Average College GPA: Full Statistics

Your college GPA is one way to track your academic progress, but it can also help prospective employers determine how you measure up against other candidates during the application process. Scholarships, internships, and graduate school admissions officials may also heavily consider your college GPA.

This report explores average college GPA statistics, including GPA averages by race and major, the average GPA for first-year students, and grade inflation over the years.

What Is the Average College GPA?

According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the average college GPA was 3.15 in 2020.1 This comes out to be a B letter grade or a percentage range of 83%-86%.

You can calculate your GPA by converting your percentage grade to the 4.0 GPA scale. Some examples include:

• An A/A+ letter grade, or a percentage grade of 93-100%, is equivalent to a GPA of 4.0.
• A B+ average translates to a 3.3 GPA.
• A B- average is a 2.7 GPA.

Average GPA by Gender, Race, and Family Background

Average College GPA by Gender

Men had an average GPA of 3.09 — below the overall average. Women had much higher GPAs, with an average of 3.20 — 0.11 points higher than men. Students who did not identify with either gender had the second-highest GPA of 3.19.^{Note Reference [2]}

Average College GPA by Race

According to NCES, white and Asian students had GPAs above the average, whereas other racial/ethnic groups fell slightly below.^{Note Reference [3]}

• Asian students had the highest average college GPA of 3.31.
• White students had the second-highest, with an average GPA of 3.26.
• Black students had the lowest average college GPA of 2.90.

It is important to keep in mind that GPA performance does not tell the whole story. A history of exclusion for students of color, including segregation laws, discriminatory admission policies, as well as emotional, psychological, and physical obstacles, continue to disadvantage students of color.

Average College GPA by First Language

Students whose first language was not English or Spanish had the highest average GPA of 3.27. Bilingual students whose first languages were English and Spanish had the lowest average GPA of 2.96.^{Note Reference [6]}

Average College GPA and Family Background

Family background seemed to impact GPA as well: The higher the parents' education level was, the higher the student's GPA was.^{Note Reference [4]}

• Students whose parents did not complete high school had the lowest average GPA of 3.05.
• Students whose parents had nonacademic doctoral degrees had the highest average GPA of 3.34.

Younger siblings were also more likely to have higher GPAs than their older counterparts. First siblings had a median GPA of 3.24, whereas younger siblings had a median GPA of 3.32.^{Note Reference [6]}

Average First-Year College GPA by Socioeconomic Class

A student's socioeconomic status appeared to have a strong correlation with academic performance as well. Based on data from a longitudinal study of 2013 high school graduates:^{Note Reference [7]}

• Students from families in the top 20% income bracket had an average first-year college GPA of 2.9, the highest of all income brackets.
• Students from families in the middle 20-60% of income levels had an average first-year college GPA of 2.5.
• Lastly, those from families in the bottom 20% of earners had an average first-year college GPA of 2.3.

Average College GPA and Food Insecurity

Students with higher levels of food insecurity were more likely to have lower average GPAs, showing how food security and academic performance are likely linked. Students with high food security had GPAs 0.24 points higher on average than those with very low food security.

Average College GPA by Major

When broken down by major, students studying a foreign language, economics, and mathematics had the highest average GPAs. Students in psychology had the lowest GPAs, with an average of 3.09.^{Note Reference [9]}

Grade Inflation: Is an A the New Norm?

Grade inflation refers to awarding higher grades than a student may have earned. According to a dataset compiled by journalist and professor Stuart Rojstaczer, grade inflation took off in the 1960s and 1970s due to the Vietnam War, when grades could exempt you from getting drafted into the military.^{Note Reference [5]}

Rojstaczer and his colleague Christopher Healy have argued that from the 1980s onward, grade inflation could be due to a more consumer-based approach to teaching in which generous grades give college graduates better future prospects and lead to better instructor evaluations. Departments then use evaluations to make decisions about pay, promotions, and retention of instructors.

• More than one-quarter (26%) of 600 surveyed liberal arts colleges instituted student course evaluations in 1973.^{Note Reference [5]}
• By 1983, the percentage increased to 68%, and 86% by 1993.^{Note Reference [5]}