My daughter in in undergrad for speech pathology. She started out as a physical therapy major and did very poorly her first semester. She transferred in 23 credits which don’t count towards her GPA. At the end of her first semester sophomore year she has a 3.186 cumulative average. Grad school admission requires a 3.7 GPA. She only has four semesters of college left, including this one, but we could have her take an extra semester if it’s necessary. Is it even possible to raise her GPA that much?
3.18 is the avg for the 1st four semesters of college. If she got a perfect (and unlikely) 4.0 per semester for 5 more semesters of college, then:
(3.184 + 4.05) ÷ 9 = 3.645
Yikes! That’s what I was afraid of for her. Thanks so much for the helpful reply!
Another option exists in many cases. She may be able to re-take some of her lower scoring classes for more credit. This is probably the only way to really have a shot. It would take some serious work, but it is technically possible…or she can keep adding credits, but the law of diminishing returns will make them less effective as she goes.
That’s worth a shot. Thanks again for the advice.
That’s not quite right because 1) the first 3 semesters of credit don’t count towards the student’s GPA, because she transferred them in, and 2) GPA is calculated on the basis of an average weighted by credit load, not simply by class or semester count.
Assuming that the 3.18 GPA is based upon 16 credits (just one semester’s worth)
3.18 * 16 credits = 50.88 quality points
And if she got straight As for the next four semesters, and took 16 credits each semester:
4.0 quality points * 64 credits = 256 quality points
256 quality points + 50.88 original quality points = 306.88 / 80 total credits = 3.83
So if she got straight As, it would be possible for her to raise her GPA above a 3.7.
But she’d have to get an average of a 3.9 every semester from here on out in order to raise her GPA above a 3.7. If she only gets a 3.8 average her cumulative GPA would be around a 3.67, and an average of a 3.7 from here on out would give her a 3.56. (Again, these are assuming 16-credit semesters. The results would be fairly similar for 15-credit semesters, but will vary if she takes an overload or takes summer classes).
Also, a lot of people talk about diminishing returns and how it’s difficult to bring your GPA up once it’s down in the beginning. While that’s true, it’s not due to early vs. late. GPA credits are weighted the same no matter when you took them in school - a 3.18 semester in your freshman year has the same impact on your GPA as a 3.18 semester would have in your senior year, assuming you take the same amount of credits.
For example, let’s say she had a 3.75 GPA after her first 64 credits: 3.75 * 64 = 240 quality points.
Now let’s say she gets a 3.18 in one 16-credit semester: 3.18 * 16 = 50.88 quality points.
240 + 50.88 = 290.88 / 80 credits = 3.63
But the number would be exactly the same if you did the 3.18 semester first and the four 3.75 semesters second. Commutative property of addition.
Averages don’t have momentum. It’s simply due to the nature of an average - if you take a really high number and add it to a really low number and then divide, you get a number somewhere in the middle The less you divide by the more each number impacts the average, so she’s at a disadvantage because she only has roughly 80 total credits to achieve a high GPA instead of a full 120.