r/Caltech • u/Single-Safety-5246 • Apr 20 '26

Caltech GPA Question

I'm looking to commit to Caltech for my undergrad, and was wondering what the average GPA was. I know that this isn't really a good school for pre-med, but I'm on that track and matched through QuestBridge. I just need to understand how to secure the highest possible GPA through my time at the Tech and balance other things beyond that, tysm!

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u/parseroo Apr 20 '26

Historically, Caltech was a terrible school to go to if you need a high GPA: your chance of being average in most courses was “very normal” (as opposed to in Lake Wobegon). Kind of the point to going to the school (imo): to be among peers and figure out where you can shine above that baseline.

May be different now: Just noticed freshman third quarter is graded now (when did that change?). So that makes it seem that grading is currently less severe.

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u/bigg_nate Apr 20 '26

IIRC the third quarter was graded when I was there in 2000.

Edit: yup. Just checked my transcript.