Purdue GPA Calculator

Purdue GPA rules at a glance

• An A+ and an A are both worth 4.0 at Purdue. Below them the scale runs from an A- at 3.7 and a B+ at 3.3 down to a D- at 0.7, and E, F and IF all count as 0.
• Thirteen marks stay out of your GPA, among them P, N, W, I and AU.
• Retake a course and only your most recent grade counts in your cumulative GPA, even if it’s lower than the first one. You can enroll in the same course up to three times.
• A semester GPA or a cumulative GPA under 2.0 at the end of a fall or spring semester puts you on academic notice.
• The Dean’s List asks for a 3.5 cumulative GPA and a 3.0 semester. Semester Honors asks for a 3.5 semester and a 2.0 cumulative.
• You need a 2.00 cumulative GPA to graduate.

How to use the Purdue GPA calculator

This Purdue grade calculator starts with a sample student so every result is visible at once: a 3.20 GPA over 30 GPA hours, and a semester of Calculus I, General Chemistry I, English Composition and Public Speaking, plus a one-credit elective taken pass/not-pass. Swap the rows for your own courses and the results follow as you type.

1. List this semester’s courses. For each one, enter its credit hours and the grade you got or expect. Every grade in the list shows its index points, while P, W, I and the other marks that stay out of the GPA are listed separately underneath.
2. Mark any retakes. If a row repeats a course you already took at Purdue, set its Retake box to the grade you had the first time. The calculator takes that earlier attempt out of your record and counts the new grade instead.
3. Fill in your record if you have it. Type your GPA hours and quality points, or your current Purdue GPA with your GPA hours. Skip it and you’ll see one semester on its own.
4. Pick the term and your college. The Dean’s List and Semester Honors checks only run for fall and spring semesters, and your college decides which distinction line you’re compared with.
5. Set a target. Type the cumulative GPA you want to reach and next semester’s credit hours to see the semester GPA it takes.

You get your semester GPA and cumulative GPA with the quality points and GPA hours behind them, your academic standing, both semester recognitions, the distinction line for your college and the plan for next semester. Open “What each course adds” to see each course’s quality points and how a retake was handled.

Where to find your GPA hours and quality points

Open your unofficial transcript in myPurdue and scroll to Transcript Totals, which lists your GPA hours and quality points next to your GPA. Quality points give the exact cumulative GPA, because a GPA rounded to two decimals loses a little on the way back to points. If you only know your GPA, enter it with your GPA hours and the calculator works out the points. Purdue’s degree audit, myPurduePlan, has GPA calculators of its own.

Purdue GPA scale

Purdue’s grading system uses a standard 4.0 grade scale. A plus or a minus moves a letter grade three tenths of a point, so an A- is 3.7 and a B+ is 3.3, but an A+ gets no extra credit: it’s worth 4.0, the same as an A. The catalog calls these values index points, where most schools say grade points, and a course’s quality points are its index points times its credit hours.

A D- is the lowest passing grade. An E is a conditional failure: it counts as 0 until you meet the extra requirements your instructor files with the department, and even then it can only become a D. An F means taking the course again to earn the credit, and an IF is an incomplete you didn’t finish within a year, which counts exactly like an F.

Not every course uses pluses and minuses, and the catalog sets index points, not percentage bands, so your syllabus says which percentage earns which letter. If it gives a scale, the percentage to grade calculator lets you type in those cutoffs and see where a score lands.

These marks can appear on your record instead of a grade, and none of them goes into your GPA:

How Purdue calculates your GPA

Your GPA, or grade point average, is an average weighted by credit hours: your quality points divided by your GPA hours. A letter-graded course adds its credit hours times its index points to your quality points and its credit hours to your GPA hours. A course with any of the marks above adds nothing to either total.

Purdue keeps three of these averages. Your semester GPA covers one semester’s grades. Your cumulative GPA, which the catalog also calls your overall GPA, covers every grade you’ve earned as an undergraduate, after the repeat rule described below. Your program GPA comes from the degree audit for one major and is used when you apply to change majors. Some Purdue advising pages still call the first two the semester index and the graduation index.

A worked example

Here’s the semester the calculator opens with:

The semester GPA is 53.0 ÷ 15 = 3.533, which shows as 3.53. The elective earns its credit, but a P carries no index points, so it adds nothing to either total.

Now add the record so far: 96 quality points over 30 GPA hours, which is a 3.20. The cumulative GPA becomes (96 + 53.0) ÷ (30 + 15) = 149 ÷ 45 = 3.311, or 3.31. A strong semester lifted the cumulative by about a tenth of a point.

