Registrar's Office

Frequently Asked GPA Questions

For which purpose is the Overall GPA used?

Requirement for graduation. This means that grades earned in transfer courses applied to your student account after Spring semester 2015 will not be used in calculating the required 2.00 GPA to graduate. See below for information regarding which GPA is used to determine graduation honors.

For which purposes is the Overall Combined GPA used?

· Your Academic Standing (Good Standing, Warning, Probation, or Suspension): This means that your academic standing will not include grades in transfer courses applied to your student account after Spring semester 2015.

· University Scholarship Renewals: With the exception of Athletic scholarships, all University scholarships will use this GPA to determine eligibility to retain/renew scholarships. This means that grades earned in transfer courses applied to your student account after Spring semester 2015 will not be used in calculating the required GPA for scholarship retainment/renewal.

For which purposes is the Inclusive Combined GPA used?

· Federal Financial Aid Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP): In order to continue to receive financial aid, you must meet all standards of progress outlined in the SAP requirements (www.tntech.edu/financialaid/sap/), including GPA as determined by the Inclusive Combined GPA.

· Graduation Honors: This includes honors such as cum laude, magna cum laude, summa cum laude, and the W.A. Howard Award. This means that grades earned in all courses from all collegiate institutions will be used in determining if you graduate with any of these honors.

Which GPA is used to determine my eligibility for the Tennessee HOPE Scholarship?

HOPE eligibility is determined by a completely different GPA known as the TELS GPA and is available to students in Eagle Online.

Which GPA is used to determine eligibility for specific academic programs such as Upper Division Nursing, Teacher Education, etc.?

You should check with the specific academic department responsible for such programs.

What happens if I take a course at Tennessee Tech and then repeat that course at another institution? Does my new grade from another institution replace my grade from Tennessee Tech?

 Transfer grades are not used in the calculation of your Overall and Overall Combined GPA.  While the original course /grade can be marked repeat, and therefore removed from the GPA calculation, the GPA from the transferred course will not count in the calculation of the Overall/Overall Combined GPA.  

It is important to understand that transfer credit hours are still counted in your earned hours, but the grades from those transfer courses will no longer be used in the calculation of your Overall and Overall Combined GPAs.

For example, let’s say you first attempted Math 1710 at Tennessee Tech and made a grade of F, and then you repeated Math 1710 at Nashville State Community College and made a grade of A. The grade from Nashville State will not be calculated in the overall and overall combined GPA; however, the F from Tennessee Tech would be excluded from the calculation of your Overall and Overall Combined GPAs, thereby slightly improving those grade point averages.

Transferred grades are included in the GPA calculations for the Inclusive Combined GPA (used for financial aid eligibility and graduation honors).  

Will my transfer credit still be visible on my transcript?

Yes. From this point forward, grades in transfer courses will show on your Tennessee Tech transcript with a leading T. For example a grade of A will transfer to Tennessee Tech as a TA, a grade of B as a TB, a grade of C as a TC, etc.

Does this new policy apply to transfer credit from community colleges only or from all institutions?

The new policy applies to transfer credit earned at any institution—2-year and 4-year, public and private.

Are the grades from my dual enrollment courses from high school counted in my GPA?

If you took dual enrollment courses in high school from an institution other than Tennessee Tech, those grades are treated like any other transfer course grades. They are not used in the calculation of the Overall and Overall Combined GPAs, but they are used in the calculation of the Inclusive Combined GPA. It is important to note that grades earned in dual enrollment courses taken during high school are not used in the calculation of TELS GPA which determines eligibility for the HOPE Scholarship.