TESU GPA question

[cookderosa]

I know that TESU does not give a GPA, but do you know if this is just for the online/testing out degrees or do the brick and mortar students not get a GPA also? Is it common for some colleges and universities to not have a GPA?

The reason I am asking is I was looking into my local university at what it takes to get their teaching credentials (CA), it just states BA/BS...but I was wondering if a TESU transcript not having a GPA would make it seem less credible and potentially questioned, or if that's normal.

I have a GPA from TESU.

A GPA is based on what you put "into" the pot.  If you don't put in anything that yields GPA points (classes taken at the school) you won't have any points to calculate.  This is true of every college you look at.  
CLEP exams are pass/fail, thus do not contribute to the GPA pot.

EDIT to add:  most of the credit sources we talk about here are pass/fail and will not contribute to the GPA pot.  You have to deliberately choose TESU courses that award grades if you want graded credit.  Courses that you take before attending TESU and transfer in will not put anything in the GPA pot either - but there is a trick to that.  You -the person- are a sum of all your grades at all colleges, so should you apply to graduate school, they may request ALL previous transcripts from all previous schools and calculate a cumulative GPA based on everything you've done (or just science as is the case for medical school) and that number is calculated *for them.  

So, the take away:   if you need a GPA on your TESU transcript for any reason, you need to work that in.  You'll hear a zillion reasons why you should or shouldn't do it- it's a personal preference, there is no right or wrong here.  Your degree isn't more legitimate or less based on GPA.

Hi Jennifer,

Thank you for your response.  As a 45 year old person finally about to graduate from TESU, I shouldn't really care too much about GPAs, but you got me thinking...

Are you saying, if I finish the Capstone (only course I am taking at TESU) and I receive an A, I will graduate with a 4.0 and that would be on my transcript?  Would there be any other benefits to this theoretical 4.0? 

What about the courses I transferred with actual grades from B&M schools?  For example, I have a couple of C's, couple of A's, and my upper level courses show a 3.62 GPA on my academic evaluation. These all came from the American College for Financial Services.

Thanks
Gloddy

Right, so your TESU GPA will reflect your TESU coursework, but your cumulative (lifetime) GPA will be everything you've ever done. Your lifetime GPA exists, but isn't written anywhere.

I can think of situations that would call for your "lifetime" GPA - like graduate school applications, but unless that is the case, your TESU GPA will stand as your GPA for all intents and purposes.