AMCAS GPA calculator
Checked on against the AAMC’s guide to the 2027 AMCAS application. AMCAS counts every course with a letter grade and credit hours, every attempt of a retaken course and every failed course, with an A+ worth the same 4.0 as an A. It reports a BCPM GPA for biology, chemistry, physics and math, an AO GPA for all other courses, and both together; pass/fail courses and withdrawals stay out.
Example AMCAS GPA, all undergraduate courses
60.3 grade points ÷ 18 hours
- BCPM GPA (biology, chemistry, physics, math)3.10, 12 hours
- AO GPA (all other courses)3.85, 6 hours
- Pass/fail, as supplemental hours3 hours
- Withdrawn, left out3 hours
AMCAS rules checked . The AMCAS program verifies your coursework against your transcripts and works out your official GPAs.
How AMCAS converts your grades
AMCAS uses the grades and credit hours your college gave, and counts plus and minus grades even if your college does not. Each grade’s points times its hours, added up and divided by the hours, gives each GPA.
| Grade | AMCAS points |
|---|---|
| A+ | 4.0 |
| A | 4.0 |
| A− | 3.7 |
| B+ | 3.3 |
| B | 3.0 |
| B− | 2.7 |
| C+ | 2.3 |
| C | 2.0 |
| C− | 1.7 |
| D+ | 1.3 |
| D | 1.0 |
| D− | 0.7 |
| F | 0.0 |
Colleges with half-step grades convert on their own line of AMCAS’s chart: AB 3.5, BC 2.5, CD 1.5, DE or DF 0.5, and an E counts as an F. Where a college counts a plus or minus as 0.5 rather than 0.3 or 0.7, AMCAS follows the college’s conversion, using the conversion information the college gives it: on that line a B+ is 3.5, a C+ 2.5 and a D+ 1.5, and the calculator counts them that way when you tick its half-step box. Your registrar can tell you which line your college is on.
What AMCAS counts that your college may not
- Every attempt of a retaken course, even where your college replaces the old grade.
- Every failed course and its hours, even if your college leaves it out of its own GPA.
- Forgiven grades: if your college replaced a grade under academic forgiveness, you still enter the original grade and its hours.
- Plus and minus grades, even where your college ignores them; an A+ still counts as 4.0.
What stays out
- Pass/fail courses, passed or failed, AP credit, CLEP and other test credit: their hours are reported as supplemental hours.
- Withdrawals and dropped courses, audits, exempt courses and courses still in progress.
AMCAS also reports each GPA by year (freshman, sophomore, junior, senior, postbaccalaureate and graduate). Your cumulative undergraduate GPA includes postbaccalaureate undergraduate courses but not graduate ones: AMCAS works out a graduate GPA separately. You classify each course as BCPM or not by what it mainly teaches.
On the application you enter credit hours exactly as your transcript shows them, and AMCAS turns quarter hours into semester hours itself. Its Grade Conversion Guide gives the table: two thirds of the quarter hours, to one decimal, so a 4-hour quarter course counts as 2.7 semester hours and a 5-hour one as 3.3.
A worked example
Biology I with an A (4 hours), General Chemistry I with a C and again with a B+ (4 hours each), an A+ in English and an A− in Psychology (3 hours each), a pass in pass/fail Statistics and a W in Spanish. Both chemistry attempts count: the BCPM GPA is 37.2 ÷ 12 = 3.10, the AO GPA 23.1 ÷ 6 = 3.85, and all courses together 60.3 ÷ 18 = 3.35. The A+ counts 4.0, and the pass and the W add no hours.
Other GPAs
Your college’s own GPA, with its own retake rules: the college GPA calculator. Law school applications: the LSAC GPA calculator. Physician assistant programs: the CASPA GPA calculator. How retakes and forgiveness work: the GPA guide.
Sources: AAMC, Grades Factored Into AMCAS GPA Calculations, Grades Included in AMCAS GPAs, AMCAS GPA Reports to Medical Schools, Credit Hours and the AMCAS Grade Conversion Guide.