UIUC GPA Calculator

How does UIUC calculate your GPA?

UIUC divides your quality points by your GPA hours, then cuts the result to two decimal places instead of rounding it. A course’s quality points are its credit hours times the grade’s value on the Student Code scale, and GPA hours count only courses graded A+ to F.

GPA = total quality points ÷ total GPA hours

1. Work out each course’s quality points: its credit hours times its grade value, so a 4-hour A- earns 14.68 (4 × 3.67).
2. Total the quality points, and total the credit hours of every course with a letter grade.
3. Divide the points by the hours and keep the first two decimals.

The cut matters at the lines. A 3.95875 becomes 3.95 on your transcript, where rounding would make it 3.96, and one hundredth can decide a line such as the LAS Dean’s List minimum of 3.96. That’s why this University of Illinois GPA calculator shows the transcript’s figure with the longer one beside it.

The same formula gives your term GPA, your Institution GPA and the GPA that includes transfer work; only the courses that go in change. Courses graded CR, NC, S, U, PS, W or AU (an audit) add no quality points and no GPA hours, so they can’t move the result either way.

A worked example from one semester

This is a 16-hour fall semester, the same one the calculator loads as its example, with each course’s credit hours from the Academic Catalog.

56.66 quality points over 16 GPA hours is 3.54125, so the term GPA on the transcript reads 3.54.

A cumulative GPA works the same way, with the term’s points and hours added to the totals already on your record. With 144.00 quality points on 45 GPA hours before this term, the new total is 200.66 ÷ 61 = 3.2895, which shows as 3.28.

In the example, though, ECON 102 is a retake of an earlier C- filed for Campus Grade Replacement. The C- comes off the record, so the calculator shows 3.37; the replacement section below works through the numbers.

UIUC grading scale: what each letter grade is worth

UIUC uses a 4.00 GPA scale with plus and minus grades. An A+ is worth 4.00, exactly what an A is worth, so no GPA at Illinois goes above 4.00. The values come from Student Code 3-103 and apply in every undergraduate college.

If a calculator counts an A+ as 4.33, an Illinois GPA comes out too high. A D-, worth 0.67 grade points, still counts as a passing grade. It converts to CR under credit/no credit. If a grade replacement retake of a D- ends in an F, both grades count and you keep the credit from the D-.

An F also covers a course dropped for an academic integrity violation, so dropping the course in that situation still leaves a zero in your GPA.

ABS meant absent from the final exam, and it counted as a failure. The Student Code lists it as a symbol used before Fall 2025, so new grade reports no longer carry it.

An ABS from an earlier term still sits in your GPA as a zero, though. The grade list keeps “ABS (as F)” for those older courses, and LAS lists ABS among the first grades you can replace.

Grades that never enter the GPA

Only letter grades from A+ to F, and an old ABS, carry grade points at UIUC. The other grades on a transcript add neither quality points nor GPA hours, though several of them still earn credit toward your degree.

Credit/no credit comes with its own limits under Student Code 3-105. No more than 18 hours of it can count toward a UIUC degree. In a semester, a full-time student in good standing can take two CR/NC courses; part-time students and students on warning can take one, and so can anyone in a summer session.

You can’t use it for general education courses, for courses your department names for your major, minor or concentration, or for courses your college requires by name. You have to choose it by the course’s midpoint, which is week 8 of a 16-week course.

Some graduate and professional schools count an NC as an F when they work out an admission GPA.

The PP, NP, PZ and PX grades that some programs use stay out of the GPA as well. Pick any of these grades from the grade list and the course stays out of your GPA; the result lists it by name, so nothing disappears silently.

The four GPAs on your Illinois transcript

Your UIUC transcript carries four GPAs: a term GPA for each semester, a Total Institution GPA for all your Urbana-Champaign courses, a Total Transfer GPA for graded courses from other schools, and an Overall GPA that combines the last two. Transfer grades never enter the Institution GPA, which is the one most UIUC rules read.

Student Code 3-110 bases academic standing on your Urbana-Champaign semester and cumulative GPAs, so a strong transfer record can’t lift you off warning. LAS adds one twist: transfer work that averages below a C can put an LAS student on warning when the combined GPA falls under 2.00.

