Head of the Upper School Beth Slattery announced the school would be reintroducing weighted GPAs for the 2024-2025 school year, giving students a one-point boost for Honors and Advanced Placement (AP) classes in an email Feb. 2023. The school removed weighted GPAs in 2018 to encourage students to make more authentic curricular choices and disincentivize students from overloading themselves with difficult classes. Under the new guidelines, students’ transcripts include both their weighted and unweighted GPAs, striking a fair balance between rewarding students who choose to challenge themselves in difficult classes and ensuring that they do not overload themselves with too many Honors and AP courses. Now that weighted grades have returned, however, we should acknowledge the one aspect where they fall short.
The Math Department is unique for offering “Advanced” classes, an intermediate option between regular and Honors courses. Despite being more rigorous and fast-paced than regular classes, students in Advanced math do not receive a GPA boost, meaning that there is no tangible benefit to taking an Advanced course over a regular one. This means that students who are fit for Advanced courses might choose to take regular math as there is no inherent advantage to taking an Advanced course and enduring its difficult workload. But far more possible — and more detrimental — is the scenario in which students will enroll in an Honors class because of the grade boost despite being underprepared for its rigor. The idea that students should enroll in difficult Honors and AP courses to obtain a high GPA and get into a prestigious college is one that is often perpetrated given the school’s competitive nature. The flaws with the current method of calculating weighted GPAs can incentivize kids to enroll in a class that is far too difficult for them.
The school can offer a half-point GPA boost for Advanced math classes, creating a balance between regular and Honors courses. This adjustment would reward and recognize students for tackling more challenging coursework and bar them from enrolling in easier classes for the sake of an A.
Colleges, too, value GPAs in their assessments of students. GPAs are one of the most important factors in colleges’ decisions to admit a certain student. In the email announcing the return of weighted GPAs, Slattery said colleges told the school they valued students’ weighted GPAs as a method to evaluate students’ “performance and rigor.” GPAs are an essential part of a student’s admission profile, and it is important that the school helps ensure our GPAs are representative of our true abilities and the courses we have taken.
If the school believes that weighting Honors math is beneficial, it should do the same for Advanced classes too. The absence of a GPA benefit is unfair to students committed to challenging themselves through Advanced math classes. Transcripts should reflect the challenge of these intermediate courses in addition to Honors and AP classes.
