A 4.0 grade point average is the top grade in every graded course on an unweighted scale. What that means in practice depends on the scale: a 4.0 scale prices an A at four, and then prices everything below it differently at different institutions. Some scales also record an A+ above four, which changes the ceiling without changing the name.
What a 4.0 scale prices the other letters at
The top of the scale is agreed and the middle is not. Indiana prints A- at 3.7 and B+ at 3.3. Nebraska prints 3.67 and 3.33. Cincinnati prints 3.6667 and 3.3333. Memphis prints A- at 3.84. South Carolina prints B+ at 3.5 and has no minus grades. A student is therefore always on a 4.0 scale and never on the same one.
Scales that reach above four
Arizona State prints an A+ at 4.33 on an otherwise 4.00 table, and caps the cumulative average at 4.00. That is a 4.33 scale for individual grades and a 4.0 scale for the reported average, which is a distinction worth reading carefully before assuming your transcript can exceed four.
What a 4.0 is worth against honours
A perfect unweighted average clears every published Latin honours threshold in this index outright: UMBC's summa band tops out at 4.0, and UConn's floor is 3.7 with a percentile on top. Under a percentile rule it clears the arithmetic and still depends on the class, since UC San Diego caps honours at the top fourteen per cent of graduating seniors however high their averages are.
Questions people ask about what is 4.0 gpa
What is a 4.0 GPA?
The top grade in every graded course on an unweighted scale. It is the maximum reported average at almost every institution, including those that price an individual A+ above four.
Is a 4.0 scale the same everywhere?
Only at the top. The grade points below A differ between institutions, from 3.3 to 3.5 for a B+, which is why the same transcript produces different averages in different places.
What is a 4.3 GPA scale?
A scale that records an A+ above the nominal four, as Arizona State does at 4.33. The cumulative average is normally still capped at 4.00, so the extra value shows on individual grades rather than on the reported figure.