3 Key Takeaways
- Include your grade point average (GPA) on your resume if you’re applying to an internship, graduate school, are new to the job market, or the position requests it.
- Leave your GPA off if you’re several years out of school. Instead, focus on more recent professional accomplishments.
- Use Teal’s AI Resume Builder to add your GPA, relevant classes, test scores, and all other academic achievements to your resume.
Do employers care whether you include GPA on your resume?
According to a dozen hiring managers, career advisors, and employees, the answer is typically no.
For the vast majority of job seekers, GPAs on resumes have little to no impact. But for those still early in their careers, applying for internships, or seeking employment in certain STEM careers, a good GPA carries more weight. In fact, there are some industries that won’t consider your resume unless it includes a grade point average as part of your education section on your resume.
This guide covers when to add GPA on a resume and how to format it.
Need to format your GPA on a resume? Make a free resume in Teal and get it just right—without the manual work.
When to include your GPA on a resume
You’ve probably seen conflicting advice on including GPA on your resume. Many will say you absolutely need it, especially if you’re early in your career.
Others will disagree. Just look at this Reddit thread:
According to Masoud Ardestani, co-founder and CEO of recruiting platform Rapha, “GPAs don’t matter whatsoever.”
Lynda Spiegel, human resources professional and career coach, turns the question around, “Why would you put your GPA on your resume?”
She says:
“As a human resources professional, I can tell you that GPA tells me only one thing: how good [of] a student you were. That means little about how good [of] an employee you would be.”
That said, there are situations where including your GPA is a good idea. These include:
If you’re applying in a GPA-focused industry
Your GPA is far more relevant in industries like government (where you’ll likely use the federal resume format), education, engineering, science, or other STEM-related professions. Even then, it’s highly dependent on the organization’s policy and your specific role. For example, your GPAs may matter more for teaching positions than they do for IT roles at a certain college. If you were applying to be a teacher, for instance, the school would want to confirm your competency in your subject.
Also, some defense contractors require no less than a 3.5 GPA for entry-level positions.
Government is a toss-up. You'll likely find that about half of the government jobs you apply for require college transcripts with your application and want to see GPA on your resume.
If you’re applying for internships or student programs
Some programs and internships span several years and are meant to lead to permanent positions within the company, so they’re strict on GPA maintenance for students.
Generally, they’ll require a GPA above 3.0, as you can see from these popular internship programs:
Typically, if your GPA dips below the 3.0 requirement, you’re given a semester to rebuild. If you can’t get it back above the minimum, you’re dropped from the program.
If you’re early in your career
Early career positions are the exception to the rule.
Because you have limited work experience, employers have a harder time judging whether or not you can do the job. Fair or not, they may look at your GPA as an indicator of work ethic.
In this case, employers will simply want to see your GPA is respectable and that you meet all of the basic requirements for the position. Once you’re past that initial check, they’re unlikely to ask about your GPA in interviews.
But there are exceptions…
Should you add your GPA to your resume if it isn’t strong?
If you have a very high GPA (3.5 or higher) and you’re new to the workforce, you may be eager to add it to your resume, which can be a good idea. But what if it’s lower than 3.5?
Unsurprisingly, most hiring managers believe adding a GPA lower than 3.5 to your resume is a mistake.
Sief Khafagi, a former Facebook recruiter, advises to “leave your GPA off, unless it’s near [the] top of your class.”
He goes on to mention you can replace your GPA and other education details with technologies you’re comfortable with, as long as you don’t go overboard.
Caitlin Proctor, a certified professional resume writer and career expert, believes there’s more to lose than gain from including your GPA on a resume:
“My advice would be to leave your GPA off. Ultimately, the exclusion of your GPA from a resume isn’t going to make or break your job search. However, including it could absolutely cost you an interview.
Including a less-than-3.5 GPA might even be a mistake when you’re applying for early-career positions. After all, annual data from the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) shows that fewer employers are using GPA to screen recent graduates for entry-level roles in recent years than they were previously. In NACE’s 2025 report, just 49% of employers planned to use GPA as a screening tool (but this number has jumped up slightly since 2023, when it was at an all-time low).
