What is a good GPA?

A good GPA in high school

The national yardstick is the federal High School Transcript Study, which reads the transcripts of a national sample of graduates. Graduates in 2019 averaged 3.11, up from 3.00 in 2009 and 2.68 in 1990. Girls averaged 3.23 and boys 3.00.

That average gives no extra points for Honors, AP or IB classes, so compare it with your unweighted GPA. A weighted 3.4 can be an unweighted 3.0, which is just under the average. The high school GPA calculator shows both.

Whether a GPA is good enough for a particular college is a different question. Many colleges publish a Common Data Set each year; its items C11 and C12 give the high school GPAs, on a 4.0 scale, of the first-year students who enrolled: how many fell in each range and their average. Search for the college’s name and “common data set” to find it.

A good GPA in college

College lines are set by each school, and they differ even inside one university. These are the published undergraduate lines at UT Austin and the University of Florida, as examples of what your own catalog will list:

• Below 2.00 UT Austin: Academic warning
• At least 3.50 in one fall or spring semester UT Austin: University Honors for that semester
• At least 3.30 UT Austin: The lowest line for graduating with University honors
• 4.0 in a semester University of Florida: President’s Honor Roll
• 3.20 (Engineering) to 3.75 (Liberal Arts and Sciences) in a semester University of Florida: Dean’s List, depending on the college

For federal student aid, if your program is longer than two years, you need at least a C average, or standing consistent with graduating, by the end of your second academic year. Your school’s own progress policy sets the GPA it checks at each review, and it can be higher.

Medical and law schools read a GPA their application services recalculate from every transcript: AMCAS counts every attempt of a retaken course, and LSAC every repeated or forgiven grade whose grade and credits still show on your transcript, but no course taken after your first bachelor’s degree. The GPA guide explains how; the LSAC and AMCAS GPA calculators work yours out.

If your GPA is below the line you need

A GPA moves slowly once you have many credits, so the useful number is how many credits at what average it takes. A student at 2.6 after 60 credits needs 24 credits of straight A’s to reach 3.0. The target planner in the GPA calculator works it out from your own record, and each GPA page above shows the same for its value.

Weighted, unweighted, semester or cumulative?

Before comparing your GPA with any line, check that it is the same kind. Honors lists usually read one semester’s GPA; good standing and graduation honors read the cumulative one. The GPA scale shows how weighting changes the numbers, and cumulative GPA how terms combine.