UCSD GPA Calculator

UCSD GPA rules at a glance

Most GPA calculators run on a generic 4.0 scale. UC San Diego’s rules differ in a few places that change the number you see, so this page and the calculator above both work from what UCSD publishes in its General Catalog and on TritonLink.

How UC San Diego calculates your GPA

Your UCSD GPA, short for grade point average, is a weighted average of your letter grades. Multiply each letter-graded course’s units by the grade points for its grade, total those products, then divide by the letter-graded units alone. UC San Diego runs on the quarter system and counts each course in units rather than a semester school’s credit hours, so enter the units listed for the course. A quarter of four 4-unit courses puts 16 units behind the GPA.

The Registrar works out one GPA over every course you take at any University of California campus, not only at UC San Diego. Courses taken through UC San Diego Extension stay out.

UCSD then cuts the result at three decimals instead of rounding it: TritonLink’s own GPA guide tells students to keep three digits after the decimal point and not round. Your official cumulative GPA appears on your Academic History, which moved from MyTritonLink to the new Triton Student System (TSS) for Fall 2026.

A worked example: how 3.5666 becomes a 3.566

The calculator above opens with a typical quarter. Here’s the arithmetic it runs:

42.8 ÷ 12 = 3.5666…, which UCSD records as a 3.566. A school that rounds would show 3.567. The Pass in Intro to Sociology earns its 4 units toward the degree but adds nothing to either side of the division.

The student started the quarter with a 3.100 on 40 GPA units, which is 124.0 grade points, and General Chem I is a second try at a course first failed with an F. The retake falls inside the first 16 repeated units, so the F leaves the record with its 0 points and 4 units, leaving 124.0 on 36 units. Adding this quarter gives 166.8 ÷ 48 = 3.475 cumulative. If the F stayed in, the cumulative would be 166.8 ÷ 52 = 3.207.

Using the UCSD GPA calculator

1. List this quarter’s classes. A name for each one makes the breakdown easier to read, but you can leave it out. Grades come from a dropdown, where P, NP, W, I and IP sit in a separate section because none of them affects the GPA.
2. Flag retakes. In the Repeat column, choose the grade the retake replaces. If earlier quarters already used some of your 16 repeat units, type that number into Repeat units used so far, so the calculator knows how many are left.
3. Choose the courses for a specific GPA. In the Specific GPA column, pick Specific GPA for each course in your major or minor. If you know your specific GPA and its units so far, add those too.
4. Add your record so far. Copy your UC GPA and GPA units from your Academic History; they cover the quarters you’ve already completed. From those, the tool finds your new cumulative GPA, your standing and where you fall against the Latin honors cutoffs. If you also know your total grade points, enter them for an exact result.
5. Pick your standing and graduating year. Choose your standing at the start of the quarter and the year you expect to graduate, which sets the Latin honors cutoffs. A target GPA is optional. Leave it out and the planning line asks for one instead.

The UCSD grading scale

On the UCSD GPA scale, grade points go to A, B, C, D and F. Instructors can add a plus to a B or C, worth 0.3 more, or a minus to an A, B or C, worth 0.3 less, and have been able to since fall 1983. An A+ also exists: it marks exceptional work but earns the same 4.0 as an A, so no quarter can lift your GPA above 4.000.

Grades that don’t count in your GPA

Several codes on a UCSD record have no grade points attached, which keeps their units out of the GPA. A few of them can still turn into grades that do count.

What about percentages?

UC San Diego has no campus-wide percentage scale. Each instructor decides which scores earn which letter and should explain it at the start of the quarter, so the same 90 percent can be an A- in one course and a B+ in another. Only the letter matters to your GPA.

Which courses count in your UC GPA

The GPA on your Academic History is a UC GPA. It takes in letter grades from every University of California campus, so a course at another UC campus counts the same as one at UC San Diego. UC Education Abroad and the UC Washington and Sacramento programs count too. Grades you transfer in from a community college or another university don’t count, even when the units do, and neither do UC San Diego Extension courses.

Graduate students have their own GPA, worked out only from courses taken while in graduate standing. The School of Medicine and the Skaggs School of Pharmacy grade required courses Honors/Pass/Fail and electives Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory, so their students’ records don’t fit a 4.0 calculator.

