Cal Poly will add an A+ grade to their grading scale in the fall 2026 term. This is in response to demands from ASI and Cal Poly students who felt this change will benefit students academically.
“This will provide ambitious students with additional motivation to succeed at the highest levels, beyond achieving an A in a course,” Cal Poly alumni Brennan Brown said in his letter to the Cal Poly Academic Senate Executive Committee.
This change will not affect a student’s Cal Poly GPA since an A+ will give the same 4.0 credit as an A does. However, anyone who views a student’s transcript will be able to see if they received an A+ grade there.
According to the resolution to amend the grading system, this change was influenced by the perceived benefits for students who want to attend graduate school — especially law school. The Law School Admissions Council (LSAC) recalculates an A+ grade as a 4.33, giving students a GPA boost.
All nine schools in the University of California system and four Cal State universities, including Cal Maritime, already employ an A+ grading scale. The resolution notes that Cal Poly students are possibly competing with other UC and Cal State students for law school spots; without the A+ GPA boost, Cal Poly students may be at a disadvantage.
“The case was made very effectively to the academic senate by both the instruction committee and the students who advocated,” Academic Senate Chair Jerusha Greenwood said when asked on why Cal Poly decided to change their grading policy.
Even with this change, professors still have the choice of whether they want to add an A+ to their grading scale, possibly leaving students who receive the same percentage grade with different letter grades depending on the professor.
Professors also can decide what grade percentage is considered an A+. As of now, Cal Poly’s registrar has not released any guidance for professors on what grade percentage should be considered an A+.
“Some faculty are concerned with grade inflation,” Greenwood said. “And for some faculty what they feel is that this is a more adequate representation of the good work students do.”
Greenwood has been a professor at Cal Poly since 2006 and has been the academic senate chair since 2023. She also has worries about what this new change could mean for students.
“I worry already stressed students will be more stressed,” Greenwood said.
Similarly, political science freshman Kaylin Reyes notes that adding an A+ grading scale may make students who receive an A grade look worse.
“As we have it now with no A+ it doesn’t really change the fact that an A is an A,” Reyes said. “But now there is a difference.”
For students who do not plan to go to graduate school, this change may not make much of an impact.
“I know for people who want to go into med school this is more serious for them,” kinesiology junior Alyssa Wagner said. “But I feel like for what I want to do with my career it’s not going to impact me too much.”