The tool above keeps the same split. It works out your term GPA and your Institution GPA from your record so far. Its Overall GPA box matches the Institution GPA until you add transfer GPA hours and a transfer GPA.

The graduation line then checks both 2.00 minimums, because Student Code 3-802 asks for a 2.0 on Urbana-Champaign work and a 2.0 on everything combined.

Major GPA and Grainger’s technical GPA

None of the four transcript GPAs is a major GPA, which a department works out from its own list of courses. To estimate one, enter only the courses that count for your major and leave the record fields blank. With no record, the term GPA box shows the GPA of exactly those courses, and you can enter up to 24 of them.

Some Grainger curricula also require a technical GPA (TGPA): a 2.00 in a set of courses to graduate, and a 2.25 in a set of courses to register for advanced-level ones. Grainger’s College GPA, calculated from core engineering courses, can put you on Academic Warning below 2.25.

Your degree audit lists the courses in each set, and entering them the same way gives an estimate of either GPA.

Retaking a course vs Campus Grade Replacement

A plain retake at UIUC keeps both grades in your GPA, and the course’s credit counts only once. Campus Grade Replacement, UIUC’s version of grade forgiveness, is the exception. If you file for it in the first half of the term, only the new grade counts in your GPA, for up to four courses and 10 hours in total.

Student Code 3-309 sets the conditions, and if any one of them isn’t met, the plain-retake rule applies:

• The first grade was a C-, D+, D, D- or F. LAS also lists ABS.
• You get at most 4 replacements, each in a different course, and together they can’t add up to more than 10 semester hours. All of them must be Urbana-Champaign courses.
• You file the request with your college office by the halfway point of the term. That’s the end of week 8 in a regular semester, or of week 4 in a summer session or an eight-week course.
• A variable-credit course is retaken for the same number of hours, and a special-topics course for the same topic.
• The course has no reported academic integrity violation, and you haven’t already been awarded the degree it counts toward.

The first attempt stays on your transcript, marked as repeated for grade replacement, so graduate and professional schools can still see both grades. The replacement also holds when the new grade is lower: a C- retaken for a D leaves the D in your GPA.

If you fail the retake

An F on the retake after a passing first grade (C- to D-) undoes the replacement, and both grades count, as in a plain retake. An F followed by another F keeps both Fs and their hours in your GPA, the Registrar’s grade replacement policy adds.

Either way, the course still takes one of your four courses, and its hours count toward the 10-hour limit. Dropping the course, or withdrawing even late in the term with a W, cancels the request and uses none of the limit.

Two worked examples

Start from the example semester above and a record of 3.20 on 45 GPA hours, which is 144.00 quality points. ECON 102 had a C- the first time, and the retake earns a B.

• As a plain retake, both grades count, so the whole semester simply joins the record: (144.00 + 56.66) ÷ (45 + 16) = 3.2895, a 3.28 Institution GPA.
• With Campus Grade Replacement, the C- leaves your record first. Its 3 hours and 5.01 quality points come off, so the result is (144.00 − 5.01 + 56.66) ÷ (45 − 3 + 16) = 195.65 ÷ 58 = 3.3732, which shows as 3.37.

Now suppose you’ve already replaced two 4-hour courses in earlier terms, 8 hours in all. A 3-hour retake would take you to 11 hours, past the limit, so it can only be a plain retake, while a 2-hour course still fits at exactly 10.

Enter what you’ve used in Replacements used before and Hours replaced before, and the calculator applies both limits for you, the failed-retake rule included.

Academic Warning and the drop rules

You go on Academic Warning at UIUC when your cumulative GPA is under 2.00 or a semester GPA is under 2.00, starting with the next term you’re registered for. A fall or spring semester GPA under 1.00 can drop you from the university, and so can missing the conditions your college sets while you’re on warning.

Academic Warning is the current name for what UIUC used to call academic probation, and the Grainger and Exploratory Studies advising pages both point out the change. Student Code 3-110 sets the campus rules:

• A cumulative GPA below 2.0, a semester or summer GPA below 2.0, or missed program requirements puts you on warning. Your college then sends a notice with the reasons and what you must do to return to Good Academic Standing.
• A semester GPA below 1.0 in fall or spring can drop you; summer and winter sessions don’t count for this rule. So can failing the requirements set while you’re on warning, or not making satisfactory progress, such as failing a required course again and again.
• Your college can waive a drop rule when it judges that your record warrants it.

