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Understanding GPA: How it Impacts Your Future

Learn what a Grade Point Average (GPA) is, how it is calculated, and why it is important for high school and college admissions. Discover the different types of GPAs and how they are used in scholarships and job opportunities.

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Understanding GPA: How it Impacts Your Future

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Presentation Transcript

  1. Pre-Test

  2. What is a grade point average? • Ask students – • A GPA is a way to convert letter grades or percentiles into a numerical format that usually scales from 0.0 to 4.0 • A GPA creates one number by calculating the average • Because your GPA is made up of all your grades, your GPA is one of the most important things for college admission.

  3. Why understand GPA? • Important part of high school • Impacts your future • Ex: Going to College • Makes you eligible for some great scholarship opportunities • Partial key for future opportunities (Jobs)

  4. GPA ValuesExample: values may vary for your school

  5. How is GPA figured? Add all the converted decimal grades together – this is your sum. Count the number of classes you’ve taken. Divide the sum by the number of classes, and you have your unweighted GPA

  6. Check for Understanding • Figure Bobbie’s GPA for his freshman year:

  7. What is your answer? 35 Grade Points / 10 classes = 3.50 But understand this assumes each class is worth 1 credit. Some schools may have their own unique method of calculating.

  8. Figuring Cumulative GPA • To get each individual year’s GPA, all we need to do is divide the sum by the number of classes. If this division ends up with a long decimal, simply round to the nearest tenth: • *Talk to elbow partner to figure out this students Cumulative GPA

  9. Figuring the *Cumulative GPA for all four years of high school • To get a cumulative GPA for all of a student’s high school career, we can add up the sums for all the years and divide by the number of classes taken over all those years: • 35 + 35.7 + 27.7 + 19.7 = 118.1 (sum of all final grades) • 10 + 10 + 8 + 6 = 34(total number of classes taken) • 118.1 / 34 = 3.47(GPA) • GPA for all of high school is 3.47. • The cumulative GPA is NOT an average of each year because the number of classes taken each year is different. *Some high schools and computer systems may have their own specific method of calculating cumulative GPA. Talk to your school counselor about the specific method your school calculates GPA.

  10. What factors help get a good GPA? • What Do you think? • Effort • Organization • Perseverance • Goal setting • Interest level

  11. Types of GPAs • Unweighted – each class uses the 4.0 to 0.0 scale • Weighted – for classes that have higher rigor like an Advanced Placement or an honors class the GPA scale that might be used is 5.0 to 0.0 • This rewards a student for taking more challenging classes with more grade points and will result in a higher GPA

  12. How is a GPA used? • What do you think? • Highest Honors/High Honors for graduation • National Honor Society eligibility • Class rank – if the school ranks • Scholarships • A factor in college admission – usually only unweighted GPA is used in college admissions

  13. “Freshman Trap”

  14. What are Colleges looking for? • Four key components for admissions: • High school grade point average • ACT or SAT composite score • Class rank (when applicable) • Number of core subject-area courses completed • Revisit your four-year plan each semester

  15. Iowa Board of Regents Admission Index (RAI) www.regents.iowa.gov/RAI 245 or higher = admitted < 245 = individual review

  16. Building a Strong GPA • Talk to your teacher • Create a schedule • Complete homework on time • Study for your tests ahead of time • Take AP courses • Show up for class – attendance counts! • Use a student planner

  17. Foreign Language Requirements • Some colleges may require 2-3 years of foreign language in high school for admission into a college • Be sure to check the freshman admission requirements and graduation requirements of colleges you are interested in on the admissions section of the college website

  18. Iowa’s Regent UniversitiesForeign Language Requirements

  19. Post-Test

  20. Tip of the Week Video • Senior Year Alerts • Career & College Corner Blog • Social Media

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