That said, employers may still ask for your GPA later on. But by the time you get to the interview process, you should be able to develop some kind of narrative around why your GPA is lower. If it’s a factor that may remove you from the list of applicants, you can offset it with professional references, a good school, internships, and letters of recommendation. If those internships have given you a good basis of work in the field, you can use that to demonstrate your knowledge and experience as well.
Ultimately, skills trump grades in the corporate world, according to Proctor:
“While most companies would rather see achievements that demonstrate skills like teamwork and leadership, the ones who care about GPA will ask you about it.”
This is probably why NACE’s 2025 report data shows that two-thirds of employers use skills-based hiring—where they assess job candidates based on their skills—when hiring new entry-level graduates.
How to list your GPA on your resume
You’ve probably started browsing resume templates and examples of resumes on Google Images or Pinterest, and you’ve seen so many different ways of listing your education on your resume.
Unfortunately, as flashy and visually appealing as some of those resumes are, they’re not always readable. Applicant tracking systems (also called ATS software)—which automatically check your resume against the company’s job listing—can’t always read resumes that aren’t formatted correctly.
Below you’ll see where to place your GPA on your resume, plus how to format your education section if you have more than the average qualifications.
Where to put GPA on a resume
After you graduate, your GPA should sit at the bottom of your resume alongside your major and college, in one of the most important parts of a resume for new graduates: your Education section.
However, if you’re a recent graduate, you’ll want to put your Education section, including your GPA, at the top of your resume, just beneath the professional statement.
How to format your GPA on a resume
Where you put your GPA on your resume and the best resume format to use depends on whether:
- You’re still a student,
- You’re anticipating graduation, or
- You’ve already graduated
If you’re still in school, add your education details at the top of your resume, just under your contact details and resume summary.
The amount of information you add varies, depending on if you:
- Went to a top tier school
- Were in a prestigious or competitive program
- Have a high GPA (magna cum laude, summa cum laude)
- Received relevant certifications or awards
Your GPA looks best when kept simple and neat, with only the most basic information included.
If you have additional credentials you’d like to add, such as a college program or dean’s list, you’d list the information in this order:
- Your alma mater
- Your degree
- Your major and program track
- GPA
- Credentials and awards
- Years of attendance
If you’ve had some incredible achievements while in school, you might want to include them. Consider the following examples:
- A fundraiser you organized
- A capstone project
- Awards you’ve won
- Elections directly related to the position you’re applying for
If you don’t have a lot of experience on your resume, additional achievements, credentials, and awards can help to offset that inexperience.
It can also help to offset a lower GPA in cases where you’re required to add it to your resume.
Some resume templates shift the years of attendance and your GPA to the right side of the page, separating it from the rest of your education section. Don’t do this.
As discussed above, this may impact on the readability of your resume by ATS software, which scans for resume keywords and qualifications that help recruiters find the best candidate matches. You don’t want an ATS to pass over your resume because of something silly like formatting.
GPA on resume examples
Keep your education section simple. It should be easy for both the hiring manager (or employer) and the ATS to read. Use proper punctuation to separate items all on one line.
If you’re required to put your GPA on your resume, add it next to your university location in the education section.
GPA on resume example 1
If you’re new to the job market, your education section should sit just below your professional statement, like so:
Why this format works:
While short, this is all that’s required of most resumes. It isn’t flashy, but it’s readable, clear, and lists all the details the resume reviewer needs.
GPA on resume example 2
If you have other credentials or awards that complement or provide context for your high GPA that you want to feature, especially those that align with the position, you might want to add those details as well. Here’s how to do that:
Why this format works:
Listing your core education details in a standard format keeps things clean, while using bullet points underneath lets you highlight specific honors, projects, coursework or awards that make you stand out, making each achievement easy to scan.
GPA on resume example 3
If you want to highlight your academic and other achievements even more than the example above does, you can feature only major academic achievements in the Education section. Then, you can expand on projects, awards, involvement in college programs and organizations, and other education-related feats somewhere else in your resume, just like this:
Why this format works:
Making valedictorian is no easy feat. Calling out only the most important grade-related achievements as bullets keeps the education section short and sweet.
