A student's GPA, or Grade Point Average, is one of the biggest factors when it comes to college and career planning. The GPA is the culmination of all grades earned by the student over the course of their 4 years in high school, and this is what colleges look at to get a sense of whether the student would be able to succeed at their school.

One of the biggest factors for college and career planning is a student's Grade Point Average (GPA). This is calculated beginning in a student's freshman year all the way until they graduate. Usually, GPA is on a 4.0 scale, but when a student takes Honors or AP courses, it gives their GPA a small bump— this is because AP and Honors courses are on a 5.0 scale.

If a student gets an A in an AP or Honors class, it is worth more GPA points than if they got an A in a standard course. This is why some GPAs can be over 4.0. GPAs which include the extra points from AP and Honors classes are weighted GPAs, but students still have an unweighted GPA that treats all classes with equal weight. So, even a student that has a weighted GPA that is over a 4.0 might have an unweighted GPA that is below 4.0.

How to check your GPA on Aspen

Log into Aspen and click on "My Info". On the left, click on "Transcript'. From there, on the left there will be a tab that says "Grade Point Summary". When you click on this, it will show you your GPA from each school year, and your current cumulative GPA.

What is a "Good" GPA?

There is no such thing as a GPA too low to go into college or career programs—there is usually no minimum GPA requirement for community college, as well as for most trade schools and certificate programs. In this sense, all GPAs can be good depending upon what a student is interested in doing. However, many 4 year colleges have GPA cut-offs around 2.0 or 2.5, and generally the higher the GPA a student has, the more academically competitive they are for admission.

There are ways around these cut-offs, such as attending community college and then transferring with your new college GPA! If students have had extenuating circumstances, such as illness, absence for school, personal obstacles, etc that have impacted their grades while in high school, this is something that can be communicated to the college as well—you can meet with the College and Career Office to communicate this to schools when you apply.

GPA Best Practices

Check your GPA consistently, at the end of each term. If you know you're falling behind on work, check with your teachers to see how you can catch up. You should have a general idea of your GPA at all times.

Remember that while you don't need to have a high GPA to be successful, working to have the best GPA you can will serve you in your career and college prospects!