Decimals and rounding

The calculator shows each GPA to two decimals and rounds a third decimal of 5 or more up. Purdue’s catalog gives no rounding rule, so if your result sits within a few thousandths of 2.00, 3.00 or 3.50, check the GPA in myPurdue before you count on clearing the line.

Retaking a course at Purdue

If you take a course again, only your most recent grade goes into your Purdue cumulative GPA. The earlier attempt stays on your transcript, but its quality points and hours come out of the average, and the transcript marks it with an E, for “exclude,” beside its quality points. That E is a marker, not the conditional-failure grade from the table above.

The rule has limits. Purdue expects you to plan a repeat with your academic advisor, and you can enroll in a course that isn’t marked repeatable up to three times. The retake has to be the same course in the same grade mode, so a letter-graded first attempt isn’t replaced by a pass/not-pass retake. A different but equivalent course counts only if the faculty member in charge of the course authorizes it, and transfer credit from another college can’t remove a Purdue grade.

Most recent means most recent, even when the retake goes worse. Retake a B, finish with a C, and the C is the grade in your cumulative GPA. The repeat rule is written for the cumulative GPA; a semester GPA is still the average of that semester’s own grades.

A retake, worked through

Say you have a 3.00 over 60 GPA hours, which is 180 quality points, and one of those courses was a 4-credit C+. Retake it for an A and the C+’s 9.2 quality points come out while the A’s 16.0 go in. The hours stay at 60, so the cumulative becomes (180 − 9.2 + 16.0) ÷ 60 = 186.8 ÷ 60 = 3.11.

In the calculator, enter the course with its new grade and set its Retake box to C+. The breakdown under the result then shows the row replacing the earlier C+.

Academic Renewal after five years away

The catalog has one more way to take old grades out of your GPA, meant for students who come back after a long break. If you’re readmitted after at least five years away from Purdue, you can petition the Readmission and Academic Renewal Committee to recalculate your GPA. Every Purdue graded course from before your return then carries zero credit and adds nothing to your cumulative or program GPA, but it stays on your transcript. To qualify, you must:

• petition within a year of the start of the semester you return
• be in good standing
• have completed at least 12 credit hours since coming back
• not have used it before, because Purdue grants it only once

To calculate your GPA under Academic Renewal, leave the record so far empty and enter only the courses you’ve taken since you returned.

Professional schools count every attempt

Purdue’s repeat rule only governs Purdue’s GPA. The application services for health and law programs work out their own GPA from your transcript and ignore a college’s grade replacement. AACOMAS (DO programs), ADEA AADSAS (dental schools), PharmCAS, VMCAS (veterinary schools), PTCAS, CASPA (PA programs), NursingCAS, SOPHAS (public health) and OptomCAS (optometry) all count every grade for a repeated course in their GPAs. AMCAS (MD programs) asks you to enter every attempt and its grade even when your college forgives the earlier one, and the LSAC counts both grades for law schools whenever the transcript shows them. Purdue’s transcript keeps the first attempt. So a retake does more for your Purdue GPA than for an application GPA.

Pass/not-pass, withdrawals, incompletes and E grades

Pass/not-pass

A P stands for any grade from A+ down to C-, and an N for anything lower. Neither one enters your GPA, so a course you take pass/not-pass can’t lower your GPA, whatever happens in it, and can’t raise it either. Pass/not-pass courses can make up no more than 20 percent of the credit hours your degree requires, and your school decides whether a P course can satisfy its requirements.

Dropping a course

At West Lafayette, a course you drop in the first two weeks of a fall or spring semester leaves no record. From week 3 through week 13 you can drop it with your academic advisor’s approval, and it stays on your transcript with a W, which has no effect on your GPA. After week 13 a course can’t be dropped, so the grade you earn is the grade that counts. Summer and winter sessions use the same deadlines scaled to their length.

Incompletes

An I means you were passing when something outside your control interrupted the course. You have up to a year to finish the work; your instructor then gives the grade it deserves, and that grade enters your cumulative GPA. Leave it unfinished and the I turns into an IF, which counts as an F. A PI or SI that isn’t finished turns into an IN or IU instead, and neither affects your GPA. You can’t enroll in a course again while you still hold an I, PI or SI in it.

E grades

An E counts as 0 in your GPA until it’s improved. Meet the requirements your instructor set by the end of your next semester of enrollment and the E becomes a D, worth 1.0, in every GPA from then on. Miss that window and the E is permanent, unless your school and the department agree to give you more time.

The GPA you need next semester

Two Purdue college advising pages call this the required semester index: the GPA you need this semester to bring your cumulative GPA to a target. The plan fields in the calculator work it out for you. By hand, it’s

Take a student on a 1.80 after 30 GPA hours, which is 54 quality points, who wants a 2.00 after a 15-hour semester: (2.00 × 45 − 54) ÷ 15 = 2.40. The calculator may show 2.39, because a cumulative of 1.995 rounds to 2.00.

