1. FYE 1101 Freshmen Success Strategies
Calculating Your GPA
Today we will talk about your GPA, why it is important now, why it will be important in the future, and how to calculate your GPA and develop a GPA plan.

2. Is your GPA important while you are in college?
Eligibility for many organizations, clubs, and teams
Eligibility for awards
Eligibility for scholarships
Semester GPA below > academic probation
Multiple semesters below > possible suspension
Let’s talk about them from bottom to top:
There are many awards that have GPA requirements. Same for organizations, clubs, and teams. Participation in the Co-op program requires a 2.00 cumulative GPA (that’s your total GPA, for all semesters combined). Most fraternities and sororities have minimum GPA requirements. The NCAA has requirements for varsity athletes. The Famous Maroon Band requires a 2.00 for their scholarships. The Montgomery Leadership Program requires a 3.0.
For any semester, if your semester GPA is below 2.00, you will be on academic probation the next semester. The ramifications of probation are not extremely dire. You are limited to taking 16 credit hours – that’s pretty much the extent of it.
However, if your semester GPA is below 2.00 and you have already been on probation at least one semester (not necessarily the previous semester), you may face academic suspension. The actual rules for suspension have several parts, so it’s not as simple as ”two semesters below 2.00”. (see next slide)
Important note: Even if you receive academic suspension, there are possible paths that will allow you to stay in school without missing a semester. Remember the Learning Skills Support Program (LSSP).

3. Is your GPA the only important factor while you are in college?
College should help a student grow.
Grow in knowledge
Grow in experiences and situations
Grow in understanding the world
Academics help us grow in knowledge.
Other experiences help us grow in other ways.
Your GPA is definitely NOT the only important factor. Other growth is what we are trying to achieve in many of our activities, such as our service activity.

4. Is your GPA important after college?
Graduate school admission standards
Minimum GPA required by employers/interviewers, used to tighten the applicant pool
GPA is seen as a measure of long-term effort and success
Virtually all graduate schools will consider your undergraduate GPA as an admissions criteria. In many cases, they may look at your GPA over your last 60 hours, realizing that many students grow during college.
We have several students in our class who want to work with animals -- the Vet School requires a 2.80 or higher for admissions into their programs.
Many employers have far more than enough applicants for their jobs, and will use GPA as an initial screen. They may not even talk with a candidate who has below their minimum GPA.
Many people look at the GPA as a measure of your ability to operate over the long-haul – can you dedicate yourself for four years and work consistently over those four years?

5. Is your GPA the only important factor after college?
The actual interview is crucial. Be prepared!
Work experience is extremely valuable.
Your GPA will probably be used for little more than an initial screen. You need the GPA so the employer will talk with you. But once you begin talking, the interview process is likely to be far more important. This is your opportunity to sell yourself. Do a good job of it!
Employers will look at the complete package – your academic history, the interview, work experience, references.

6. Upcoming Assignment: GPA Plan (page 26)
We want to work together toward your success, and we want to be by your side. We want to work toward a goal – a specific GPA goal. This assignment will help us set a good goal.
This assignment is due Monday, October 2, at 11:59pm.
Today we will talk about your GPA, why it is important now, why it will be important in the future, and how to calculate your GPA and develop a GPA plan.

7. freshman.msstate.edu
We have a GPA Calculator available at freshman.msstate.edu. This is available, of course, on any device that has a web browser, whether it’s a desktop computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone. The smaller phone version, however, does not show all of the detail that the desktop version shows.

8. GPA Calculator
Our GPA Calculator can be used as a planning tool, but we’ll talk about that in a moment. First, let’s talk about how your GPA is calculated.
The first thing to know is that some classes do not count in your GPA. MA 0103, EN 0103, LSK 0103, and many labs do not count. Those will be indicated in the table (as shown for MA 0103).
Every class counts as a certain number of “credit hours”. That value is normally the rightmost digit in the course number, so FYE 1001 is a 1-hour class, BIS 1012 is a 2-hour class, and EN 1103 is a 3-hour class. There are some exceptions to this. When you see a course like SLCE 4990, it is not 0 credit hours.
Your grades in your classes earn “quality points”. An A earns 4 points, a B earns 3 points, a C earns 2 points, a D earns 1 point, and an F earns 0 points.
Now we’re ready to calculate. For every class in which you have a grade, write down the number of “quality points” that correspond to your grade in the class.
Write down the number of credit hours for that class.
Multiply those two numbers: points times hours.
Now add up the Hours column, add up the Points*Hours column, and divide total Points*Hours by total Hours, and that is your GPA.
Interesting fact: the GPA is not rounded to two decimal places, it is truncated after the hundredths place. So if you have a , that’s 2.99, not That’s because “they” don’t want to be a really requires a So we don’t round, we truncate.

