

On the flip side, a 3.5 GPA is pretty good if the student started taking AP classes freshman year, and also took some post-secondary classes. A 4.0 GPA isn’t impressive if the student only took easy classes. When evaluating your GPA, colleges care a lot about the rigor of your classes. You can still determine how strong your GPA is based on two other factors. If your school doesn’t rank, that’s okay. Colleges like to compare students from the same high school, as they’re more likely to have been given similar opportunities. If your high school ranks, you’ll be able to get a better idea of how your GPA stands amongst that of your peers. The best way to determine the strength of your GPA is to consider 3 factors: how you compare to others at your school, the rigor of your classes, and the average GPA of the colleges you want to attend. Other schools may not even use the 4.0 scale altogether. 5 points higher, while others don’t weight honors courses at all. Some schools may also weight honors courses 1 or. There are also weighted and unweighted GPAs, with weighted GPAs giving AP/IB courses a GPA value of 1 point higher than on the standard scale. Most schools and colleges use a 4.0 scale, with a 4.0 equaling a solid A. Whether a GPA is good or not is a difficult question to answer given that GPA is not standardized. It’s not the best GPA, and it doesn’t make you competitive for the very best schools, but it’s still above average, and you should still be competitive for many schools. It equates to about an A- average, but is slightly lower (3.67 is an A-). Overall, a 3.5 GPA is above the average of 3.38. Conducting a holistic review of candidates’ applications means taking all of the pieces into account when making an admissions decision. Colleges also look at standardized test scores, the level of the courses you’ve taken, extracurricular activities, your essay, recommendations, and more. GPA is not the sole determining factor regarding whether you’ll get into certain colleges.
What factors influence the college admissions process? Furthermore, there are many excellent schools with an average GPA of 3.5 for their freshman class. That said, colleges will review other components of your application, so you shouldn’t assume a highly selective college is completely out of reach. While it’s a fairly strong GPA, you’ll be competing with students with higher ones, including many people with 4.0s. As you look towards the college admissions process, you’re probably wondering what GPA you’ll need to secure a spot at a top school.Ī 3.5 is between an A- and B+ average.