The further into your degree you are, the less one semester can move. Straight A’s over 15 hours lift a 2.80 to 3.20 after 30 GPA hours, to 3.04 after 60 and only to 2.97 after 90. That’s why retakes matter late in a degree: replacing a 4-credit F with an A swaps 0 quality points for 16 without adding any hours, so credit for credit it moves a cumulative GPA far more than a new course does.

Academic notice and separation at Purdue

Purdue places you on academic notice at the end of a fall or spring semester when your semester GPA or your cumulative GPA is under 2.0. Older catalogs called this academic probation. Notice ends at the end of the first later fall or spring semester in which both GPAs are 2.0 or higher.

Separation only comes after notice. If you’re on notice and you finish a fall or spring semester with both your semester GPA and your cumulative GPA under 2.0, you’re separated from the University. With one of the two at 2.0 or higher you stay enrolled on notice, and with both at 2.0 or higher the notice ends. The standing line in the calculator says which of these applies once you enter a record and this semester’s courses.

Summer doesn’t count toward standing. Purdue doesn’t assess notice after a summer session, though summer grades go into the cumulative GPA that the next fall or spring review uses.

After a separation

A first separation means sitting out at least one semester, and a second means at least a full year. Readmitted students come back on academic notice, can take no more than 15 credit hours and need at least a 2.0 semester GPA. The catalog lists a few exceptions, such as a senior who can finish the degree in one more semester of 15 or fewer hours with their department’s support.

If you return after five or more years away, Academic Renewal can also take your earlier Purdue grades out of your GPA.

Dean’s List, Semester Honors and graduating with distinction

Purdue recognizes a good semester in two ways, and they reward different things. The Dean’s List is for a strong record: it needs a high cumulative GPA and asks only for a solid semester. Semester Honors is for a strong semester, whatever your record looks like.

Both are named at the end of the fall and spring semesters, and the hours are hours that count in the GPA, so pass/not-pass credit doesn’t help you reach them. A 3.40 cumulative GPA with a 3.90 semester earns Semester Honors but not the Dean’s List. A 3.60 cumulative with a 3.10 semester earns the Dean’s List but not Semester Honors. A 3.6 and a 3.7 earn both.

Graduating with distinction

Distinction isn’t a fixed GPA. Each spring, every college takes the 90th percentile of its graduates’ GPAs as its distinction line, never lower than 3.30, and the top three-tenths of those who qualify graduate with highest distinction. Those spring lines then apply to the following summer and fall graduates. You need at least 60 credit hours earned at Purdue in your GPA to be considered, or 35 for an associate degree, and engineering graduates are all ranked together as one school.

These were the lines for May 2026 graduates:

Because the lines come from each spring’s graduating class, they move from year to year, and a line from May 2026 is a guide rather than a promise. The calculator compares your cumulative GPA with your college’s May 2026 lines once you pick your college.

Purdue GPA requirements

The GPA Purdue looks at depends on what you’re after. First-year admission looks at your high school record and transfer admission at your college GPA. Keeping financial aid, a Purdue scholarship or a place in the Honors College comes down to your cumulative Purdue GPA, the figure this calculator works out once you add your record so far.

Getting in as a first-year student

Purdue doesn’t publish a minimum high school GPA, and its admissions office says GPA isn’t a factor in reviewing an application. Admissions readers look at your grades in academic courses, especially those tied to your intended major, the strength of your curriculum and how your grades trend. Purdue still publishes GPA ranges in its class profile, after converting every applicant’s grades to an unweighted 4.00 scale. For fall 2025 the middle 50 percent ran from 3.70 to 4.00, and the incoming class’s average GPA was a record 3.81.

The range runs higher or lower by college:

Transferring to Purdue

Transfer students are admitted to a major, and each major’s admissions page sets its own minimum college GPA. A few examples:

• 2.5 for English
• 3.0 for General Management, along with a B or better in any college calculus course
• 3.5 for Computer Science
• 3.0 for every engineering program, on at least 24 credits of courses that match Purdue’s first-year engineering classes (First-Year Engineering itself is closed to transfers)

Check that your major is open to transfer students before you apply. Once you enroll, your transfer credit counts toward your degree, but your Purdue GPA starts with your first Purdue course.

Keeping financial aid and Purdue scholarships

Federal aid, Purdue need-based awards and scholarships with an academic progress rule all set the same three conditions, and Purdue checks them once a year, after the spring semester:

• a cumulative GPA of at least 2.0
• completing at least two-thirds of the credit hours you attempt
• staying within 150 percent of the hours your degree needs, which is 180 attempted hours for a 120-hour bachelor’s degree

Transfer hours, repeated courses, withdrawals and incompletes all count as attempted, so a W that never touches your GPA still pulls down your completion rate, and so does retaking a course you’ve already passed.

