About the Office of the Registrar

What this site is

An educational reference. The site exists because the question "is X GPA good?" depends entirely on context (academic level, programme target, employer expectations, scholarship goal, international comparison) and existing US web resources typically answer it badly. Most existing pages either give a single generic number ("3.0 is the average") or recycle the same handful of vague benchmarks without sourcing.

This site does the work of context: per-academic-level pages, per-GPA-value pages, per-university-tier pages with Common Data Set citations, per-program-type pages with AAMC and ABA data, recovery-strategy pages with the underlying arithmetic, and international-conversion pages with WES and ECE methodology references. Every quantitative claim links to the primary source where it exists.

What this site is not

Not admissions advice. The site provides reference data and frameworks for understanding. Specific admissions decisions are made by individual programmes based on individual application files; no site can predict that outcome reliably. Treat the data here as input for your own assessment, not as a substitute for talking to admissions officers, pre-med advisors, pre-law counsellors, and fellowship advisors.

Not affiliated with any university, testing organisation, or admissions consultancy. The site is independent and editorial. It is funded through optional affiliate links on a small number of pages (currently none in production); the affiliate funding does not influence the editorial content.

Not a substitute for institutional policy. Specific GPA requirements at specific institutions change over time. The site cites institutional policies with sources but cannot guarantee that any specific number remains current. Always verify the most recent published policy directly with the institution before making decisions.

Methodology

Every quantitative claim on the site (admit GPA medians, employer screening percentages, scholarship thresholds, conversion rates) is sourced. Source links appear inline as hyperlinks where the source has a stable URL. Where a claim is observed-but-not-directly-cited (e.g., "observed Rhodes Scholars typically present 3.85+"), the language explicitly flags the inference.

Primary sources used most often on the site:

• NCES (National Center for Education Statistics)
• NACE (National Association of Colleges and Employers)
• AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges)
• ABA Section of Legal Education 509 disclosures
• LSAC (Law School Admission Council)
• OPM (US Office of Personnel Management)
• WES (World Education Services)
• NACAC (National Association for College Admission Counseling)
• Grade Inflation tracking (Stuart Rojstaczer and Christopher Healy)
• Each university's published Common Data Set (CDS) Section C7 for admit GPA distribution

Where institution-specific policies are cited (academic probation thresholds, grade replacement policies, Latin honors structures), the relevant institutional policy URL is linked. Policies update; the linked source is the current source of truth.

Author

Update cadence

The site is reviewed periodically and updated as primary sources publish new data:

• NCES Condition of Education: annual report, typically published in May. Site reviewed within four to six weeks of publication.
• AAMC Facts (Applicants and Matriculants): annual, typically September publication. Med-school pages reviewed in October.
• ABA 509 disclosures: annual, typically December publication. Law-school pages reviewed in January.
• NACE Job Outlook: bi-annual; employer-side pages reviewed after each release.
• Common Data Set submissions: each university publishes annually on its own schedule. Per-university admit GPA references reviewed when the underlying CDS updates.
• OPM rule changes: federal-employment pages reviewed when 5 CFR 338 or 5 CFR 362 updates publish in the Federal Register.

Every page footer carries an "Updated" date that reflects the last substantive content review. Where a specific quantitative claim has been updated more recently than the page-level review, the source link goes to the current authoritative figure.

Disclaimer

Contact and corrections

Found an error? A broken source link? A new primary source that should be cited? Please submit through the contact form at Digital Signet. The site benefits from external review and citation improvements; corrections are reviewed and incorporated where they improve the reference quality.

Educational reference site, not admissions advice. Independent and editorial. All quantitative claims sourced where the primary source has a stable URL.