NCAA core-course GPA calculator

How the NCAA counts your core-course GPA

1. Only NCAA-approved core courses count: your high school’s list says which of your classes are on it.
2. Each grade becomes quality points: A 4, B 3, C 2, D 1. Plus and minus don’t count, and a Pass counts as your school’s lowest passing grade, a D at most schools.
3. Multiply each course’s points by its length: a full year is 1 unit, a semester .5, a trimester .34 and a quarter .25.
4. The NCAA uses the 16 units with your best grades that meet its subject requirements, adds their quality points and divides by the units. If you took 18 full-year core courses, the 16 with the highest grades that meet the subject requirements count.
5. An honors, AP or IB course can add up to 1.00 point, but only where your high school weights it in your overall GPA and has sent its weighting policy to the Eligibility Center.

The 16 core courses, by division

Division III schools set their own academic standards: ask the school you plan to attend.

A worked example

Seventeen core units: four years of English (B, B, C, B), four of math (C, C, D, C), four of science (B, C, C, C), three of social science (B, B, and a semester each of Economics, A, and Government, B) and two of Spanish (B, C). The best 16 leave out Algebra II’s D: 40.5 quality points ÷ 16 units = 2.531, above the 2.3 Division I line.

For 10/7, 12 units were finished before 12th grade, 8 of them in English, math or science, so both parts are met. Counting the D as well would give 41.5 ÷ 17 = 2.441: the NCAA’s best-16 rule is worth knowing before you retake a course.

Before you count on the number

Until 12th grade starts, any course you need for 10/7 can still be replaced or repeated for a higher grade; after that, the Eligibility Center uses the best combination of the courses finished before 12th grade. Students with only international credentials, including Canada, don’t need 10/7.

For Division I, a student who graduates on time may be able to use one more NCAA-approved core course taken within a year after high school, before full-time college. Your counselor sends the final transcript with proof of graduation, and the Eligibility Center decides.

Short of the standards, you can’t compete in your first year, but you need not lose the whole year: a Division I academic redshirt may practice in the first term and receive an athletics scholarship, and a Division II partial qualifier may practice and receive one.

Other calculators

Your whole high school GPA, weighted and unweighted: the high school GPA calculator. College applications with their own rules: the UC and CSU GPA calculators.