What is a great GPA?
A great GPA on the US 4.0 scale is generally 3.7 or higher, which maps to an A- average or above. Around 3.5 to 3.7 is considered very good, and 4.0 is a perfect score. Many honors programs and competitive grad schools look for 3.5 and up, but a strong GPA always depends on your school, major, and goals.
GPA stands for grade point average. In the United States it runs on a 4.0 scale, where each letter grade becomes a number (A is 4.0, B is 3.0, C is 2.0) and your GPA is the average of those points across your classes. So a great GPA is one that sits near the top of that scale, usually 3.7 or above.
Context matters more than the number alone. A 3.5 in a hard major like engineering can be viewed as stronger than a 3.9 in an easier course load. Some schools also use weighted GPAs, where honors and AP classes can push the scale above 4.0. Latin honors are a useful benchmark: cum laude often starts around 3.5, magna cum laude around 3.7, and summa cum laude around 3.9, though exact cutoffs vary by school.
If you are studying outside the US, GPA is the metric American schools and many international programs use. As a rough guide, a great US GPA near 4.0 lines up with a German grade around 1.0 to 1.3 (where 1.0 is best), or a Spanish grade around 9 to 10 out of 10. These are approximate, since each system grades differently.
| Letter grade | GPA (4.0 scale) | Percentage | How it is generally viewed |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | 4.0 | 93-100% | Excellent, top of the class |
| A- | 3.7 | 90-92% | Great, honors range |
| B+ | 3.3 | 87-89% | Very good |
| B | 3.0 | 83-86% | Good, solid |
| B- | 2.7 | 80-82% | Above average |
| C+ | 2.3 | 77-79% | Average |
| C | 2.0 | 73-76% | Passing, often the minimum |
| D | 1.0 | 65-69% | Barely passing |
| F | 0.0 | Below 65% | Failing |
- 1Add up the GPA points for every class (A is 4.0, B is 3.0, and so on down the scale).
- 2If your courses carry different credit hours, multiply each class's GPA points by its credit hours first.
- 3Add those weighted points together to get your total quality points.
- 4Divide your total quality points by your total credit hours.
- 5The result is your cumulative GPA. Compare it to the table above to see where it lands.