How grading works at Georgetown
Georgetown has used the same quality-point scale since Fall 1993: letter grades from A down to F, each worth a fixed number of quality points on a 0.00-4.00 scale. See the Grade Scale Reference above for the exact value attached to each grade.
Georgetown does not award an A+ on the undergraduate scale — the table stops at A. (Georgetown Law, a separate school with its own grading document, is different: see the question on Law grading below.)
This one scale applies across Georgetown's undergraduate schools — the College of Arts & Sciences, the School of Foreign Service, the McDonough School of Business, the School of Continuing Studies, the Berkley School of Nursing, and the School of Health. Individual schools set their own major and progression requirements on top of it, but none publishes a different quality-point table.
Source: Studying, Grades, and Credit — "Quality Grades and Grade Point Average" section — verified Aug 2026
How Georgetown calculates your QPI (GPA)
Georgetown calls its GPA the Quality Point Index (QPI). Quality points for a course are the number of credits attempted multiplied by the point value of the grade earned; your QPI is the total quality points earned divided by the total credits attempted.
Rounding. Your QPI is truncated to the third decimal place, not rounded — the digits beyond the third decimal are simply dropped rather than rounded up or down.
Pass/fail grades. S (Satisfactory, equivalent to C or better) and U (Unsatisfactory, equivalent to C-, D+, D or F) carry credit implications but no quality points — neither affects your QPI.
Repeated courses. You may not repeat a course you have already earned credit for. If you repeat a course, both grades appear on your transcript, but generally only the first passing grade computes into your QPI. The one exception: if your first attempt was an F and you pass on the repeat, both the F and the passing grade count in your average. Either way, you receive credit for the course only once.
Source: Studying, Grades, and Credit — "Quality Grades and Grade Point Average" and "Pass/Fail Option" sections — verified Aug 2026
Latin honors and semester honors at Georgetown
Latin (graduation) honors are awarded by percentile rank within each school's senior class cumulative GPA, not by a fixed GPA cutoff:
- Summa cum laude — the lowest GPA of the top 5% of the class
- Magna cum laude — the lowest GPA of the next 10% (the 15%-5.001% band)
- Cum laude — the lowest GPA of the next 10% (the 25%-15.001% band)
Percentiles are calculated separately in each school (including the School of Continuing Studies), and students earning the BSFS degree in the School of Foreign Service and at Georgetown University in Qatar are considered together as one pool. Missing grades are not factored into the percentile calculation.
Semester honors use fixed GPA cutoffs instead: First Honors requires a 3.9 GPA or above for the semester, Second Honors requires 3.7 or above, and the Dean's List requires 3.5 or above. To qualify, a student must be enrolled full-time — at least twelve credits of coursework for which quality points are awarded; pass/fail credits do not count toward that twelve-credit minimum.
Source: Studying, Grades, and Credit — "Graduation and Semester Honors" section — verified Aug 2026
How transfer and study abroad credit affects your Georgetown QPI
Credit from other institutions — transfer credit, study abroad, and consortium credit — generally does not compute into your cumulative Quality Point Index. This is true for most study abroad programs.
There is one notable exception: grades earned on Georgetown-administered programs abroad — including summer programs abroad, the Villa Le Balze, and Georgetown University in Qatar (GU-Qatar) — are computed into your cumulative QPI, because those courses are taught under Georgetown's own grading system rather than a host institution's.
Source: Studying, Grades, and Credit — "Quality Grades and Grade Point Average" section — verified Aug 2026
Frequently asked questions
What grading scheme does Georgetown University use?
Where does this Georgetown University grade scale come from?
Does Georgetown award an A+ grade?
No. Georgetown's undergraduate quality-point table runs from A (4.00) down to F (0.00) with no A+ grade above it. Georgetown Law, a separate school with its own grading policy, is not covered by this scale — Law students should consult the Law Center's own grading documents.
Source: Studying, Grades, and Credit — "Quality Grades and Grade Point Average" table (A+ absence inferred from the complete printed table) — verified Aug 2026
Is Georgetown's QPI rounded or truncated?
Truncated, not rounded. Georgetown obtains your Quality Point Index by dividing total quality points earned by total credits attempted, and truncates the result to the third decimal place — the fourth decimal and beyond are dropped rather than rounded up or down.
Source: Studying, Grades, and Credit — "Quality Grades and Grade Point Average" section — verified Aug 2026
What happens to your QPI if you repeat a course at Georgetown?
You cannot repeat a course you've already earned credit for. If you repeat a course you didn't pass, both grades show on your transcript, but usually only the first passing grade counts toward your QPI. The exception: if you originally failed the course (F) and pass on the repeat, both the F and the passing grade are computed into your average, even though you only receive credit for the course once.
Source: Studying, Grades, and Credit — "Quality Grades and Grade Point Average" section — verified Aug 2026
Do pass/fail (S/U) grades count toward your Georgetown QPI?
No. S (Satisfactory, equivalent to a C or better) and U (Unsatisfactory, equivalent to C-, D+, D or F) carry no quality points and do not affect your QPI, though only a grade of S earns credit. Students may take up to six courses or 24 credits on a pass/fail basis over the course of their degree, one per semester, and the option is not available to first-year students.
Source: Studying, Grades, and Credit — "Quality Grades and Grade Point Average" and "Pass/Fail Option" sections — verified Aug 2026
Does transfer or study abroad credit count toward your Georgetown QPI?
Generally no — transfer credit, study abroad credit, and consortium credit are excluded from your cumulative QPI. The exception is coursework on a Georgetown-administered abroad program (Villa Le Balze, GU-Qatar, or a Georgetown summer program abroad), which is graded on Georgetown's own scale and does compute into your cumulative QPI.
Source: Studying, Grades, and Credit — "Quality Grades and Grade Point Average" section — verified Aug 2026
What GPA do you need for Dean's List or First/Second Honors at Georgetown?
Dean's List requires a semester GPA of 3.5 or above. Second Honors requires 3.7 or above, and First Honors requires 3.9 or above. All three require full-time enrollment — at least twelve credits of coursework for which quality points are awarded (pass/fail credits don't count toward that minimum).
Source: Studying, Grades, and Credit — "Graduation and Semester Honors" section — verified Aug 2026
Is Georgetown Law graded on the same scale as Georgetown's undergraduate schools?
No. Georgetown University Law Center publishes its own, separate grading policy on its own part of Georgetown's website, distinct from the Undergraduate Bulletin. This calculator's scale reflects Georgetown's undergraduate schools (College, SFS, MSB, SCS, Nursing, and School of Health) as published in the Undergraduate Bulletin — Law students should consult the Law Center's own grading documents instead.
Source: Scope note: Georgetown Law's grading policy is published separately (law.georgetown.edu), outside this run's confirmed source, and was not extracted — verified Aug 2026