Trustees and Presidential scholarships ask for more: a cumulative 3.00 at the end of each spring semester and at least 12 credit hours every fall and spring. If you finish a spring under 3.00, summer courses can still lift you over it, and Purdue checks again when summer ends.

Staying in the Honors College

The John Martinson Honors College expects a cumulative GPA of at least 3.3 through your third and fourth years, alongside the honors credits and scholarly project you need to graduate with honors. HONR courses and H contracts have a lower bar: any Purdue student with a 3.0 can take them.

Program GPAs: CODO, MAI/EAI and core GPAs

Your cumulative GPA isn’t the only Purdue GPA that can decide things. Your program GPA is worked out from the degree audit for one major, using only the courses that count toward it, and Purdue uses it when you apply to change your degree objective (CODO). Each major lists its CODO requirements for each catalog term, and some ask for a minimum GPA in a set group of courses rather than overall.

Some schools keep their own averages as well. The Daniels School of Business keeps a Management Admissions Index and an Economics Admissions Index, each built only from specific Purdue courses, and Mechanical Engineering tracks a core GPA.

First-Year Engineering students at West Lafayette move into a major through Transition to Major (T2M), which runs three times a year, after the fall, spring and summer terms. Majors at or over capacity choose on GPA, the Engineering Admissions Index (also shortened to EAI, but a different index from the Daniels one) and other factors. Students who miss their first choice can stay in First-Year Engineering to retake courses, unless they’re already in their fourth semester there.

This calculator can work out any of them. Leave the record so far empty, enter only the courses that program counts, and the GPA it shows for this term is that program’s GPA. Your degree audit and your advisor have the exact course list.

How this calculator works

This Purdue University GPA calculator applies the grading rules in Purdue’s 2026-2027 University Catalog: the index points from A+ to F, the marks left out of the GPA, the repeat rule, academic notice and separation, the Dean’s List and Semester Honors, and the distinction rule, with each college’s May 2026 lines from Purdue’s commencement pages. Each GPA calculation runs in whole hundredths of a point and of a credit hour, so no rounding creeps in before the last step, where each GPA is rounded to two decimals.

Everything runs in your browser, and nothing you type is sent or stored. Calculate Your Grade has no connection to Purdue University, and your official transcript and your academic advisor have the final word. It isn’t built for graduate grading or for a particular major’s CODO rules, and it doesn’t apply to Purdue Global, Purdue Fort Wayne or Purdue Northwest, which publish their own catalogs.

Sources

• Purdue University, University Catalog 2026-2027: Academic Regulations, including Grades and Grade Reports, Scholastic Indexes, Academic Notice and Separation and Scholastic Recognition
• Purdue University, Commencement: Eligibility for commencement, with the May 2026 distinction thresholds
• Purdue Polytechnic Institute, Office of Academic Advising: Academic Standards
• Purdue University, College of Science: About the Dean’s List and Semester Honors
• Purdue University, Daniels School of Business: Upper Division Requirements, with the Management and Economics Admissions Index courses
• Purdue University, School of Mechanical Engineering: Academic Notice, with the ME Core GPA rule
• Liaison application services, GPA calculation help pages: AACOMAS, ADEA AADSAS, PharmCAS, VMCAS, PTCAS, CASPA, NursingCAS, SOPHAS and OptomCAS
• Law School Admission Council: Transcript Summarization, repeated courses
• Association of American Medical Colleges: Application Tips From the AMCAS Verification Team
• Purdue University Global, Academic Catalog 2026-2027: Academic Grades and Marks
• Purdue University, Undergraduate Admissions: Class Profile, fall 2025, and Engineering Transfer Criteria, with each major’s transfer requirements on its admissions page
• Purdue University News: fall 2025 enrollment, with the incoming class’s average GPA
• Purdue University, Division of Financial Aid: Manage Aid, with the Satisfactory Academic Progress policy, and How to Renew Aid
• Purdue University, John Martinson Honors College: Honors Curriculum
• Purdue University, College of Engineering: Transition to Major (T2M)

Built and maintained by Mahmudul, the creator of Calculate Your Grade. Purdue rules checked against the 2026-2027 University Catalog in October 2026.

Related calculators

• Waiting on a final exam? The college final grade calculator works out the score you need on the exam to finish a course with the grade you want.
• Combining Purdue with transfer or study-abroad grades for a scholarship or graduate application? The cumulative grade calculator merges several terms or schools into one GPA, though Purdue’s own GPA counts only Purdue courses.

Frequently asked questions