What’s a good GPA in college?

Posted December 29th, 2009. Categorized under College. 4 Comments

If you thought your GPA stopped mattering once you entered college, I’m sorry to tell you that you’re wrong.

Colleges themselves will use your GPA for a variety of things — you’ll need a good GPA to stay in good academic standing, and your financial aid and scholarships will probably have a minimum GPA that you need to stay above. Sports may require a specific GPA, and other awards and bonuses will be given out according to your GPA. At graduation, different honors may also be assigned to you as well.

After college, your GPA may be used to help employers decide whether or not to hire you. A strong GPA shows that you were on top of your game, while a low GPA shows that you did the bare minimum. Graduate schools also require a GPA, just like your undergraduate applications did.

A general scale:

3.7+: Excellent
3.3-3.6: Very good
2.7-3.3: Average
2.0-2.7: Below average
-2.0: Poor

This is a general rule of thumb, though what a “good” GPA is will inevitably vary based on a couple of important factors:

1. What is your major?

While every major is hard in its own way, some are definitely harder than others. If you’re a chemical engineering student, your course load is probably a bit heavier than a theater major. Usually it’s more understandable to have a low GPA in tougher majors.

2. What do other students in your major have?

How you compare to other students is what makes a huge difference. You can have a 3.6, but if everyone around you has a 3.8, it won’t do much good. This, of course, will depend a lot on your major as well as how hard the typical classes are for those students. This will vary from school to school and major to major, you’ll have to ask around to get an idea where you stand.

3. What school do you go to?

A 3.8 at MIT says a whole lot more than a 3.8 at a community college. The more prestigious your university is, (generally) the more having a high GPA will help you out.

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4 Replies to “What’s a good GPA in college?”

Comments:

1. tommy from home improvement

December 31st, 2009 11:15 am

wow that’s really high standard :(
let me share you my country standard
3.5+: Very Excellent
3.0-3.5: Excellent
2.0-3.0: average
-2.0 : Poor

thanks :D

2. John from Curious Cat Investing Blog

January 1st, 2010 7:30 am

Not many employers care that much about your grades. Many care about having the degree. But even that doesn’t matter that much. We hired a software developer 3 years ago without a degree. He has been excellent – probably the best we have hired. Of course some other companies foolishly probably would not have hired him because he did have the degree.

Grades often matter a great deal for graduate school. Other than that concentrate on actually learning. Challenging courses where you learn and grow are much more important that an easy A in some random course.

Some employers do care. I think Google is great and a great place to work. They care a lot about grades. Which I think is silly but… They developed from a graduate school atmosphere and adopted some of those practices (including caring about grades).

Also some high paying companies care about grades, when looking to hire graduates right out of school. It is foolish (grades are not a great measure for how valuable an employee will be) in my opinion but they do. After you have been out of school 2 years almost no-one cares what your grades were. Most of those that care about grades want 3.7 or above in the courses that matter. Those that care much about grades (a small number) look for those with grades at the very top.

3. Seth

April 19th, 2010 3:31 pm

I went to a private college with a medium-high reputation, and in the spring of my fourth year I was one of the recipients of their top academic award which they give to graduating seniors who have a cumulative GPA of 3.9 or higher as of their final semester. Out of approximately 180 seniors, 9 of them got this award. I don’t know if my GPA of 3.95 (which went up to 3.96 when that semester was over) put me easily into the winning category, but I don’t know if the number 3.95 would make people guess that I got much higher grades than were necessary to put me in the top 5% of my class. A quite large portion of the students made it to 3.5, but every level you move toward the 3.9-4.0 range at a private liberal arts college, the less and less people reach the next level. So there is more difference between, say, a 3.7 and 3.9 GPA than there is between a 3.5 and 3.7 GPA. (Statistically, this is comparable to there being many more people with an IQ between 120 and 130 than people with an IQ between 130 and 140.) If people would keep that in mind, they would have a greater appreciation for GPAs that are higher than 3.9.

4. Seth

April 19th, 2010 3:34 pm

In the third sentence, I meant “I DO know that my GPA of 3.95 put me easily into the winning category, but I DON’T know if the number 3.95 makes this obvious.”

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