In addition, by putting collegiate awards and involvement into other sections, each accomplishment (including your GPA) gets more visibility and can be described in greater detail than if everything were crammed under education.
If you have no work experience, or that experience is limited, this is a great way to demonstrate similar experience through school projects and programs.
How to put GPA on your resume using Teal
If you’ve done any job hunting and have had to create a resume, you know how absolutely daunting it can be to create a resume from scratch.
The constant reformatting, rewriting, copying and pasting of sections is arguably the worst part of the application process.
But with Teal, you don’t have to think about whether your GPA is in the right spot. You can start with a resume template that follows best practices.
Teal’s customer reviews describe the benefits: “This is a very organized platform that gives me the ability to track current jobs and statuses, and build my resume/cover letter to my specific liking. They're also up to date with current employment trends and technologies (AI). I'd highly recommend this platform for job success.”
Even more compelling is this LinkedIn post from job search coach Anna Chernyshova, who shared: “My candidate landed five interviews in one week with this tool. We worked together to create a strong resume for her. But it was taking her hours to customize it for each job posting. That is why I recommended she try out Teal. A week later, she landed five job interviews.”
To get started, use Teal’s free AI Resume Builder. With this tool, you can select and deselect any section or detail to tailor your resume to a job description.
Towards the bottom of the page, you’ll find the education section.
Select the pencil icon and the page will open to show the various fields you can add or edit in the education section. You’ll see GPA as one of the top fields.
Enter your GPA and any other details you’d like to add. Click “save to all resumes” if you’d like to display it across all saved resumes. Then save the section edits.
Other ways to sell your strengths
Most employers, recruiters, and career advisors don’t pay attention to overall GPAs—and even advise against including it on a resume. There are only some cases where it’s necessary.
If you don’t need to include it, and you don’t want to include it (perhaps because it’s low), there are plenty of other ways to showcase your strengths.
For instance, a compelling resume summary that displays your qualifications and skills can attract recruiters right off the bat. Filling your resume with carefully chosen action words, used to exemplify what you achieved or accomplished, goes a long way toward making your skills shine. Finally, when you include metrics or specific results to describe your work experience, the reader can almost envision your success in the job.
If you’re not sure whether or not your resume meets ATS standards, or aren’t sure how to make it stand out, you can always start with a free resume template in Teal.
Sign up for Teal for free to format your resume for success.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a GPA on a resume?
On a resume, a GPA (or grade point average) is a number representing the overall score of your academic performance at a particular institution. In the US, this number typically falls between 0.0 and 4.0, with 4.0 representing the highest possible achievement at many schools. While some recruiters and employers want to see or even require it, you don’t always need to include it (sometimes, including it is inadvisable).
Do you put a weighted or unweighted GPA on your resume?
Choose whichever is higher. If you have a 4.5 major GPA but a 3.5 unweighted, you’d choose the 4.5. However, unless it’s asked for, you can leave your GPA off of your resume completely.
Can you round up the GPA on your resume?
A small amount of rounding when it comes to your GPA is acceptable, but only to one decimal point (3.49 to 3.5 or 3.74 to 3.75). Beyond that though, it’s misleading.
Businesses and programs that require you to maintain a certain major GPA, or to have a certain GPA at graduation, have the potential to validate those scores. For all other positions, your GPA doesn’t carry much weight on your resume.
Can you lie about GPA on a resume?
You may be tempted to lie about your GPA on your resume to supplement your lack of experience as a newcomer to the workforce. However, direct lies about your credentials, background, or past misconduct can constitute fraud.
Never lie on your resume. Employers may not discover the lies during the hiring process, but if those truths ever come out, it’s most likely a case for immediate dismissal. In other cases, companies may conduct a background check that unveils the truth.
Should I put 3.5 GPA on my resume?
If you have a GPA that’s 3.5 or higher and you’re newer to the workforce, including it might be a good idea. However, once you’re a few years out of school, or if your GPA is lower than 3.5, it’s best to leave it off.
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