Grades & Academic Standing

Calculating Your Grade Point Average (GPA)

The university mails grade reports to students every term, so you should always know your cumulative grade point average (GPA). To project your likely GPA for any current or future term, you can use the Puget Sound GPA Calculator.

Good Academic Standing, Probation, and Dismissal

From Puget Sound Logger (Academic Handbook)

• Good Academic Standing: A 2.0 minimum cumulative GPA is required for good academic standing.
• Academic Warning: A student whose cumulative GPA is 2.0 or higher but whose average for a given term is below 2.0 by one or more quality points receives an academic warning letter.
• Academic Suspension: A student subject to warning for 2 consecutive terms is subject to academic suspension for the next term. A student may petition for immediate reinstatement.
• Academic Probation: A student whose cumulative GPA is below 2.0 for the first term by any number of quality points is placed on academic probation.
• Academic Dismissal: A student whose cumulative GPA remains below 2.0 by one or more quality points for the second consecutive term is subject to dismissal from the University:
  • If the quality point deficiency is from 1.00 to 2.99, the student is dismissed for one term. The student may petition for immediate reinstatement.
  • If the quality point deficiency is 3.00 or more, the student is dismissed for two regular terms. The student may petition for reinstatement after one term away.

If I am in academic difficulty how do I return to Good Academic Standing?

If you experience academic difficulty, see your advisor or an advisor in the Office of Academic Advising right away. These people can help you plan strategies to return you to good academic standing. If you are placed on academic probation, you are expected to complete an Academic Improvement Plan with your advisor or a counselor in Academic Advising.  If you are suspended or dismissed, you must complete a Performance Agreement with your advisor or a counselor advisor in Academic Advising, and you must also develop and present an academic plan for return to good academic standing to the Academic Standards Committee before you can be reinstated. So what can you do to improve your standing? 

1. Lighten your academic load. Particularly if you have a job to afford school, reducing demands on your time so that you can give more of it to study makes sense. Other demands on your time (team sports, campus activities, social obligations) should be scaled back as well, of course.
2. Seek help with learning strategies as well as tutoring and/or counseling. The Center for Writing, Learning, and Teaching and Counseling, Health, and Wellness Center have a lot to offer, from tutoring to instruction in time management to test anxiety relief. Successful students at every level make use of the services these offices provide. Check with them--you may be surprised. 
3. Play to your academic strengths. Your problems may have started when you took classes that either didn't really interest you or didn't fit your skills. To get back on your feet academically, take coursework in areas where your talents and interests lie.
4. Repeat courses when they might help you redeem yourself more quickly. The university permits students to repeat courses (once only) to improve their grades. Only the higher of the two grades will count in your GPA, and that could really make a quick difference in your academic standing (see the example below).
5. Remember this, however: if you hated the course or could not do the work in it the first time through, don't expect things to be different the second time. Course repeats make sense only when you believe you can and will raise your grade in the second attempt. Follow the "2-letter" rule: since a repeat will usually make a real difference in your GPA only when you raise the grade by two letters (from F to C, for example), repeat courses only when you know you can improve by that much. If the class bored you to tears the first time, or if you couldn't understand a thing that went on, don't torment yourself by retaking it. A second miserable grade in the same course is doubly wasteful; it doesn't improve your GPA and it delays your academic progress.