Average GPA by major ranges from about 3.2 to 3.7 at the two large US universities we checked, and the order is nearly identical at both: nursing, education, public health, and the arts grade highest, while engineering and agriculture or life sciences grade lowest. At Texas A&M, cumulative GPA through Spring 2026 runs from 3.23 in Agriculture and Life Sciences and 3.28 in Engineering up to 3.64 in Nursing. At UW-Madison in Fall 2025, Education averaged 3.63 against 3.40 for Engineering. In short, the same transcript can rank near the top in one major and near the middle in another.
This guide compiles the official registrar reports from both universities into one comparison, explains why the gap exists, and shows how to judge your own GPA against your field instead of against a single national number. If you need your current GPA first, the GPA Calculator turns letter grades and credit hours into a credit-weighted average, and the How GPA Is Calculated guide explains the formula behind it.
Average GPA by College at Texas A&M
Texas A&M publishes a cumulative GPA report for every college, counting each student's full undergraduate record through the term. The table below combines ten College Station college reports through Spring 2026, covering 50,874 students. The two share columns are our own tallies from the report's GPA distribution.
| College (Texas A&M) | Students | Mean GPA | Median GPA | Share at 3.5 or higher | Share at 3.0 or higher |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nursing | 522 | 3.64 | 3.71 | 78.7% | 97.5% |
| Public Health | 1,841 | 3.53 | 3.57 | 57.7% | 92.7% |
| Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts | 517 | 3.48 | 3.61 | 61.9% | 86.1% |
| Mays Business School | 5,580 | 3.46 | 3.54 | 55.1% | 87.2% |
| Education and Human Development | 3,281 | 3.43 | 3.52 | 52.9% | 86.1% |
| Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences | 2,101 | 3.43 | 3.56 | 54.5% | 80.1% |
| Architecture | 2,526 | 3.36 | 3.40 | 41.3% | 81.8% |
| Arts and Sciences | 9,742 | 3.32 | 3.42 | 44.6% | 76.5% |
| Engineering | 16,662 | 3.28 | 3.33 | 39.4% | 74.8% |
| Agriculture and Life Sciences | 8,102 | 3.23 | 3.30 | 35.4% | 69.8% |
| All ten colleges (weighted) | 50,874 | 3.34 |
Two things jump out. First, the median sits above the mean in every college, because a smaller group of students with low GPAs pulls the average down. The median is the better picture of a typical student. Second, the spread between colleges is large. A nursing student at the median (3.71) is 0.38 points above an engineering student at the median (3.33), which is almost the full step from a B+ (3.3) to an A- (3.7).
Average GPA by Major at UW-Madison
UW-Madison reports semester GPA by school and by individual program. These numbers cover Fall 2025 only, in a report dated February 13, 2026, so they are not directly comparable with a cumulative GPA. UW also awards intermediate grades (AB = 3.5, BC = 2.5) between the full letters. The table lists every program with at least 100 students plus each school total.
| School or program (UW-Madison) | Students | Fall 2025 semester GPA |
|---|---|---|
| Elementary Education | 288 | 3.87 |
| Journalism (BA) | 489 | 3.75 |
| Rehabilitation Psychology | 142 | 3.69 |
| Art | 250 | 3.68 |
| Kinesiology | 308 | 3.64 |
| School of Education (total) | 2,422 | 3.63 |
| Health Promotion and Health Equity | 300 | 3.60 |
| Human Ecology (total) | 2,451 | 3.57 |
| Nursing (admitted undergraduates) | 329 | 3.54 |
| Industrial Engineering | 345 | 3.53 |
| Letters and Science, general BA | 7,024 | 3.52 |
| School of Business (total) | 3,639 | 3.51 |
| Biomedical Engineering | 705 | 3.47 |
| Personal Finance | 554 | 3.47 |
| Computer Engineering | 558 | 3.46 |
| Letters and Science, general BS | 10,459 | 3.46 |
| College of Engineering (total) | 5,234 | 3.40 |
| Electrical Engineering | 573 | 3.40 |
| Agricultural and Life Sciences (total) | 3,624 | 3.39 |
| Pre-Nursing | 662 | 3.39 |
| Dietetics | 142 | 3.38 |
| Mechanical Engineering | 1,434 | 3.38 |
| Civil and Environmental Engineering | 367 | 3.37 |
| Chemical Engineering | 506 | 3.33 |
| Nuclear Engineering | 139 | 3.33 |
| Engineering Mechanics | 228 | 3.28 |
| Biological Systems Engineering | 165 | 3.13 |
| All undergraduates | 36,787 | 3.48 |
The ranking matches Texas A&M closely. Education and the arts lead, business sits in the middle, and engineering and agricultural sciences trail. Notice the split inside nursing as well: admitted nursing students averaged 3.54, while pre-nursing students, who are still taking the prerequisite science courses, averaged 3.39.
