Grade Point Average in the USA

It is a standard used across American institutions to evaluate the academic performance of a student in a specific semester or year. The GPA is the (weighted) average of a student’s scores. It’s calculated on a scale of 0 to 4 with 4 being the highest and zero being the lowest. This average can be calculated for a particular course, semester, or even the entire year.

There are two types of GPA – a simple average and a weighted average. The simple average merely adds your scores in all the courses throughout a semester and divides it by the number of courses. This gives the evaluator an idea about your average performance across courses in a pre-defined academic period.
For instance, let’s say this is what your scores look like:

Then, to calculate the unweighted GPA, you add up the scores across subjects (3 + 4 + 4 + 3= 12) and divide it by the number of subjects i.e., 4. So, the unweighted GPA comes out to be 3.

Now, the purpose of calculating a weighted GPA is to factor in the level of difficulty of each course and assess the student’s performance accordingly. To understand how the weighted average works, you need to understand the American system of credits and credit hours. In the US, each course has a pre-decided number of hours assigned to it. These are known as credit hours. Credits refer to the reward earned by a student for their utilisation of the credit hours.

So, the weighted GPA is calculated by multiplying your grade point in each course with the credit earned by you in it and dividing that number with the number of courses taken.

So, let’s say this is what your scores look like:

Now, to calculate the unweighted GPA, you first multiply your grade point and credits in each subject and then add the scores across subjects (4*3 + 3*4 + 3*4 + 4*3= 48) and divide it by the number of credits i.e., 14. So, the weighted GPA comes out to be 3.42.

Here is the meaning of each grade point on the 4.0 scale:

A GPA of 3.0 - 3.5 is considered decent at most universities. Top academic institutions typically require GPAs higher than 3.5. With a lower GPA, you can still get admission but may not be eligible for scholarships.

All you need to do is figure out the range your percentage scores fit into and identify its equivalent Grade Point. Let’s understand this better:

The key to maintaining a good GPA is consistency. If you consistently get grades between 3 and 4, then even if your grade drops to, say, 2 in a particular course, your overall GPA will not be dramatically affected.

In the USA, whether you are applying for a scholarship in college or a job at your dream firm, your GPA plays a key role. It is an indicator of your academic merit as well as persistence. So, start your journey abroad while understanding the importance of this score and try to perform consistently well. If you still falter somewhere and your GPA drops, there is no need to worry as you will still have lots of options but maintaining a decent GPA just makes things a little easier for you.

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