LAS warning levels

The College of Liberal Arts & Sciences turns a warning into a number: the semester GPA you’re expected to earn next term, on at least 12 graded hours.

If you earn your level but your cumulative GPA is still under 2.00, you continue on warning. If you miss the level, LAS drops you under Code 17 unless that semester’s GPA and your cumulative GPA are both 2.00 or higher.

In LAS, a Code 17 drop is the only kind you can appeal. LAS also drops any student whose semester GPA is under 1.0, summer sessions excepted.

Suppose your record is 63.00 quality points on 30 GPA hours (a 2.10) and your next term is 14 hours at 1.50. Your cumulative GPA falls to 84.00 ÷ 44 = 1.909, which shows as 1.90. That lands in the 1.75 to 1.99 band, so you’d start the next semester on a 2.25 warning.

Grainger and Exploratory Studies

Grainger also places students on warning when the College GPA, calculated from core engineering courses, falls below 2.25, and some of its curricula need a 2.00 technical GPA to graduate.

Exploratory Studies puts any student with a semester GPA under 2.00 on warning and into its PASS support program. You come off warning once your semester and cumulative GPAs are both above 2.00.

In the calculator, pick your college and the standing you started the term in. With LAS chosen, the standing list offers the three warning levels; the other colleges offer Academic Warning. The result names your standing for next term and the reason for it, and for LAS it gives the level you’d be on.

Dean’s List GPA by college

Each UIUC college names roughly the top 20% of its students to the Dean’s List every semester and sets its own GPA line for it. You also need at least 12 hours graded A to F in that semester. Four colleges publish their 2026–27 minimum, and the others don’t.

Students registered with Disability Resources and Educational Services can qualify on 9 to 11 graded hours if they file a consent form by Reading Day (Student Code 3-401). An Incomplete, a DFR or a missing grade holds your name back until the final grade arrives, and then you’re added if you qualify.

With LAS, AHS, FAA or Exploratory Studies picked, the result checks the published line. For the other colleges there’s no cut-off to check. The result tells you instead whether your term has the 12 letter-graded hours the list needs, and it shows the term GPA you’d be judged on.

Graduation honors and the Bronze Tablet

The Bronze Tablet is UIUC’s campus-wide honor for sustained academic achievement. Its rule changes for students who graduate in Summer 2030 or later: from then on, it takes a 4.00 Urbana-Champaign GPA on at least 30 letter-graded hours. Graduation honors, such as the LAS Latin honors, are separate and set by each college.

The Bronze Tablet before and after 2030

The term before graduation is the fall semester for May graduates, the spring semester for August graduates and the summer session for December graduates.

Under the current rule, the top 3% usually sits well above 3.5. The LAS cut-off was 3.99 for 2022–23 and 2023–24 and 4.0 for 2024–25 and 2025–26, and ACES says its top 3% has historically needed a 3.95 or higher.

Transfer students also need a UIUC GPA at least as high as the lowest one among students who qualified with all their work at Illinois. LAS asks transfers for at least 40 hours on campus.

College honors at graduation

Student Code 3-405 leaves graduation honors to each college, and the published rules differ:

Two campus programs sit beside these: the Edmund J. James Scholars honors program that each college runs (Student Code 3-403), and the Campus Honors Program, which takes about 120 entering freshmen each fall as Chancellor’s Scholars (3-402).

Pick LAS, Grainger or AHS and the result shows the honors band you’re in, with the 55-hour check for AHS. For every college, it gives the Bronze Tablet line for the graduation term you choose.

The GPA you need to graduate

To graduate from UIUC, you need at least a 2.0 on the Urbana-Champaign credits that count toward your degree and at least a 2.0 on your transfer and Urbana-Champaign credits combined. Some colleges set a higher line for particular programs.

If you miss either 2.0, Student Code 3-802 gives two other ways to qualify:

• Leave out courses graded D or F, up to 10 semester hours in total, that you completed before your last 30 hours at Urbana-Champaign.
• Earn at least a 2.1 average on your last 60 semester hours at Urbana-Champaign that count for graduation, unless your curriculum sets a higher line.

