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UCSB counts only letter grades in your GPA: A+ and A are both 4.0, A− 3.7, B+ 3.3, and so on down to D− at 0.7 and F at 0. Retake a course you got a C− or lower in and only the newer grade counts, but just for your first 16 repeated units; after that both grades count. P, NP, W, I and IP stay out, and in your first three quarters you can switch a C− or lower to NP during the next quarter, which takes it out of your GPA.
UCSB’s points: A+ 4.00, A 4.00, A− 3.70, B+ 3.30 and so on.
The plus/minus cutoffs Wikipedia lists for US colleges: A+ from 97%, A 93, A- 90, B+ 87, B 83, B- 80 and so on down to D- at 60. It is not universal, so use your syllabus's cutoffs when they differ.Source: Wikipedia, “Academic grading in the United States”.
Your class cutoffs
Letter
Lowest %
Remove
Each letter starts at its lowest percentage and runs up to the next letter.
Rounding and decimal places
Follow your syllabus. A displayed percentage can round up while the unrounded score stays below a cutoff.
Only changes how results are shown. Extra places appear when rounding would push a score over a letter cutoff.
A letter typed as a score counts as the lowest percentage for that letter on this scale. Use the original percentage when you have it.
Only scales that publish GPA points can convert a percentage. Check that your school uses these same points.
Example courses. Change them to yours, or
CourseGradeUnits
Include your earlier GPA
Quality points are the more exact input when the displayed GPA has already been rounded. Do not include these same units again in the course rows.
Raise my GPA: what would it take to reach a target?
These are future units beyond the courses and earlier record entered above.
Pass/fail or a retake: what would change?
Whether a pass/fail course leaves the GPA and whether a retake replaces the old grade are your school’s rules; the table below shows UCSB’s.
One grade higher: which course moves your GPA most?
Each line raises one course by one grade on the grade points above and leaves the others as entered, so a course that carries more credit moves the GPA more. A course you haven’t finished can be marked “Planned” in its ⋯ menu: the GPA so far then leaves it out, and the projection counts it at the grade you chose. A grade already on your transcript changes only under your school’s retake or grade-change rules.
Compare with a GPA line (dean's list, scholarship, good standing)Course groups and equal weights
Set a course's group or term, or mark it planned, in its ⋯ menu. Groups are just your labels: they don’t apply AMCAS or other application-service GPA rules.
Import courses from a transcript or spreadsheet
Copy the courses from your unofficial transcript, degree audit or a spreadsheet and paste them here, one course per line with its grade and credits. Term headings such as “Fall 2025” keep the courses in their terms. Your grades stay in this browser.
Line
Course
Read as
This replaces the courses above. You can put them back afterwards.
Save my courses or compare versions
Nothing is sent to us. Untick the box to forget them.
To compare plans, save the courses as they are now as a version, change them, and save again. Versions stay in this browser until you delete them.
Open a file you saved with “Save the versions to a file”, in this browser or another. It is read in your browser and sent nowhere.
UCSB’s rules checked in its 2026–2027 General Catalog. Sources are at the bottom of the page.
Grade points at UCSB
UCSB multiplies each course’s grade points by its units, adds them up and divides by the units that count. Enter your courses above with these points already set.
University of California, Santa Barbara letter grades and grade points
What W, pass/fail, incomplete, retakes and transfer credit do at UCSB
A course left out of the GPA adds no points and no units. In the calculator, choose its code or “Not counted”; a code that counts as zero lowers the GPA like a failing grade.
How UCSB counts each code
Code
What it means
In the UCSB GPA
W
Withdrawal: you dropped a course after your college’s drop deadline with the dean’s permission, or withdrew from UCSB
Left out of your GPA, and not counted as attempted for the GPA you need to graduate. A late drop needs a petition to your college dean, and the dean may record a W, F, NP or U instead, or cancel the enrollment. Letters and Science approves up to three late drops for academic reasons while you’re at UCSB, if you petition by the last day of instruction and aren’t repeating the course or dropping it a second time; an approved late drop shows as a W. After the quarter ends, a drop is granted only for hardship. A complete withdrawal is due by the last day of instruction (the last day of the quarter in Creative Studies) and carries no academic penalty. If you just stop going without an approved withdrawal, you get an F, NP or U in each course. Rule
P or NP
Passed/Not Passed: P means work at C or better; NP means C− or below
Neither counts in your GPA. A P earns units; an NP earns no credit. You choose P/NP by the end of the tenth week. Courses in your major or minor must be letter-graded unless your department has approval to allow P/NP, and on probation you can take P/NP only in courses offered just that way. At graduation, at least 120 units, or two-thirds, of your units earned at UCSB must be letter-graded. More than 8 NP units in a quarter, or more than 20 in all, can get you barred from P/NP. In your first three fall, winter or spring quarters, if you were in good standing, you can change a C− or lower to NP in GOLD during the next quarter, in a course that allows optional grading; the change can’t be undone. Nobody can change a C or higher to a P after the fact. Rule