Major, minor and upper-division GPA

UCSD calls these a specific GPA. Its method: pick the courses that count from your Academic History, multiply each grade’s points by its units, add them up and divide by the units, keeping three decimals. Your department decides which courses belong, and some majors set a minimum GPA across a group of prerequisite courses, so check your department’s list.

The GPA in your major has its own Academic Senate rules, in force since Fall 2022. Only upper-division courses that fulfill a major requirement count, an F never counts, and a D counts only if your department accepts it for the major. If you’ve taken more qualifying courses than the major needs, only the best grades count, so with 15 required and 18 taken, the best 15 are used.

To match it here, mark just those courses in the Specific GPA column, leave out any F, and add your specific GPA and its units so far. UCSD’s GPA guide says a retake adjusts only your cumulative GPA, so the calculator counts the courses you mark exactly as you enter them.

Repeating a class at UCSD: the 16-unit rule

You can repeat a course in which you got a D, F, NP or W, as well as a C- in a course approved for the Entry Level Writing Requirement. Otherwise, a course passed with a C- or higher can’t be repeated, and if the first grade was a D or F, the repeat has to be taken for a letter grade.

For undergraduates, the first 16 units of courses repeated after a D, F or NP stay out of the GPA calculation. The new grade counts and the old one doesn’t, whatever you get the second time. Once you pass 16 repeated units, both grades count, so the two attempts are averaged. Courses that satisfy the Entry Level Writing Requirement, and their prerequisites, don’t count toward the 16.

• Both grades stay on your transcript, and a repeat code on your Academic History shows how each one was treated.
• Units you repeat after an NP count toward the 16, even though an NP was never in your GPA.
• Repeating a D earns no extra units: you keep the units from the first attempt.
• A third attempt needs permission from your college’s Dean of Academic Advising.
• If a course is repeated after an academic integrity finding, both grades count.
• Graduate students must petition before repeating a course, and both of their grades always count.
• Graduate schools and other institutions may recalculate your GPA with every grade you received, including the ones UCSD leaves out.

The same retake, inside and past the 16 units

Go back to the worked example. With no repeat units used before this quarter, the 4 units of General Chem I fit inside the 16, the F comes out and the cumulative GPA is 3.475. If the student had already repeated 14 units, these 4 would take the total to 18, past the limit, so the F would stay in and the cumulative would be 3.207. Enter your repeat units used so far and the calculator applies the limit for you.

Pass/No Pass and your GPA

A P needs C- work or better, and anything lower is an NP. Neither grade enters your GPA, though a P’s units count toward your degree. Undergraduates in good academic standing can switch most courses to P/NP until the end of week 6.

The limit is one-fourth of your total UC San Diego units. Independent study courses numbered 199 don’t count toward it, and neither does any course taken in Spring 2020, Winter 2021 or Spring 2021. Only P/NP is offered in courses numbered 195, 197, 198 and 199, and your department can require letter grades for courses in your major.

Academic standing: Academic Notice and Subject to Disqualification

At the end of each term, UC San Diego looks at two numbers: your term GPA and your cumulative GPA. Together they put you at one of three levels.

Academic Notice is UCSD’s name for what many schools call academic probation. It’s a warning, and you can keep enrolling. Subject to Disqualification means your college reviews your record and decides whether you can continue. Undergraduates also need a 2.0 cumulative GPA to graduate and must complete 36 units in any three consecutive quarters to keep making minimum progress.

Graduate students are subject to disqualification if their GPA in upper-division and graduate courses taken as graduate students falls under 3.0, or if they collect more than 8 units of F or U grades. They need a 3.0 to finish a degree.

Set your standing at the start of the quarter in the calculator and it shows which level the quarter leaves you at. When you’re under 2.000, it also tells you how many grade points you’re short.

Provost Honors each quarter

UC San Diego doesn’t use the name Dean’s List. Its colleges award Provost Honors instead, each quarter, to students who earn a 3.5 or higher UC GPA on at least 12 graded units at UCSD, with no D, F or NP that quarter. The honor is posted on your transcript.

