How do colleges calculate GPA? Do they include electives, just your major (s) or every single class of your degree?

In my experience, cumulative GPAs are calculated in consideration of your overall performance. That is, they do reflect prerequisites, courses in your major, electives -- everything.

For certain purposes, though, a particular authority may isolate the GPA of a subset of classes. For example, let's say you're a journalism major in undergrad, and you apply to get into a graduate journalism program at some other school. It very vell may be that the graduate admissions committee will look at your overall undergrad GPA to gauge your suitability for further study, but give particular consideration to the isolated GPA in your major courses to gauge your suitability to study journalism specifically. They may not necessarily hold against you the "D" you got in the Basketweaving 101 elective, for example. The same goes for institutions that may consider you for, say, scholarships, grants and internships in a certain discipline. In any event, you shouldn't take this leeway for granted. But rather ask.

Also consider:

* Not all institutions operate on a 4.0 GPA scale.

* Some institutions weight plusses and minuses; some don't. (e.g., an "A-" may or may not be calculated differently than an "A")

* Not all institutions adhere to the standard 90%,80%,70%,60%, and below cutoffs for "As," "Bs", "Cs", "Ds" and failing, respectively.

Read up on policy or, again, ask.

[Edited 3/27/11 6:35am]

Pretty easy.

Each grade has a value for each credit hour you earn.

A = 4

B = 3

C = 2

D = 1

F = 0

Each class has a number of available credit hours (normally 3).

If you complete the class, you will earn all 3 credit hours available.

Then you multiply it by the number value for each credit hour (1,2,3, or 4).

Therefore, if you earn a C, your credit hours are valued at 2 for each hour.

So 2 x 3 hours available is 6.

You do it for all your classes.

So let's say you got a B in another subject (a value of 3 for each credit hour).

So 3 x 3 is 9.

So for your first class, your grade point is 6. For your second, it is 9.

You add up all your classes (9 + 6) and get 15. 15 is your Grade points

accumulated. Now, it's time to get your Grade Point "Average"....

To do that, you divide 15 by the number of credit hours available for all your classes combined. (3 for your first class, and 3 for your second class makes 6).

So 15 divided by 6 gives you a 2.5 GPA if you got a B in once class and a C in the other.

.

[Edited 3/27/11 6:10am]

[Edited 3/27/11 6:11am]

Note, your cumulative GPA is your total number of Grade points from all the years you've attended combined, divided by the total number of available credits of all those classes combined.

It's actually a simple formula.

Oh, you also have to take into account classes that count only as credit but not against the GPA--they throw things out of whack a bit, but it's still easy despite.

SagsWay2low said:

Oh, you also have to take into account classes that count only as credit but not against the GPA--they throw things out of whack a bit, but it's still easy despite.

Oh yeah! Those nutty "pass/fail" sessions and audited classes.

Lammastide said:

SagsWay2low said:

Oh, you also have to take into account classes that count only as credit but not against the GPA--they throw things out of whack a bit, but it's still easy despite.

Oh yeah! Those nutty "pass/fail" sessions and audited classes.

You said nut

thanks Lammastide and Sagsway2low.