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Unweighted GPA: 3.7
1.0
4.0
SAT: 720 math
200
800
| 800 verbal
200
800

Extracurriculars

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Is a 3.7 GPA Good? Colleges that Accept a 3.7 GPA

What’s Covered:

 

College applications ask for a lot of information about applicants, and your GPA is definitely one of the more important data points. Each college has an average high school GPA for accepted students that prospective applicants can use as a gauge for whether their grades are high enough to meet the college’s standards.

 

This post will help you find schools where the average unweighted high school GPA of enrolled students is 3.7.

 

Not sure what your unweighted GPA is on a 4.0 scale? Use our GPA converter.

 

Is a 3.7 GPA Good?

 

The answer to this question is largely a matter of perspective. Generally, a student’s GPA is “good” if it’s competitive at the colleges they hope to attend. If your high school GPA is at or above your desired college’s average, that’s good! If your high school GPA is below the average, you will need to get it higher to have the best chances of admission.

 

A 3.7 GPA is above the national average for SAT test takers of 3.38, according to a 2016 study, so you should have plenty of college choices.

 

To see how your GPA stacks up at your dream schools, put your information into our free chancing engine. The engine will take your GPA, as well as your test scores, extracurriculars, and course rigor into account to help you improve your application profile.

 

How Do Colleges Evaluate GPAs?

 

Grades are an important component of the admissions process—after all, your GPA is often the first thing an admission committee sees, and it can affect whether or not your application is even read by admissions officers.

 

Many colleges, particularly prestigious schools, use a screening tool called the Academic Index (AI) to quickly evaluate thousands of applications and screen out academically unqualified applicants. A student’s AI is a calculation that boils their overall academic performance—GPA and test scores—down to a single numerical score, which is compared against a school’s average admissions profile to determine whether their application is read.

 

That said, college admissions committees know that GPA varies from high school to high school. Because of this variance, before computing a student’s AI, admissions committees will recalculate applicant GPAs using their own grading systems.

 

Some colleges give more weight to honors and AP classes, while others count only core courses like English, math, science, history, and foreign languages, eliminating electives from GPA. Admissions committees may also take a high school’s difficulty into account. School difficulty refers to things such as a school’s reputation for grade deflation or inflation.

 

Which Colleges Accept a 3.7 GPA?

 

Below are the top colleges that have first-year classes with an average high school GPA of 3.7.

 

It’s worth noting that the schools on this list aren’t the only institutions that students with this grade point average should consider. Many universities neglect to publish average GPAs due to high school variations, so do your research before ruling a school in or out.

 

