Philippines GWA to US GPA Converter
Convert a Philippine GWA to a US 4.0 GPA. The Philippine scale runs backwards — 1.00 is the best grade and 5.00 is a failure.
GWA to US GPA
Good · 88-90%
The Philippine scale is inverted: 1.00 is the best grade and 3.00 is the lowest pass. Percentage equivalents differ between universities.
Conversions are approximate. For official applications, use a NACES evaluator such as WES.
Philippine GWA, percentage and US GPA
Percentage equivalents are the ones most Philippine universities publish, but they vary by institution — check your own registrar’s table before relying on them.
| GWA | Description | Typical % | US GPA |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.00 | Excellent | 97–100% | 4.0 |
| 1.25 | Very Good | 94–96% | 4.0 |
| 1.50 | Very Good | 91–93% | 3.7 |
| 1.75 | Good | 88–90% | 3.5 |
| 2.00 | Good | 85–87% | 3.3 |
| 2.25 | Satisfactory | 82–84% | 3.0 |
| 2.50 | Satisfactory | 79–81% | 2.7 |
| 2.75 | Fair | 76–78% | 2.3 |
| 3.00 | Lowest passing grade | 75% | 2.0 |
| 5.00 | Failed | Below 75% | 0.0 |
Why a 1.00 is the best grade you can get
Philippine universities grade downwards: 1.00 is the highest mark and 5.00 is a failure, the opposite of the US 4.0 scale. A 3.00 is the lowest passing grade, usually equal to 75%. This trips up admissions readers abroad, so it is worth writing both numbers on any application that allows a note — a GWA of 1.50 is an excellent result, not a poor one.
Some schools also use 4.00 to mean “conditional” or a pending removal exam rather than a straight fail. If your transcript shows a 4.00, check what your university means by it before converting.
GWA and Latin honors
Your General Weighted Average is the credit-weighted mean of your grades, the same idea as a GPA but on the inverted scale. Latin honors are awarded from the GWA, and the cut-offs are set per university — commonly around 1.20 or better for summa cum laude, 1.45 for magna cum laude and 1.75 for cum laude. Confirm the exact thresholds with your own registrar, as they differ meaningfully between UP, Ateneo, De La Salle and the state universities.
Using a Philippine transcript abroad
There is no official Philippines-to-US conversion table published by any government body. US universities and credential evaluators such as WES assess transcripts course by course, and their result is what admissions offices act on. Treat the numbers here as a reliable estimate for planning — not as an equivalence you can quote on an application.
Where these figures come from
We have not yet traced this country’s band mapping to a single body that publishes it. The table reflects the scales used by the institutions we checked, and grading practice varies between them — so treat it as an orientation rather than an authority, and confirm the boundaries with the institution that issued the transcript. If you know the official source, tell us and we will cite it.
Conversions are approximate by nature. For official admissions, use a NACES credential evaluator such as WES and confirm with your institution.
Philippines conversion FAQ
What is 1.00 GWA in US GPA?
A 1.00 is the highest Philippine grade and converts to roughly a 4.0 US GPA. It typically corresponds to 97–100%.
What is 2.00 GWA in GPA?
A 2.00 is about a 3.3 US GPA, roughly 85–87%. It is a solid “Good” result.
Is 1.75 a good GWA?
Yes. A 1.75 is a “Good” grade worth about a 3.5 US GPA (roughly 88–90%), and at many universities it is around the cum laude threshold.
What is the lowest passing grade in the Philippines?
A 3.00, usually equal to 75%. Anything above 3.00 — most commonly 5.00 — is a failing mark.
Why is 1.0 the highest grade in the Philippines?
The Philippine system ranks grades from best to worst rather than scoring upwards, so 1.00 is first place and 5.00 is last. It is a ranking convention inherited from the Spanish and American colonial school systems, and it is unrelated to the US 4.0 scale.
What GWA is equivalent to a 3.5 GPA?
Roughly a 1.75 GWA, which is about 88–90% at most Philippine universities.
Grade conversion for other countries
Converting a transcript from somewhere else? These pages use each country's own grading scale.