Why Average GPA Differs by Major
Neither university explains its grade patterns, so treat these as the common explanations rather than settled findings.
- Course mix. Engineering, agricultural, and life science degrees front-load calculus, chemistry, and physics, which are large courses with wide grade distributions. Majors built around writing, studio work, or practicum courses grade on smaller assignments that most students complete well.
- Grading style. Courses that score exams on a curve spread grades out by design. Courses graded against a rubric or competency standard let most of a class earn an A when most of the class meets the standard.
- Selection. Some programs admit students only after a prerequisite stage. UW-Madison's nursing numbers show this directly: the 662 pre-nursing students averaged 3.39 and the 329 admitted nursing students averaged 3.54. Students below a program's cutoff often move to a different major before graduating.
- Class year. GPAs climb as students move into upper-level courses. Texas A&M engineering students average 3.06 as freshmen and 3.35 as seniors, and UW-Madison averaged 3.40 for freshmen against 3.56 for seniors in Fall 2025.
The practical point is the same either way. A raw GPA says little until you know the major it was earned in.
What Counts as a Good GPA
A good GPA depends on what you need it for. These are the benchmarks with the clearest evidence behind them.
- 3.0 for job applications. NACE, the national association of college career offices and employers, reported in January 2026 that 42 percent of employers screen candidates by GPA, down from 73 percent in 2019, and that the usual minimum is a 3.0. Below 3.0, some applications get filtered out automatically. Above it, GPA matters less than internships and skills for most employers.
- Your major's median for honest self-assessment. Being above the median means you are doing better than half of the students taking the same courses. That is 3.33 for Texas A&M engineering and 3.54 for Texas A&M business.
- 3.5 as a stretch target. How impressive a 3.5 is depends on your field: 39.4 percent of Texas A&M engineering students clear it, against 55.1 percent in business and 78.7 percent in nursing.
So a 3.5 is a strong GPA almost everywhere, but it means different things. In engineering it puts you well above the typical student. In nursing it sits below the median of 3.71.
How to Compare Your GPA With Your Major
Here is a worked example using the GPA Calculator. A student finishes a 15-credit semester with an A in a 4-credit course, a B+ (3.3) in a 3-credit course, a B (3.0) in a 4-credit course, and an A- (3.7) in a 4-credit course.
- Calculate quality points. 4.0 × 4 + 3.3 × 3 + 3.0 × 4 + 3.7 × 4 = 16 + 9.9 + 12 + 14.8 = 52.7 quality points.
- Divide by credits. 52.7 ÷ 15 = 3.51. The GPA Calculator returns the same 3.51 from these four courses.
- Compare with the median for your college. At Texas A&M, 3.51 is above the engineering median (3.33) and inside the top 39.4 percent of engineering students. The same 3.51 is just below the business median (3.54) and well below the nursing median (3.71).
- Project the next term. If this student carries a 3.51 cumulative GPA over 60 credits and then earns straight A's across 15 more credits, the new cumulative GPA is (3.51 × 60 + 4.0 × 15) ÷ 75 = 3.61. Entering both groups as courses in the GPA Calculator confirms the 3.61.
That last step shows why early semesters matter. After 60 credits, a full semester of A's moves the cumulative GPA by about a tenth of a point. To see which grades you need in a single class, use the Grade Calculator, and to convert a raw test score into a percentage first, use the Test Grade Calculator.
Methodology and Limitations
- Sources. Texas A&M figures come from the Office of the Registrar's Cumulative GPA reports for each College Station college through Spring 2026. UW-Madison figures come from the Office of the Registrar's "Undergraduate Semester Grade Point Averages" report for the first semester of 2025-2026, dated February 13, 2026. We downloaded both on October 2, 2026.
- Our calculations. The share-at-or-above columns are sums of the GPA brackets in each Texas A&M report divided by the report's student total. The "all ten colleges" mean is weighted by student count and excludes the Galveston and Qatar campuses and colleges with no undergraduate report.
- Cumulative versus semester. The Texas A&M numbers are cumulative and the UW-Madison numbers cover a single semester, so compare rankings across the two tables rather than exact values.
- Colleges versus majors. Texas A&M reports by college, so "Arts and Sciences" combines majors as different as physics and English. UW-Madison reports most Letters and Science students under general BA and BS programs for the same reason.
- Two schools are not the whole country. Both are large public research universities. Small colleges, private universities, and community colleges may grade differently, and averages shift from year to year. Use these tables for the ranking of majors and the size of the gaps, not as a national average.