What is the difference between your cumulative GPA and your overall GPA? Most students tend to think that these two grades are one and the same, but they could not be more different! Cumulative GPA is simply the average of all your grades throughout college, while overall GPA includes only grades earned for courses taken within your current major.
What is Cumulative GPA?
Cumulative GPA is the term used to refer to a student’s Grade Point Average (GPA) over the course of their entire time at school. Cumulative GPAs are usually calculated at the end of each academic year, and take into account all of the grades that a student has received up to that point. Cumulative GPAs can be a useful way for students to keep track of their academic progress, and for schools to measure the academic achievement of their students. However, it is important to note that a Cumulative GPA is not the same as a Weighted GPA, which takes into account the difficulty of the courses that a student has taken. For more information on Cumulative GPA, please see our article on Cumulative GPA.
What is an Overall GPA?
Overall GPA refers to the Grade Point Average calculated for all courses taken at a college or university, including those in which a student received a failing grade. The Overall GPA is important because it is often used by employers, graduate schools, and professional schools to assess an applicant’s academic performance. The Overall GPA is calculated by dividing the total number of grade points earned by the total number of credits attempted. For example, if a student earned a total of 30-grade points and attempted 36 credit hours, their Overall GPA would be 3.0. The Overall GPA is just one factor that employers, graduate schools, and professional schools may consider when making admissions decisions; however, it is often an important one. Therefore, students should strive to maintain a high Overall GPA throughout their academic career.
Difference between Cumulative GPA and Overall GPA
Cumulative GPA and Overall GPA are often confused because they both measure grade point averages. However, there is an important distinction between the two. Cumulative GPA includes all of the grades that a student has earned over their entire academic career. In contrast, Overall GPA only includes grades from the current academic term. For this reason, Cumulative GPA is a more holistic measure of a student’s academic performance. As a result, it is generally given more weight by colleges and employers. Nevertheless, both Cumulative GPA and Overall GPA can be useful measures of a student’s progress and should be monitored throughout their academic career.
Conclusion
So what is the difference between your Cumulative GPA and Overall GPA? The Cumulative GPA takes into account all of the grades you have ever earned in college, while the Overall GPA is simply the average of all of your grades earned as a freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior. This can be important information to know when considering graduate schools or future employers.