I
Incomplete: your work is passing but unfinished
Left out of your GPA while it stands. Your instructor must sign the Petition for an Incomplete Grade and it must reach the Registrar by the last day of the quarter. Finish the work by the end of the next term, whether or not you’re enrolled; you don’t re-enroll in the course. If you don’t, the I turns into an F, NP or U automatically, unless your instructor and the department chair extend the deadline for unusual circumstances. In the final GPA checked at graduation, an I in a letter-graded course counts as an F. A quarter with an I isn’t evaluated for Dean’s Honors until the final grade posts. Rule
IP
In Progress: a provisional grade in a course that runs over more than one term
Left out of your GPA. The grade you get in the last term replaces the IP for every earlier part. If you don’t enroll in or finish the last course of the sequence the next quarter it’s offered, the IP becomes an I and the Incomplete rules apply. Rule
Sitting in on a course unofficially, with the instructor’s permission
No grade, no units and no record on your transcript, so it never touches your GPA. Rule
Repeated course
You took the same course again
You can repeat only a course in which you got a C−, D+, D, D−, F or NP. For the first 16 units you repeat, only your most recent grade counts in your GPA, unless the new grade is an NP: an NP never replaces a letter grade. Retaking a course you withdrew from (W) doesn’t use up any of the 16 units. Beyond 16 units, both the first and the new grade count. You can repeat for a letter or P/NP if the course offers it, and repeating a course a second time needs your dean’s approval when you register. You get credit only once, and every grade stays on your transcript. These rules cover only UC courses; to repeat a UCSB course at another UC campus, petition your dean first. Mark the course as a repeat when you register. Rule
Transfer credit
Grades from another college
Grades from community colleges and from non-UC schools never enter your UC GPA; only the credit comes over. Courses you take at another UC campus (summer session, a visitor quarter or simultaneous enrollment), and UCSB courses through Open University, do count in your GPA; Extension courses at another UC don’t. UCSB awards up to 105 quarter units (70 semester units) of lower-division credit from outside UC, and AP, IB and A-Level units don’t count toward that limit. A course that matches one you’ve already completed at UCSB won’t transfer. Rule
For honors at graduation, UCSB doesn’t round GPAs, so the calculator never rounds up either: it cuts the GPA to two decimals, and 3.499 shows as 3.49, not 3.50.
UCSB GPA lines
These are UCSB’s published undergraduate lines, each with the other conditions its catalog sets. Your college or program may set its own, higher lines.
Published GPA lines at UCSB
GPA line
What it means
Also required
Below 2.0 cumulative UC GPA at the end of any quarter
Academic notice
You’re under your college dean’s supervision. You return to regular status by raising your cumulative GPA to 2.0 by the end of your second quarter on notice; in Engineering, the dean decides after a full review of your record. The College of Letters & Science’s grade page calls this Academic Review. Full rule
Below 1.5 for any quarter, below 2.0 for a quarter while on notice, or still below 2.0 cumulative after two quarters on notice
Subject to academic disqualification
Any one of the three is enough. You can’t register again unless your college dean reinstates you on academic notice; you can appeal to the dean, who may set conditions. Full rule
2.0
Minimum GPA to graduate (Engineering and Letters and Science)
You need a 2.0 in each of three groups: all UC courses except P/NP, all UC courses required for your major, and all UC courses required for your upper-division major. An Incomplete in a letter-graded course counts as an F in this check. Creative Studies students need a 2.0 in all letter-graded UC courses. A minor needs a 2.0 in its required upper-division courses. Full rule
3.75 quarter GPA
Dean’s Honors
Each regular quarter, on 12 or more letter-graded units, with no NP grades (Letters and Science and Engineering). A quarter with an I waits until the final grade posts. Dean’s Honors goes on your transcript. Full rule
Top 20% of graduates
Honors at graduation: top 2.5% Highest Honors, next 6% High Honors, next 11.5% Honors
You need at least 60 letter-graded UC units, including summer session but not UC Extension. The GPA cutoffs come from the previous academic year’s graduates, and GPAs aren’t rounded. Full rule
3.85 cumulative GPA
College Honors (College of Letters and Science)
You need 135 or more letter-graded units in the University of California. Full rule
To see how far you are from one of them, enter it under “Compare with a GPA line” in the calculator, or as your target in the target GPA planner.
A worked example
In your first three fall, winter or spring quarters, a C− or lower in a course that allows P/NP can become an NP during the next quarter, and an NP stays out of your GPA. Say your first fall brings an A and a B in two 4-unit courses and a D in a third: (4.0 × 4 + 3.0 × 4 + 1.0 × 4) ÷ 12 = 2.666…, which the calculator shows as 2.66. Change the D to NP in GOLD the next quarter and your GPA becomes (4.0 × 4 + 3.0 × 4) ÷ 8 = 3.50, though you earn no units for that course.
The calculator gives an estimate from the grades you enter. Your official GPA is the one on your UCSB academic record.
For any other college, the college GPA calculator starts on the common plus/minus 4.0 points and takes your school’s own. Cumulative GPA combines terms you already have, and the GPA guide answers what a GPA means.