9. GPA Planner
We can also use our GPA Calculator as a planning tool. We have talked many times about a goal GPA – a SMART goal GPA, whether it’s 2.00 or whatever goal you have set for yourself. First, what is the point of setting goals? What will happen if you don’t have a goal GPA?
In the text field at the top, you can enter your own personal SMART goal GPA. Your current GPA, in the bottom right, will be shaded in red if it’s lower than your goal, or green if it’s higher.
After you set your goal GPA, you can use the dropdown lists of grades to develop a plan for how you’re going to achieve that goal GPA. Here we have a goal of Our current grades are giving us a GPA of We need one of two alternatives:
Lower our GPA goal, or
Improve one or more of our grades.

10. GPA Planner
We might call this “what-if analysis” – and it’s something we do in work all the time. It’s one of the great benefits of a spreadsheet program, and our calculator is a lot like a spreadsheet – look at the columns and rows, just like a spreadsheet.
We’re not just picking grades at random – we’re trying to develop a plan based on grades that we believe we can achieve. Don’t just pick an A because it will make your GPA higher – pick the grade that you believe you can earn in each class. Your plan can be ambitious, but it’s not realistic if it’s not achievable.
We did not have a grade reported in History. Maybe we know that we have some good grades in the class, we believe we can make a B in the class. And we believe we can pull our F in Psychology up to a D. If we can do those two things, and hold our current grades in our other classes, we can achieve our goal GPA of We would be above that goal, with a 2.61.
It seems like we have a plan. Click the green button to save it.

11. GPA Planner
Now we have a plan. Every day we can come back to the GPA Calculator to track our progress toward our goal. At MSU, we have “any time grade reporting” – teachers can submit grades not just on the two progress grade dates, but any day during the semester. So every day, your grades could change. You can use the GPA calculator to create a plan for your success, and monitor your progress toward achieving your goal.

12. GPA Planner
You might come back to your plan tomorrow, and you see that now you do have a grade posted in History. It’s a C – your plan had a B for History, so this is not the news you were planning for. We may need some action – either lower our goal GPA, or come up with a plan for how we are going to improve our grades.
Plans are a lot more valuable if you implement them, and compare actual results with your plan as time goes by. It’s not enough to just save a plan, and then forget it. We need to re-visit the plan frequently, and make adjustments as needed.

13. How can we improve our grades so we can achieve our GPA Goal?
Click on the gear icon on the far left to commit to some Success Strategies for this class.

14. Commit to some Success Strategies.

15. Upcoming Assignment: GPA Plan (page 26)
We want to work together toward your success, and we want to be by your side. We want to work toward a goal – a specific GPA goal. This assignment will help us set a good goal.
This assignment is due Monday, October 2, at 11:59pm.
Today we will talk about your GPA, why it is important now, why it will be important in the future, and how to calculate your GPA and develop a GPA plan.

16. Financial Management
Any outstanding account balance should be paid by October 9.
Check your account statement by logging into mystate.msstate.edu (or mystate mobile), goingto myBanner for Students, and looking under Account Information.
Resources that can help you: Account Services, and Financial Aid, both in Garner Hall.
Be sure to pay your account balance so you won’t have a Hold that prevents you from registering for summer school and/or fall classes.

17. After-Class Activity (course packet page 14)
We have an online activity after each class. Follow the instructions on page 14 to complete tonight’s activity. The activities are due at 11:59pm each Tuesday night.
Finally, every Tuesday, we will have an online activity. These are always quite short, and you can even do them on your phone. You can do it immediately after class, before you even leave the room, so you’re sure that you completed it. This is one point each week, so 15 total points of your grade.

18. If you did not scan your id card…
Be sure to come talk to the designated Navigator after class. Attendance is part of the grade in this class. Be sure to bring your id card, and be sure to scan successfully every week.