Colleges ask you for your GPA (aka grade point average) but you get your high school marks in As, Bs and Cs or a percentage.  So how does your 90% in English and your C+ in math get converted into a 3.0. It sounds pretty complicated.  You did after all only get a C+ in math

Here’s the ABCs on how your As, Bs, and Cs turn into GPA.

Basics Numbers

A 4.0 GPA is straight As. That means you got 93% in all your classes or higher. Pretty much looks like you’ve got a promising academic future.

Obviously  a 0.0 GPA is all Fs or everything under 60%.

Most of you will fall somewhere between the two. And a B average (between 83 and 86%) is 3.0.

Colleges have different GPA cut-offs for getting in. You can fill out your profile and use our Match to profile tool on our college search page, to find schools that match your GPA.

Doing the Math

Here’s how it works at a typical high school. Students get quarter grades and semester grades. It’s the semester grades that count towards your GPA. But your quarter grades are used to calculate your semester grades. So they indirectly matter.

Basically, your letter grades are converted into grade points. Then those grade points are multiplied by the amount of credit that each class is worth. Usually, at high school, each semester long class is worth 0.5 credits (so a year-long class is worth 1.0). You then get the number of grade points earned. These grade points are added together and divided by the total number of credits earned. And there you have it, your Grade Point Average!

Points to Consider

• If you bomb one class, your entire grade point average will go down-even if you have good marks in everything else.
• Colleges see the grades you got in freshman year and they will also count towards your cumulative GPA (the average of all your semester grades since 9th grade).
• Your GPA still counts even after you got accepted into college.  You still have to send your last report card to college.

Number Crunching

These numbers aren’t meant to scare you. Of course marks are important. But they aren’t the only thing. Many colleges have starting seeing you as more than a sum of your parts and are starting to look at the person as a whole. So if your GPA isn’t that good, don’t let the numbers crunch you!