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College Admissions: Computing your GPA

College Admissions: Computing your GPA

Applying to college? You’re likely hearing a lot of talk about your GPA and how much it matters in the college admissions process. Your GPA is your grade-point average. It indicates your overall performance in school, i.e., your grades. Your GPA is a calculation of your letter or percentage grades and is a number from 0.0 to 4.0. Still confused? We’re going to break it down for you.

How to Calculate Your GPA

Your GPA is the average of your entire high school academic performance. Essentially, add all of your grades together and divide them by the number of grades. Voilá! That’s part one. The next thing you need to do is convert them to the 0.0 to 4.0 scale. Here’s how letter grades and percentages typically compare to GPA numbers.

PowerScore GPA Calculator

Note that this is just a general table as ome schools may have slightly different variations. However, this table gives you a good general idea of how letter grades compare to percent grades and how they both compare to GPAs.

For Example

From this chart, here’s how the math goes. If the average of your grades is an 81, then you’ll have a GPA of around 2.7. If you have a C-average, then your GPA is a 2.0.

A tip for those of you who go to schools where the grades are given as letter grades. If your school doesn’t give you a GPA or average of your grades, here’s what how to get a good idea of what your GPA is.

  1. Acquire your transcript.
  2. Convert your letter grades into their corresponding GPA numbers.
  3. Add all of the numbers together.
  4. Divide them by the number of grades.
  5. There you have it!

Here’s an example of how to compute your grades. These are the grades of a rising sophomore at Lincoln High School:

English:  B  (3.0)
Algebra:  A- (3.7)
Biology: B+ (3.3)
World History: A (4.0)
Phys Ed: C+ (2.3)
Business: A (4.0)
They calculate as follows:
3.0 + 3.7 + 3.3 + 4.0 + 2.3 + 4.0 = 20.6
Average = sum of items/total number of items
Average = 20.6/6
Final Average = 3.43
Some colleges only look at core academic courses when computing GPAs. So, this student’s C+ in gym class may possibly be removed. If so, their GPA improves to 3.66. You never know, though, how prospective colleges will view your transcript. It’s important to aim for As in all of your classes. If your school gives out percentages, you can add up your grades, find the average, and convert it using the chart above.
Your GPA is an important part of your college application. Make sure you know what it is and how to find it so you know what you’re showing potential schools!

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