Independent Student Newspaper for the University of Texas at San Antonio

The Paisano

Independent Student Newspaper for the University of Texas at San Antonio

The Paisano

Independent Student Newspaper for the University of Texas at San Antonio

The Paisano

Report reveals UTSA GPA info: not too bad

GPA graph

A report obtained from UTSA’s Office of Institutional Research reveals that UTSA increased its undergraduate population over the last five years, but the average GPA by college remained relatively flat.

In other words if UTSA had a report card, it would be a “Bs and Cs” student. Overall, the average GPA for UTSA undergraduate students rose from 2.66 in 2007 to 2.69 in 2011, a slight increase. This means that the average full-time student makes mostly Bs, one or two Cs, and the occasional A.

The report is divided into three sections that reveal the average GPA and exact headcount by college from fall to fall over the last five years for each student classification, the percentage of students who obtained a 4.0 from fall to fall by college over that same time period, and the average GPA of fall 2011 graduates by college. All data obtained was for undergraduates.

The first part of the report reveals several interesting trends. The undergraduate class grew from 24,434 in fall 2007 to 26,332 in fall 2011, or about 8 percent. All colleges showed that the average GPAs for freshmen hovered around 2.54 and 2.78 for seniors. This statistic shows that student GPAs tend to increase throughout a student’s undergraduate academic career.

Undergraduate population change from 2007 to 2011 by college:

Architecture: -0.3 percent

Business: 1.4 percent

Education: 18.5 percent

Engineering: 32.8 percent

Liberal and Fine Arts: 8.9 percent

Public Policy: 23 percent

Science: -1 percent

The next part of the report covers the percentage of students by college from fall 2007 to fall 2011 who obtained a 4.0 GPA. This report shows one of the most interesting anomalies of the data set. For all colleges, the average percentage of 4.0 students from 2007 to 2011 ranged from 4 to 9 percent except for one, the College of Education and Human Development. The percentage of 4.0 students who are education majors ranged from 17 to 19 percent year over year. This raises the question of whether or the high GPA is due to the College of Education being a model for the university as far as GPAs are concerned; the college being guilty of severe grade inflation; or the curriculum not being particularly difficult.

Percentage of students who achieved a 4.0 for fall 2011:

Architecture: 4 percent

Business: 6 percent

Education:16 percent

Engineering: 7 percent

Liberal and Fine Arts: 8 percent

Public Policy: 7 percent

Science: 7 percent

Finally, when it comes to the graduating class of fall 2011, the average overall GPA was 2.93 among 1,538 students. In comparison, the average freshman GPA in the fall of 2007 was 2.50. This means that, hypothetically, the average freshman who entered UTSA in 2007 and graduated in four years increased his or her GPA by almost half a point.

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