The worked example qualifies: 3.566 on 12 letter-graded units, with no D, F or NP. Switch one of those three courses to P/NP and it wouldn’t, because only 8 graded units would be left. The Pass in Intro to Sociology doesn’t hurt, since it sits on top of the 12 graded units.

Latin honors cutoffs by graduating year

Latin honors go to about the top 14 percent of each year’s graduating seniors. Summa cum laude is normally limited to the top 2 percent, magna cum laude to the next 4 percent and cum laude to the remaining 8 percent. The ranking uses your final cumulative GPA, cut at three decimals, and you need letter grades for at least 72 quarter units of University of California coursework.

Because UCSD never rounds, there’s no rounding up to a cutoff. A 3.887 misses cum laude for the class graduating in 2026–27, and UCSD makes no exceptions for students just under a line or just short of the 72 units. Pick your graduating year in the calculator to see where your cumulative GPA falls.

Your UCSD GPA is not your UC admissions GPA

If you’re still applying, the GPA UC Admissions uses is a different number. It counts A-G courses from the summer after 9th grade through the summer after 11th grade and ignores plus and minus. Each semester of a UC-approved honors course adds an extra point, up to 8 in all and no more than 4 from 10th grade.

California residents need at least a 3.0 and nonresidents a 3.4. That’s why admitted students’ GPAs are often quoted above 4.0, while a UC San Diego GPA can’t go past 4.000.

What quarter GPA do you need?

The last two fields work backwards. Type your target cumulative GPA and the units you plan to take next quarter, and the calculator finds the lowest quarter GPA that gets you there after UCSD’s truncation. In the worked example, a student at 3.475 on 48 units who wants a 3.50 needs at least a 3.58 next quarter on 16 units. The arithmetic is (3.5 × 64 − 166.8) ÷ 16 = 3.575, which the calculator rounds up to the next hundredth.

How this UCSD GPA calculator works

This UCSD GPA calculator runs on the grade values and rules the University of California San Diego publishes. They come from the Academic Senate’s regulations in the General Catalog and its policy on the GPA in the major. The rest comes from TritonLink’s pages on grades, repeats, Pass/No Pass and academic standing, Undergraduate Academic Advising’s pages on standing and honors, and the Registrar’s Latin honors cutoffs.

The calculator applies the 16-unit repeat rule course by course, cuts every GPA at three decimals, and checks your standing, Provost Honors and Latin honors against the published lines.

There are limits. The calculator can’t see the repeat codes on your Academic History, so it relies on the repeat units you enter. It also can’t tell whether a course meets the Entry Level Writing Requirement, which UCSD keeps outside the 16 units. Standing decisions belong to your college, and the Latin honors ranges move with each graduating class.

Everything runs in your browser and the page stores nothing you enter. Calculate Your Grade isn’t connected with UC San Diego, so your Academic History, your college and the Registrar have the final word.

Sources

• UC San Diego General Catalog: Academic Regulations & Policies (grades and grade points, Pass/Not Pass, repetition of courses, scholastic standing)
• UC San Diego Academic Senate: Grading and GPA Calculations (the GPA in the major)
• TritonLink: How to Calculate a Specific GPA, Grading System, About Grades, Pass/Not Pass, How to Repeat a Class and Academic Standing
• Undergraduate Academic Advising: Academic Standing Review and Academic Honors (Provost Honors)
• Office of the Registrar: Latin Honors (cutoffs by graduating year)
• UC Admissions: GPA requirement
• AAMC: Grades Factored Into AMCAS GPA Calculations and Coursework Details (science GPA for medical school)

Built and maintained by Mahmudul, the creator of Calculate Your Grade. UCSD rules checked against UC San Diego’s General Catalog, the Academic Senate’s GPA policy, TritonLink, Undergraduate Academic Advising and the Registrar’s Latin Honors page in October 2026.

Related calculators

• Comparing UCSD with Arizona State? The Arizona State University GPA calculator follows ASU’s rules, where an A+ earns 4.33 grade points but the cumulative GPA is capped at 4.00.
• Still in high school? The weighted and unweighted GPA calculator works out your high school GPA both ways, which isn’t the UC admissions GPA described above.

Frequently asked questions