For most high school students, the stress and burden of maintaining their GPA looms on the horizon. This ever-present pressure to feel academically secure and up-to-speed with Westwood’s academic expectations can affect many aspects of life, from what time students wake up to what they have for breakfast that day. As upperclassmen are nearing the end of their high school journeys and looking forward to putting the strain of high school GPA behind them, incoming students and underclassmen are presented with a new, more daunting challenge: major changes in weighted and unweighted courses, affecting GPA calculations to a great degree.

For current upperclassmen and past graduated students, the policy detailed that only the core classes (English, science, mathematics, social studies, and Languages Other Than English, or LOTE) would count toward GPA and RIC. However, for the Class of 2028 and onward, RRISD’s new policy states that core and LOTE classes, University of Texas (UT) OnRamps courses, and Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate (IB), Talented and Gifted (TAG), and Advanced elective courses, including fine arts, will be weighted and thus counted in a student’s GPA and RIC. This new policy poses multiple disadvantages to current underclassmen and future classes. With the added weight of accelerated elective courses on their weighted GPA, students may feel more pressured academically. Furthermore, apprehension surrounding reputationally challenging classes may lead to fewer students taking those courses. However, some students predict that students may select weighted AP/IB fine arts classes to use to their advantage.

“I feel like it will be a lot more competitive for those younger classes, but I also feel like [weighted elective courses] can carry your GPA,” Hannah Au ‘26 said. “If you flunk in one of your core classes, then you have those fine arts courses with 100s that can carry your GPA, which I think is better for your GPA.”

AP and IB visual arts courses invite passionate students to relax and truly apply their skills to a class they care about at an advanced level. Now that higher level art is weighted for the Class of 2028 and beyond, some students predict that there will be more students in AP/IB art with less passion for the subject.

“I think this goes multiple ways and it affects more than just the students,” Sahana Suryanarayan ‘26 said. “Art had an influx of people throughout the years and there have been more and more people wanting to take it. However, some of them, from what I’m hearing from teachers, their hearts were not in the right place. It’s an easy grade, [art]. Now, with visual arts classes being weighted [if taken at AP or IB level], a lot less people won’t truly care about the material. They’re just going to take the class and teachers are going to have to deal with a lot more people not actually caring about the work produced, just caring about it getting done.I feel like for elective classes, people should take them because they want to, not for a GPA boost. I also think there’s going to be less interest in art, and I think good quality art has passion behind it. Passion for fine arts is very valuable.”

An earlier proposal of the new changes in GPA policy recommended for dual-credit courses to be counted in GPA and RIC. However, this proposal was “not recommended” due to stakeholder feedback. Avoiding further potential strain on a student’s GPA, this relieved many who were considering taking advantage of dual-credit courses to fulfill necessary credits, such as U.S. History and Economics, while raising speculation of whether this particular proposal would be executed in the future.

“I feel like overall, [the GPA policy] is going to pressure students more into getting better grades to maintain a high GPA,” Erin Shin ‘28 said. “It would be upsetting if this were to happen later on, because taking classes at ACC [Austin Community College] over the summer allows an advantage and also leaves room for classes you actually want in your schedule. For me, I took U.S. History over the summer and I was also traveling a lot. [ACC] helped me get that class out of the way.”

While managing AP and Advanced courses, this new GPA policy may burden underclassmen from carrying the weight of Advanced fine arts courses. However, this policy could provide advantages to advanced students, allowing them to boost their GPA and RIC by maintaining high marks in newly weighted fine arts courses.

“I feel like we dodged a bullet, but if this were to happen in the future, that pressure of knowing students have to do more than to pass the class is going to deter students from taking an ACC course, which collides with the school trying to reduce stress and academic burnout,” Shin said.