Conversion Sheet for Using College Classes for High School Credit
What makes a high school class equal to 1 high school unit?
1 h.s. unit = anywhere from 120 – 180 Carnegie Units
1 Carnegie Unit = 1 hour of instruction or 2 hours of practice
(Instruction = guided learning)
120 Carnegie Units = a regular high school class
150 Carnegie Units = advanced or college prep high school classes
180 Carnegie Units is a VERY heavy load and not the norm for high school classes. But can be used for AP classes.
So if you define your high school classes (1 high school unit) as equivalent to 120 Carnegie Units then you are providing regular level high school classes for your child. If you define them as 150 Carnegie Units then you are providing advanced classes, etc.
What makes a College Class equal to 1 high school unit?
If you define a high school class as 120 Carnegie Units then a 3 credit hour college course can be counted as 1 high school credit. (ENG 101 = 3 college credits = 1 high school unit, Spanish 101 = 4 college credits = 1.25 high school units)
If you define a high school class as 150 Carnegie units, then a 4 credit hour college course can be counted as 1 high school unit. (ENG 101 = 3 college credits = .75 high school units, Spanish 101 = 4 college credits = 1 high school unit)
How do you calculate high school GPA using college level courses?
Most colleges use a 4 point scale to compare one student’s achievement to another. So a simplified GPA scale might look like this:
| Percentage Grade | Letter Grade | GPA |
|---|---|---|
| 90-100 | A | 4.0 |
| 80-90 | B | 3.0 |
| 70-80 | C | 2.0 |
| 60-70 | D | 1.0 |
| Below 60 | Failing or F | No points |
Some folks will be more specific. For instance:
| Percentage Grade | Letter Grade | GPA |
|---|---|---|
| 97-100 | A+ | 4.0 |
| 93-96 | A | 3.75 |
| 90-92 | A- | 3.50 |
| 87-89 | B+ | 3.25 |
| 83-86 | B | 3.0 |
And so forth…
In addition to this format, many schools will “weight” grades for advanced classes or AP classes or college-level classes of various kinds. Most schools award between .25 and.5 extra points for a grade in these types of classes, and they may weight college level classes more than advanced classes, but not necessarily.
So this may look like the following:
Transcript for Sally Jo College
| Fall Semester 2009 | ||
| Course | Grade | GPA |
|---|---|---|
| English 11 | A+ | 4.0 |
| Geography | B+ | 3.25 |
| College Algebra* | A+ | 4.25 (so I just added .25 to the points) |
| Spanish II | A- | 3.5 |
| Biology 101* | B | 3.25 (weighted) |
*these courses were taken at Anywhere Community College and are given a weight of .25.
So how do we calculate cumulative GPA?
Let’s take the partial transcript from above and calculate the overall GPA for this semester:
Transcript for Sally Jo College
| Fall Semester 2009 | ||||
| Course | Grade | Units | Points | CPU |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| English 11 | A+ | 1 | 4.0 | 4.0 |
| Geography | B+ | 1 | 3.25 | 3.25 |
| College Algebra* | A+ | 1 | 4.25 | 4.25 |
| Spanish II | A- | 1 | 3.5 | 3.5 |
| Biology 101* | B | 1 | 3.25 | 3.25 |
| Physical Ed. | A- | .5 | 3.25 | 1.625 |
| Semester Totals | 5.5 | 3.61 | 19.875 | |
*These courses were taken at Anywhere Community College and are given a weight of .25.
The formula is to add all units together and all CPU’s together and divide the total CPU’s by the total units. So I divided 19.875 by 5.5 and got the GPA for this semester of 3.61. You can use this formula to get cumulative GPA’s for more than one semester.
For questions about Early College program at Regent University, please contact the undergraduate admissions office at 888.718.1222 or undergradadmissions@regent.edu.