GPA
Abbreviation with 2 meanings
| Stands for | Grade point average |
|---|---|
| Meanings | 2 |
| Categories | Education & Academia, Units & Measurements |
| Also written | GPa |
GPA has two meanings. It stands for Grade point average (academic) or Gigapascal (engineering unit).
Meanings of GPA at a glance
| # | GPA stands for | Context |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Grade point average | Education & Academia › Academic |
| 2 | Gigapascal | Units & Measurements › Engineering Unit |
1. Grade point average
Education & Academia · Academic Abbreviations
Numerical summary of academic performance, calculated by converting letter grades to points (usually A = 4, B = 3, C = 2, D = 1, F = 0), weighting each by credit hours and averaging. US high schools, colleges and employers use it for admission, honors, scholarships, probation and hiring screens.
Example: Applicants need a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0 to be considered for the graduate program.
High schools often report both an unweighted GPA on the 4.0 scale and a weighted GPA that adds extra points for honors, AP or IB courses, so values above 4.0 are possible. Colleges frequently recalculate applicants' GPAs using their own rules. Latin honors such as cum laude are usually tied to GPA cutoffs. The UK traditionally uses degree classifications instead, and India commonly uses a 10-point CGPA.
2. Gigapascal (GPa)
Units & Measurements · Engineering Unit Abbreviations
Billions of pascals: the unit for the stiffness (Young's modulus) of materials and for extreme pressures in geophysics. Steel has a modulus of about 200 GPa, aluminum about 69 GPa and concrete roughly 30 GPa.
Example: Young's modulus for the titanium alloy is about 114 GPa.
Pressure at Earth's center reaches about 360 GPa, and diamond anvil cells in laboratories can exceed that. Strengths above 1,000 MPa, such as those of high-strength steel wire or aramid fibers, are often written in GPa instead.
Related abbreviations
More academic abbreviations
- FTE – Full-time equivalent
- FWS – Federal Work-Study
- GA – Graduate assistant
- GE – General education
- GSI – Graduate student instructor
- GTA – Graduate teaching assistant
- HBCU – Historically Black college or university
- HE – Higher education
See all 124 academic abbreviations →