I’ve been looking at merit based financial aid for different colleges recently, and I noticed the GPA cutoff for A TON of them is 3.5, and I have two questions about this
1.) I know each school is different, but in general are admissions/scholarships based on weighted or unweighted GPA? Some colleges will specifically say that it is one or the other, but most do not. Is there a general rule for this?
2.) For scholarships that have a 3.5 GPA requirement, would something between a 3.46 and a 3.49 be rounded and considered as a 3.5? Again, it may be hard to make generalizations, but I don’t know if there is a standard that I’m just not aware of.
Thanks in advance for your input 
I can only speak for the ones that I know the best, and those ones are for The University of Alabama which has the 3.5 GPA req’t, along with req’d test scores…
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Bama takes whatever the highest GPA is on your transcript for grades 9-11. So, if that’s weighted and it is 3.5+, then super.
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If your school doesn’t weight GPA, then Bama will accept your GC writing the weighted GPA on your transcript and sending that in (do the math for your GC and have her write it on there, if necessary).
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Bama does NOT “round up”. You need the 3.5 for the assured merit. Bama does NOT super-score, either.
However, there have been cases where someone with high test scores, but a 3.4X GPA, and the person has written a nice note to the Admissions Director, and she’s awarded the merit. These are case by case situations and you can’t depend on those.
Which schools are you looking at???
I’m looking at Univeristy of New Orleans. Based on my ACT score and my gpa they’ll give me a full ride, but only if it is rounded up (I have a 3.48 and the requirement is a 3.5)
Where my kids went to college, they did not round up…or down…at all when looking at GPA.
That doesn’t seem right. Most students ‘real’ gpa goes into an obnoxious number of digits (e.x. 3.7293758) but a college has never in my experience asked for more than 3 digits. So if a college asked for three digits, using the example, wouldn’t it be fair to call that a 3.73? And if a college only asked for two digits a 3.73 would be rounded to a 3.7? (So coming back to my question, the particular scholarship I’m looking at does not ask for a 3.50 gpa, just a 3.5. It seems like it would make sense to round.)
Mandy, why don’t you contact the college and ask them. In my experience, the line in the sand is flexible at some and not for others. I mean really…if they allow you at 3.48, then what about the kid who is 3.44? The schools have to have a threshold of some sort. In some cases, this is fluid, but in others…it simply is not 3.48 does not meet the 3.5 threshold…and if the school is not flexible, you will not be considered for any award that REQUIRES a 3.5…because you don’t have that.
Yes I would ask them if the GPA they consider is unweighted, weighted, all subjects or just academic subjects, rounded up or not, etc
Mandy’s post is correct. “Rounding” is a deterministic process. There is no concept of rounding “up” or “down”. 3.47 to the nearest two digits MUST be rounded to 3.5 mathematically. If these schools are saying the threshold is 3.5 and denying 3.47, it is NOT correct. I think we need to educate these schools (perhaps get one of their math professors to weigh in) that saying “3.5” is DIFFERENT from saying “3.50”
Mandy needs to contact the school or scholarship entity. Some do NOT round up at all…or down. She needs to ask them.
Admissions officers are rarely mathematicians. If you want your GPA rounded you need to get your school to show it that way on your transcript.
Good luck getting the school to report your GPA by rounding up. That .1 or .01 difference is sometimes what is used to determine class rank. Our school won’t do,anything to change the transcript…unless there is an error.
I took the general advice and contacted the school. This college does admissions and scholarships based on weighted GPA so (thankfully) the rounding thing isn’t an issue in this case. Thanks everyone for your input!