A credit-weighted average of every term
Cumulative GPA is not a simple average of each term's GPA — it is credit-weighted. Multiply each term's GPA by its credit hours to get that term's quality points, add the quality points across every term, then divide by total credit hours attempted across your entire academic career.
Why a 12-credit semester and an 18-credit semester count differently
A term with more credit hours contributes more quality points to the cumulative total, so a strong GPA in a heavy course load raises cumulative GPA more than the same GPA in a light course load. This is also why one bad semester matters less as total credit hours accumulate over time.
Combining GPA across high school and college
High school and college GPA are calculated and reported separately — colleges do not merge a high school GPA into a college transcript's cumulative GPA. Use this calculator to combine multiple college semesters, or multiple high school years, but not the two together.
Repeating a course and cumulative GPA
If your school replaces a repeated course's original grade in GPA calculations, recalculate that term's GPA with the updated grade before entering it here. If your school averages both attempts instead, include both grades in the term where each was originally earned.
Academic standing and cumulative GPA minimums
Financial aid, scholarship renewal, and academic probation policies are almost always based on cumulative GPA rather than a single term's GPA, since it reflects overall academic performance rather than one term's results.