How should I round my GPA on my finance resume?

In general, rounding your GPA will not make a huge difference. However, on a resume it almost always looks better to have a 3.3 as opposed to a 3.25 or a 3.5 as opposed to a 3.45.

Can You Round Up Your GPA On Your Resume

If you have a 3.3 or lower, you may have a hard time selling yourself as a 3.5 is generally considered to be the expected minimum GPA (however, this does not make 3.5 the GPA cutoff). If you have 3.35, rounding it up to 3.4 is a wise move. If you are over the cutoff mark, increasing your GPA by 0.1 will not add that much of a difference.

GPA Rounding Rules

Some easy guidelines for rounding include:

  • Never round your GPA to 4.0, even if you have a 3.99. Having a 3.9+ GPA is already very impressive, but rounding it to 4.0 may harm you more than help you. A 3.95 is almost equally as impressive, and someone reviewing your resume and transcripts might wonder what your thought process was in adding the extra five hundredths of a point. If you have a 3.95 or higher and the dropdown box on the application only allows for tenths, follow conventional rounding rules and round up.
  • Make sure you never round up to a quarter or half point. The only rounding that should be done is with hundredths of a point. If you have a 3.24, you may be able to get away with rounding up to a 3.3, but it's not generally advisable. If you have a x.x5 or higher, definitely feel free to round it up to the NEAREST tenth of a point. This topic has been debated heavily by the WSO community, so if you are unsure, please use the links below to get a better grasp on the reasoning behind rounding your GPA.

GPA Rounding Examples


Actual GPA Resume GPA Dropdown GPA (tenths)
3.46 3.46 3.5
3.23 3.23 3.2
3.448 3.448 or 3.45 3.4
3.951 3.951 or 3.95 4.0
3.949 3.949 or 3.95 3.9

Relevant Discussions

    • Ugh frustrating GPA rounding on resume question (Note: This person's overall GPA is a 3.9. There is not point in putting the major GPA. If he were to put both on his resume, he should keep them both at the hundredths. If there was a dropdown box on an online application with only tenths, he would only be able to use his overall GPA which is a 3.9.)
    • 3.49 GPA (Note: Yes, a 3.49 is a 3.5, though on your resume you should leave it to the hundredth. It really won't make a difference.)

Read More About GPAs on WSO

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