The "academic average," or grade-point average (GPA), is the ratio of total quality points earned to total credit hours attempted.

When a student passes a course, she/he receives the designated number of credit hours; at the same time, she/he receives a certain number of quality points, based on the letter grade earned. Multiply the number of credit hours designated to the specific course by the numerical value of the letter grade earned to determine the number of quality points earned. Letter grades carry the following numerical values:

• "A" = 4
• "B" = 3
• "C" = 2
• "D" = 1

For example, when a student earns a letter grade of "C" in a 3-credit-hour course, she/he receives 6 quality points.

Grade-point averages are truncated after two decimal places.

A student who repeats a course for which the student has previously received credit (either by class work at the Institute, through AP/IB credit, or credit transferred from another school) forfeits the original credit in the event the student should fail the course on a subsequent attempt. Where a course has been repeated, both the original and subsequent grades are included in the average, but the credit is counted only once. The academic average includes all subsequent attempts, unless a grade substitution request has been approved and processed.

If a student takes the same course more than once, any later grade does not replace any earlier one. The academic average includes both attempts, unless a grade substitution has been approved and processed.

If a student takes a course on a Pass/Fail basis, the course is not included in their academic average.

For undergraduate students, the academic average is calculated by summing the number of quality points earned by the student for all courses in which they have enrolled as an undergraduate and dividing this sum by the number of credit hours designated to all courses in which they have enrolled as an undergraduate.

For graduate students, the academic average includes only the courses in which the student has enrolled after her/his entrance into the graduate division.