At Pearl River Community College, we know that many of our students strive to maintain a certain GPA in order to qualify for scholarships, group memberships, special recognitions, and even acceptance into universities and programs.
First, it’s important to know a little about different types of GPAs.
- Institutional GPA – Your intuitional GPA considers all coursework completed at PRCC, including courses that may not count towards your PRCC degree. Your institutional GPA only considers your highest grade in each course that you may have repeated. Your institutional GPA does not consider any transfer credits.
- Transfer GPA – Your transfer GPA considers all transfer coursework that PRCC has accepted and posted to your transcript. Your transfer GPA does not consider any coursework completed at PRCC.
- Overall GPA – Your overall GPA considers all coursework, including courses that may not count towards your PRCC degree and including transfer coursework that PRCC has accepted and posted to your transcript. Your overall GPA only considers your highest grade in each course that you may have repeated.
- Degree GPA – Your degree GPA is not seen on your transcript. Your degree GPA can be found in Degree Works and considers only courses used towards your degree. Your degree GPA is used to award honors and special honors status at graduation.
While PRCC does provide each of these GPAs to you on either your transcript or in Degree Works at the completion of each semester, we understand that you may want to attempt to calculate your GPA on your own before your official results have been released.
Now that you know more about GPAs, you can try your hand at calculating your own GPA.
PRCC’s GPA calculations are completed based on quality points earned in each course along with the number of credit hours awarded for each course.
Quality Points Conversion Chart
| Grade | Quality Points |
|---|---|
| A | 4 |
| B | 3 |
| C | 2 |
| D | 1 |
| F | 0 |
The following steps and example will help you to calculate your GPA:
| EXAMPLE GPA CALCULATIONS | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Determine how many credit hours each course is worth. |
Credit hours can be found on the transcript under “hours” or “credit hours” or in the college catalog (see below). Catalog Example: |
| 2 | Add up the credit hours for all courses that will be included in the GPA. | Example 3+3+3+1+3+3 = 16 total credit hours |
| 3 | List the grade earned in each course. | Example ENG 1113 – A BAD 1113 – C BIO 1113 – B BIO 1111 – A LLS 1313 – A PSY 1513 – C |
| 4 | Convert the grade earned to quality points using the Quality Point Conversion Chart above. | Example ENG 1113 – A = 4 quality points per credit hour BAD 1113 – C = 2 quality points per credit hour BIO 1113 – B = 3 quality points per credit hour BIO 1111 – A = 4 quality points per credit hour LLS 1313 – A = 4 quality points per credit hour PSY 1513 – C = 2 quality points per credit hour |
| 5 | Determine the total number of quality points earned for each course. | Example ENG 1113 – 3 credit hours x 4 quality points = 12 quality points BAD 1113 – 3 credit hours x 2 quality points = 6 quality points BIO 1113 – 3 credit hours x 3 quality points = 9 quality points BIO 1111 – 1 credit hour x 4 quality points = 4 quality points LLS 1313 – 3 credit hours x 4 quality points = 12 quality points PSY 1513 – 3 credit hours x 2 quality points = 6 quality points |
| 6 | Add all of the quality points. | Example 12+6+9+4+12+6 = 49 total quality points |
| 7 | Calculate the GPA. Total Quality Points ÷ Total Credit Hours You may remove all but 2 decimal places, but do not round up. |
Example 49 total quality points ÷ 16 total credit hours = 3.0625 GPA = 3.06 |
Click here for printable instructions and calculation chart.
GPA calculations are very sensitive. Any mathematical error could make a large difference. For the most accurate GPA you should refer to your final transcript and/or Degree Works (Degree GPA).