Courses from other University of Illinois campuses count as transfer work here, and the graduation GPA counts only the courses that apply to your degree. The graduation line in the result checks both 2.00 minimums on your Institution and Overall GPAs. It can’t tell which courses your degree leaves out, though, so your degree audit has the final word.

What GPA do you need to get into UIUC?

UIUC publishes no minimum GPA for admission, and its class profile reports a middle 50% range rather than an average GPA. Among the students it admitted over the past three years, the middle 50% had a high school GPA of 3.70 to 4.00. By college, the range runs from 3.39–3.82 in Social Work to 3.90–4.00 in Grainger Engineering.

A middle 50% means a quarter of admitted students had lower numbers and a quarter higher. The admissions office says that falling outside a range doesn’t mean you’ll be admitted or denied, because your full application matters. 63% of admitted students sent a test score.

These are high school GPAs, a different number from the college GPA this calculator works out. Once you’re enrolled, your UIUC GPA starts with your first Illinois term, and your high school grades play no part in it.

How to use the UIUC GPA calculator with your Self-Service record

1. Open your academic history. In Student Self-Service, choose the Student Services card, then View Academic History/Unofficial Transcript. The transcript totals list your GPA hours, quality points and GPA on the Total Institution, Total Transfer and Overall lines.
2. Copy your Total Institution line. Type its GPA hours and GPA into the record fields, or its quality points for an exact result. A first-semester student has no record yet, so those fields stay empty.
3. Enter the semester you’re working on. One row per course, up to 24, with its credit hours and grade. The grades that stay out of the GPA are in the same list.
4. Mark retakes. Choose Plain retake to keep both grades, or one of Replaces C- to Replaces ABS for Campus Grade Replacement. If you’ve replaced courses before, enter how many and their hours so the 4-course and 10-hour limits include them.
5. Add transfer work. Enter the GPA hours and GPA from your Total Transfer line to see your Overall GPA.
6. Pick your college, your standing and your graduation term. These set the Dean’s List line, the honors bands, the warning levels and the Bronze Tablet rule.
7. Set a target GPA. Enter the Institution GPA you want and next term’s hours, and the plan line gives the lowest term GPA that gets you there.

The example semester loads with the page, and Reset brings it back. Copy puts the whole result on your clipboard, and What each course adds opens a row-by-row breakdown. Everything runs in your browser, and nothing you enter is stored. Calculate Your Grade isn’t affiliated with the University of Illinois, and the GPA on your official transcript is the one that counts.

Sources

• Student Code 2026–2027: 3-103 grade points, 3-104 other symbols, 3-105 credit/no credit, 3-110 academic standing, 3-309 repeated courses and grade replacement, 3-401 Dean’s List, 3-402 Campus Honors Program, 3-403 James Scholars, 3-404 Bronze Tablet, 3-405 graduation honors and 3-802 minimum GPA for graduation
• Office of the Registrar: Explanation of Grades, Check Your Grades and the Campus Grade Replacement Policy
• College of Liberal Arts & Sciences: grades and reports, college distinctions, academic warning or drop status and repeating courses and grade replacement
• Grainger Engineering advising: academic recognition, academic warning and the technical GPA requirement
• College pages: Applied Health Sciences graduation and honors, Fine & Applied Arts honors, ACES honors, and the Division of Exploratory Studies Dean’s List and academic warning policies
• Undergraduate Admissions: class profile; Academic Catalog: courses of instruction (credit hours of the example courses)

Built and maintained by Mahmudul, the creator of Calculate Your Grade. UIUC rules checked in November 2026 against the Student Code, the Office of the Registrar, the college advising pages and Undergraduate Admissions.

Related calculators

• Choosing between Illinois and Wisconsin? The GPA calculator UW Madison students use has AB and BC grades in place of plus and minus steps, and it keeps three decimals where UIUC keeps two. UW–Madison has no grade replacement, so every retake adds a grade to the GPA.
• Weighing Purdue as well? Our GPA calculator for Purdue uses plus and minus steps of three tenths, so an A- is worth 3.7 there and 3.67 at UIUC. At Purdue, the most recent grade of a retaken course replaces the earlier one, with no cap like UIUC’s 4 courses and 10 hours. You can take a course there up to three times.

Frequently asked questions