numbers Mean in terms of GPA?

The GPA numbers don’t speak for themselves. For example, a 4.3 in weighted GPA is not necessarily better than a 4.0 in unweighted GPA. If a student has a 4.3 in weighted GPA, he or she might be having a mix of A and Bs according to his or her school’s GPA scale. However, if a student receives all As for his or her grades, he or she will have a 4.0 in an unweighted GPA system. The score conversion table below is for reference, but each school has its own grading system.

When colleges receive their applicants’ transcripts, they review the course difficulty the students have taken carefully and determine whether the students are capable of handling college level courses. Although taking more advanced courses such as AP courses or honors might lower students’ grades, colleges are hoping to see that their applicants are willing to challenge themselves despite how difficult it would be.

GPA Conversion

There are two ways of calculating GPA, weighted and unweighted.

• Unweighted GPA:

The Taiwanese education system does not provide the option for students to pick their own classes or class difficulty. Therefore, as long as students are not attending international schools, they should choose the unweighted GPA option when entering their grades in their application.

• Weighted GPA:

If students attend high school in the U.S. or international schools in Taiwan, their grading system is mostly the weighted GPA since the course difficulty would be included in the students’ transcripts. Generally speaking, unweighted GPA ranges from 0.0-4.0 and the weighted GPA can sometimes be out of 5.0 depending on the courses and the schools.

How to Calculate your GPA?

The following are the grades Student A got for each course:

• Unweighted GPA:

According to the table provided above, the unweighted GPA for this student is 4.0. However, keep in mind that each school has a different scale for GPA conversion. Unweighted GPA is just your average grade without factoring in AP, honors, how many classes you are taking for each subject, etc.

• Weighted GPA:

When converting Student A’s GPA, according to the table above, Student A has a 3.9 in weighted GPA.