Grade Point Median

Before dropping out of graduate school, I did my B.S. in Statistics with a minor in business administration. My real focus was computer science, however, and I was learning programming when I could have been doing better homework. I graduated with a 3.1 gpa, but I argue that a GPM(grade point median) is a better way to calculate an aggregate of academic performance. In my case, two F's during one bad quarter in 2005 during a breakup with my fiance are high influence points unrelated to academic ability. I think even a 5% trimmed mean would put me above a 3.3 gpa.

The point is, although some academics are pretty good at analyzing their student population, along with individual track records, and grading accordingly, few students are going to print a stable performance history. Life is too volatile. For the few who are regularly outstanding, they won't lose anything by cutting a few of their worst and best grades. But for the unfortunate students experiencing the turbulence of life, a GPM or trimmed mean provides a more accurate representation of typical performance.