How is the GPA Calculated at UT?

Colleges and Universities A-Z The University of Texas at Austin
1

<p>How is the GPA Calculated at UT? I'm doing premed so I'm aiming really high.</p>

2

<p>Starting in the fall, UT goes to the +/- scale. </p>

<p>A+ and A 4.0
A- 3.67
B+ 3.33
B 3.0
B- 2.67
and so on.</p>

<p>That grading scale goes into effect in all colleges at UT.</p>

3

<p>Thanks! I was hoping it would be like A&M where there aren’t + and -. So what are the numbers required to get an A+, A, and A-?</p>

4

<p>There is no A+, so that is why I hate this system. I am not really sure where they exact grade cut offs are, but I would imagine it would be like 90-92 or 90-93. I am glad I had a couple years in the regular GPA system so now I got my GPA high enough to take the hopefully take the hit.</p>

5

<p>I don’t believe there has been any cutoff numbers established for the +/- system yet. At least I’ve never seen any numbers anywhere. I’ve heard the reason there is no A+ worth 4.33 is that grad schools would then rescale UT GPAs down .33 to make it into a 4.0 scale, thereby lowering everyone’s GPA. At least that is the excuse given out by advisers.</p>

6

<p>It may be left up to the professor. They are simple switching to the grad school grading scale, and they simply classify grades as A-, A, B+, etc. I think a teacher can just assign straight a’s, b’s, and c’s if they want to.</p>

7

<p>do you’ll think that the plus and minus will make average GPA higher or lower?</p>

<p>i am trying to transfer into McCombs internally so I will basically need a 3.7-4.0 next year and i am getting a little worried about this plus and minus.</p>

8

<p>Yeah you probably should be a little worried. Basically anybody who has above a 3.5 will be negatively affected by this. This is because there are no A+'s to balance out the A-'s, so it makes everything all kinds of messed up. They argue that this will combat grade inflation, but all it is doing is lowering the people with high GPAs down and moving the people who get a lot of borderline B’s up.</p>

9

<p>This is the text of an email sent to my by my adviser recently about this topic.</p>

<p>

</code></pre>

10

<p>Foxshox is right, of course. This will have an adverse effect on the GPA of high-GPA students, especially those who have GPAs over 3.67.</p>

11

<p>Whew, I’m glad my son was under the old system for the last two years. He is applying for the MPA this spring and the average gpa is 3.7, which he has, but I bet some of those A’s were really A-'s :)</p>

<p>It won’t matter for him any more in the fall because he should already be accepted.</p>

<p>My oldest, who went to UF has liked the +/- system and it hasn’t seemed to affect him negatively. He would usually get a few A’s and some B+'s each semester, so his gpa was higher than if it had been a flat 3 for the B’s. I don’t think any of his professors ever gave him an A- though. Maybe they were just nice ;)</p>

12

<p>Yeah the +/- scale is terrible for students who want to transfer internally, it makes it so much harder. Its good for students who get B’s but bad for students who barely get A’s. I would rather have the old system.</p>

13

<p>Ultimately, the final decision is up to the professor, but from what I hear it goes something like follows:</p>

<p>A: 94+
A-:90+
B+: ~87</p>

<p>etc.</p>

<p>But really, it’s up to your professor, since they’re the ones assigning grades.</p>

14

<p>Wow that’s ridiculous. I don’t know if I’ll be able to get even a few 94+.</p>

15

<p>there is a bigger difference between a person who makes a 91 instead of 89 than a person who makes an 81 instead of an 89.
so this +/- thing is just gonna screw over smart kids. i think if you worked hard for that A, then you deserve that A.</p>

16

<p>I would think internal transfers wouldn’t become more difficult, as they’d likely still try to allow the same amount of it happening. If the mean grade is lower, then the transfers would hopefully be judged accordingly.</p>

<p>Of course, this is government work, so maybe not.</p>

17

<p>No students are happy about it except the few kids who routinely get high B’s but don’t get A’s.</p>

<p>Basically it means you have to work even harder to get a 4.0 now than you ever did before.</p>

18

<p>Would it be worth it to go to A&M because of this?</p>

19

<p>Not unless you want to spend 4 years tipping cows and wearing maroon polyester.</p>

<p>A&M is easier to get a 4.0 at anyways, but an A&M in most fields will not get you as far as a Texas degree will.</p>

<p>Plus they suck at football.</p>

20

<p>Hmm well I plan on doing premed so I don’t think your undergrad matters as much. I’m can deal with living in a rural area but I’ve always wanted to go to UT. I know I can get A’s but probably not many 94+. My high school grades have been mostly low A’s and very few that were mid to high.</p>