4
4 years ago
Admissions Advice

3.6 GPA to at least a 4.0? Is it possible?
Answered

Do you think I can earn a 3.8-4.0 GPA by the end of junior year of the 4th marking period? I'm currently a sophomore and I have a 3.648, I ended this year with my final grades being all A's except one B-? What would my GPA round up to? Will it go up to at least a 3.7? I only took one honors class this year and my final grade was a 93. Next year, I'll be taking two honors classes and one AP. I want to increase my GPA to at least a 3.9 to be able to apply to Ivy League schools! Or at least big average schools like NYU. Even though I had a 3.6 GPA avg. overall through my past years will I be able to increase it?

highschool
IvyLeague
GPA
sophomore
senior
junior
4
14
[🎤 AUTHOR]@julylilys4 years ago

Thank you so much!! By the way, does a GPA count both semesters or does it depend on your final grades?

Earn karma by helping others:

1 karma for each ⬆️ upvote on your answer, and 20 karma if your answer is marked accepted.

3 answers

3
Accepted Answer
4 years ago[edited]

GPAs follow the same rounding rules as regular numbers, so anything at a 3.65 or above would be considered a 3.7 by colleges. You're not quite there right now, but you're close enough that slightly better grades as a junior would get you there.

Likewise, you would need to raise your GPA to a 3.95 to bring it to a 4.0, or a 3.75 to bring it to a 3.8. As for how easy that is to do, remember, a GPA is an average, which means that the closer you get to an upper or lower boundary (4.0 or 0.0, respectively), the harder it will be to move it more in that direction. I'm going to do the math for you, but skip to the end if you want the short answer.

To give an example, say you have six Bs and four As. GPA works by assigning a number to a letter grade, and then averaging those numbers—an A is a 4.0 (an A+ is actually a 4.3 which is the actual upper bound on a 4.0 scale, but only some high schools offer those), B+ is a 3.3, a B is a 3.0, a C is a 2.0, etc.

So six Bs and 4 As = 6(3.0)+4(4.0) divided by 10 = 3.4 GPA.

If I then add 3 As to that, we now have 6(3.0)+7(4.0) divided by 13 = 3.53—so we went up by .130.

If I add 3 more As to that, then it's 6(3.0)+10(4.0) divided by 16 = 3.625—so we only went up by .095 even though we added the same number of As.

Because we're getting closer to a 4.0, that means that you need progressively better and better grades to get big jumps in GPA.

So as for your case, I can actually do this math for you—it's pretty simple. If you have a 3.648 cumulative GPA for your freshman and sophomore year, and you want at least a 3.75, then that means your junior year is going to be 1/3rd of that final GPA. So (2/3) x 3.648 + (1/3)(X) = 3.75. X here is the GPA you need in junior year.

If we just do that algebra, then X = 3.96. That means you need at least a 3.96 GPA in your junior year to have a 3.75 overall—which means that that's about the highest you could bring your GPA up to, unless your school lets you get A+s (because a 3.96 is basically straight As).

So it would be possible for you to get a 3.7 or, maybe, a 3.8. It's not mathematically possible for you to get anything higher than that on a 4.0 scale.

Now for the actual college advice—a 3.7 or 3.8 are definitely fine for you to apply to schools like NYU, or even Ivies. A 3.7 is usually what I've seen to be the cutoff from working with students. But make sure you have strong safeties as well, and aim for a diverse array of schools—not just big private universities like NYU.

3
1
4 years ago

It's possible that it could round up to a 3.7 this year but it's hard to predict without having the full transcript. I think a 3.8 or more is definitely possible if you get As in all of your classes. If you get a B it might bring your GPA down again so it's really hard to predict.

1
0
4 years ago

I track it to 2 decimal places but I can see it being a 3.7 this year but if your school doesn't differentiate between a 100 and 95 for example as long as you get one B a semester and the rest As especially if they are AP/IB classes I can see that happening

0
What are your chances of acceptance?
Your chance of acceptance
Duke University
Loading…
UCLA
Loading…
+ add school
Your chancing factors
Unweighted GPA: 3.7
1.0
4.0
SAT: 720 math
200
800
| 800 verbal
200
800

Extracurriculars

Low accuracy (4 of 18 factors)

Community Guidelines

To keep this community safe and supportive:

  1. Be kind and respectful!
  2. Keep posts relevant to college admissions and high school.
  3. Don’t ask “chance-me” questions. Use CollegeVine’s chancing instead!

How karma works