School Name

Location

School Type

Acceptance Rate

University of Montevallo

Montevallo, Alabama

Public

90%

University of South Alabama | South

Mobile, Alabama

Public

65%

Northern Arizona University | NAU

Flagstaff, Arizona

Public

80%

Arkansas State University – Main Campus

Jonesboro, Arkansas

Public

63%

University of Central Arkansas

Conway, Arkansas

Public

92%

California State Polytechnic University, Pomona | Cal Poly Pomona

Pomona, California

Public

55%

California State University, Long Beach | Long Beach State

Long Beach, California

Public

40%

Chapman University

Orange, California

Private

73%

Point Loma Nazarene University

San Diego, California

Private

82%

Santa Clara University

Santa Clara, California

Private

52%

Soka University of America

Aliso Viejo, California

Private

57%

Colorado State University | CSU

Fort Collins, Colorado

Public

91%

University of Colorado Boulder | CU Boulder

Boulder, Colorado

Public

79%

Connecticut College

New London, Connecticut

Private

40%

Fairfield University

Fairfield, Connecticut

Private

52%

Florida A&M University | FAMU

Tallahassee, Florida

Public

33%

Stetson University

Deland, Florida

Private

94%

University of Miami

Coral Gables, Florida

Private

19%

University of Hawaii at Manoa | UH Manoa

Honolulu, Hawaii

Public

70%

Purdue University

West Lafayette, Indiana

Public

69%

Drake University

Des Moines, Iowa

Private

69%

Iowa State University

Ames, Iowa

Public

90%

University of Kansas

Lawrence, Kansas

Public

88%

Xavier University of Louisiana

New Orleans, Louisiana

Private

95%

Loyola University Maryland

Baltimore, Maryland

Private

83%

Towson University

Towson, Maryland

Public

79%

Clark University

Worcester, Massachusetts

Private

50%

University of Massachusetts Lowell | UMass Lowell

Lowell, Massachusetts

Public

85%

Grand Valley State University | GVSU

Allendale, Michigan

Public

92%

Gustavus Adolphus College

Saint Peter, Minnesota

Private

74%

St. Olaf College

Northfield, Minnesota

Private

56%

University of Central Missouri

Warrensburg, Missouri

Public

71%

New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology | New Mexico Tech

Socorro, New Mexico

Public

97%

Adelphi University

Garden City, New York

Private

77%

Baruch College | CUNY Baruch

New York, New York

Public

51%

Canisius College

Buffalo, New York

Private

78%

D’Youville University

Buffalo, New York

Private

92%

Fordham University

New York, New York

Private

58%

Hunter College | CUNY Hunter

New York, New York

Public

46%

Rochester Institute of Technology | RIT

Rochester, New York

Private

67%

Syracuse University

Syracuse, New York

Private

52%

The State University of New York at Cortland | SUNY Cortland

Cortland, New York

Private

60%

The State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry | SUNY ESF

Syracuse, New York

Public

65%

The State University of New York Polytechnic Institute | SUNY Poly

Utica, New York

Public

77%

Baldwin Wallace University | BW

Berea, Ohio

Private

77%

Oberlin College

Oberlin, Ohio

Private

34%

Otterbein University

Westerville, Ohio

Private

83%

The University of Findlay

Findlay, Ohio

Private

83%

University of Cincinnati

Cincinnati, Ohio

Public

85%

University of Oklahoma

Norman, Oklahoma

Public

73%

George Fox University | GFU

Newberg, Oregon

Private

92%

University of Portland

Portland, Oregon

Private

81%

Elizabethtown College | E-town

Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania

Private

79%

Susquehanna University

Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania

Private

77%

Lander University

Greenwood, South Carolina

Public

69%

Wofford College

Spartanburg, South Carolina

Private

52%

Texas A&M International University

Laredo, Texas

Public

54%

Trinity University

San Antonio, Texas

Private

34%

George Mason University

Fairfax, Virginia

Public

90%

Shenandoah University

Winchester, Virginia

Private

74%

Gonzaga University

Spokane, Washington

Private

70%

Whitman College

Walla Walla, Washington

Private

48%

Howard University

Washington, D.C.

Private

35%

Marshall University

Huntington, West Virginia

Public

97%

Milwaukee School of Engineering | MSOE

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Private

67%

 

How to Improve Your GPA

 

If the colleges that interest you have a higher average high school GPA than 3.7, you may want to consider increasing your GPA. In fact, we recommend trying to get your GPA as high as possible regardless as it will give you more of a competitive edge on your college application.

 

Here are some ways for you to raise your GPA:

 

1. Lighten Your Course Load

 

If you feel like you can master course material just fine but don’t have the time to do so, you could be taking too many time-consuming or advanced classes. Perhaps if you lightened your course load a bit, you would be able to devote the proper amount of time to each course and have more time to study overall. Don’t worry–colleges won’t penalize you a bunch for taking 3 advanced classes instead of 5.

 

2. Switch Up Your Courses

 

Perhaps your course load is fine, but you’re just not interested in the classes that you are taking. You should listen to what your grades are telling you. Take classes that you are truly interested in and have a passion for, and you’ll find that good grades come more naturally.

 

3. Take Something Extracurricular Off Your Plate

 

Maybe you’re taking all the right classes at the right level of difficulty, but you don’t have time to study due to other commitments. This could be a lot of extracurricular activities, a demanding job, or even family responsibilities that you can’t ignore. If this sounds like you, see if you can lessen the amount of non-academic activities you are pursuing to use that time to focus on studying.

 

4. Phone a Friend

 

There are many ways that you can get extra help if you are struggling in a class. You can reach out to your teacher and try to arrange a time for one-on-one help with the material. You can seek out a tutor, preferably someone who took the class recently and with the same instructor. You can look online to see if the topics that you are struggling with have been covered by someone else in a way that makes sense to you.

 

There are plenty of resources out there that can help you understand the material better. You simply have to commit to seeking them out yourself.

 

What if You Don’t Have Time to Improve Your GPA?

 

If you are in your last year of high school or are planning on applying to college without taking any more classes, you should turn your attention to aspects of your application that are still in your control like your essays, test scores, and letters of recommendation. 

 

Because of the importance of the Academic Index, we recommend you focus on performing exceptionally well on your standardized tests to ensure that your application is read by admissions officers.

 

A 3.7 GPA is above average, so you don’t need to worry too much about improving your GPA—you should still have a good shot at getting into most schools.

Brooke Elkjer
Blog Writer

Short Bio
Brooke is a film and television production assistant, originally from Dallas, Texas. She holds Bachelor’s degrees in English and Neuroscience from the University of Southern California. At USC, Brooke was a producer for the intersectional feminist production company on campus, a Resident Assistant (RA), and a student worker for the Thematic Option Honors GE Program. In her free time, Brooke enjoys reading, writing, and watching Gilmore Girls.