Average GPA & GRE Scores for Online Grad School Admissions

Most people searching for average admissions numbers want a single benchmark to measure themselves against. For online graduate programs, that benchmark largely doesn’t exist — not because the information is hidden, but because most online programs don’t generate it. They publish minimum requirements instead, which is a different kind of number entirely.

What does exist is worth knowing. Graduate grade point average (GPA) requirements cluster at predictable thresholds, national Graduate Record Examination (GRE) averages are published and reliable, and the relationship between the two numbers is more mechanical than most applicants realize. Below is what the real data says and how to use it.

What Counts as a Good GPA for Online Grad School?

Rather than a single average, graduate admissions runs on a handful of recurring thresholds. Knowing which tier a school sits in tells you more than any national figure:

• 3.0: The default standard across graduate education, and the figure most programs publish when they publish one at all. It’s also the GPA nearly every program requires you to maintain in order to graduate, regardless of what got you admitted.
• 2.75: Common at universities built around working adults, often paired with a provisional or conditional route underneath it.
• 2.5: The most frequent minimum among accessible online programs, and the point where many schools also stop requiring an entrance exam.
• 2.0 to 2.49: The low end, reached through probationary, conditional, or tiered admission rather than regular admission, and usually carrying a grade condition for your first several courses.
• No published minimum: A small group of accredited universities state no GPA threshold at all, asking only for a conferred bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution.

A 3.0 clears essentially all of it. A 2.5 clears a substantial share. Below 2.5 the field narrows sharply, though it is still possible to get into grad school with a low GPA.

Why Average GPA Is Hard To Pin Down for Online Programs

The gap between what applicants want and what schools publish comes down to how admission decisions get made.

Competitive programs admit by comparison. They receive more qualified applications than they have seats, rank applicants against one another, and end up with a class whose average GPA is a meaningful statistic — which is why selective on-campus programs publish class profiles. The average describes who won a contest.

Criteria-based programs admit by threshold. You either meet the stated requirements or you don’t, and meeting them generally gets you in. There’s no contest, so an average of admitted students describes nothing useful about your chances. Most online graduate programs built for working adults run this second model, which is why you’ll find a published minimum and no class profile anywhere on the site.

Federal data doesn’t fill the gap either. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) tracks the cumulative GPA of students who complete bachelor’s degrees, a figure that sits modestly above 3.2 in its most recent national surveys. That describes the pool of potential applicants, not the people who got admitted to online master’s programs. Treat any site presenting a precise “average GPA for online grad school” with skepticism, because no one collects that number.

Do Online Grad Schools Still Require the GRE?

Mostly not, and the shift has been decisive rather than gradual. Among accredited universities with substantial online graduate catalogs, requiring no entrance exam has become the norm — University of Maryland Global Campus, Bellevue University, Touro University Worldwide, and Southern New Hampshire University all admit master’s applicants without a GRE or Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) score, and Touro Worldwide states its reasoning directly, holding that entrance exams predict graduate success poorly.

Three situations keep the exam alive:

• Selective programs: Competitive master’s and doctoral programs, particularly at research universities, still use test scores to rank applicants against one another.
• Quantitative fields: Engineering, computer science, economics, and the physical sciences lean on the quantitative section as evidence of specific preparation.
• As a substitute for GPA: The most common surviving use, and the one most relevant to anyone with an uneven transcript. Schools that waive the exam above a GPA threshold reinstate it below one.

Average GRE Scores and How To Read Them

National GRE averages are published, current, and genuinely useful as orientation. Across test takers between July 2022 and June 2025, the average scores were 151.39 Verbal Reasoning, 157.62 Quantitative Reasoning, and 3.46 Analytical Writing, drawn from roughly 790,000 test takers. Verbal and Quantitative Reasoning each run 130 to 170 in one-point increments, and Analytical Writing runs 0 to 6 in half-point increments. 

One quirk matters more than the averages themselves. A 160 on Verbal beats 82% of test takers, while a 160 on Quantitative beats only 50%, because quantitative scores cluster high. Comparing your two section scores to each other tells you nothing. Comparing each to its own percentile tells you everything.

Field matters too. Business applicants average around 154 Verbal and 160 Quantitative, while education applicants average closer to 152 Verbal and 150 Quantitative — a ten-point spread on the same section depending on where you’re headed. ETS publishes these breakdowns by intended major, and they’re the right comparison set if you’re taking the exam at all.

Read current averages with one caveat. The test-taker population has shrunk considerably as programs dropped the requirement, which means today’s averages describe a smaller and more self-selected group than figures from a decade ago. People who still sit for the GRE are disproportionately applying to programs that require it.

How Schools Trade GPA Against Test Scores

At schools that use both numbers, they usually function as substitutes rather than companions, and some institutions publish the exchange rate outright.

University of North Carolina at Pembroke tiers its online MBA requirements by GPA. Applicants above 2.9 submit neither work experience nor a test score. Between 2.5 and 2.9 they add a year of work experience. Between 2.0 and 2.49 they add work experience plus a GMAT score of at least 400 or a GRE score of at least 292. The test appears only when the GPA falls short.

Lamar University goes further and publishes an actual formula for MBA admission, multiplying undergraduate GPA by 200, adding the GMAT score, and measuring the total against a 1,000-point target. A higher GPA means a lower score requirement, and vice versa. Lamar also waives the exam entirely for applicants holding a 2.5 or better across their last 60 hours.

The practical read: if your GPA clears a school’s waiver threshold, the exam is a cost with no benefit. If it doesn’t, the exam is the lever you have.

What Admissions Weighs Besides the Numbers

Criteria-based programs use supporting materials differently than competitive ones, and the distinction changes what’s worth your effort.

A competitive program reads your statement of purpose and recommendations to separate you from similarly qualified applicants. A criteria-based program reads them to confirm you can handle the work, or to justify an exception to a published rule. The second use is narrower but more actionable — when a school admits below its stated minimum on the strength of a personal statement and resume, those documents are doing specific, identifiable work.

Three other inputs carry weight regardless of model. Prerequisite coursework and degree field decide eligibility outright in quantitative and licensure-track programs, where no amount of professional experience substitutes for a missing sequence. Documented work experience functions as evidence of current capability, which matters most when your transcript is old. And licensure credentials — an active nursing license, a teaching certificate — often serve as the real gate in their fields, with GPA a secondary consideration behind them.

FAQs About GPA and GRE Scores for Online Grad School

A few questions come up consistently once you start comparing published requirements.

Is a 3.0 GPA Required for Most Online Master’s Programs?

It’s the most commonly published figure, but it isn’t close to universal. Plenty of accredited universities set 2.75 or 2.5 as the regular minimum, and a handful publish none at all. What is nearly universal is the 3.0 you’ll need to maintain once enrolled — most programs require it for good standing, continued financial aid eligibility, and graduation.

Should You Take the GRE If It Isn’t Required?

Usually no. When a program states it doesn’t require or consider the exam, a score adds nothing and costs you registration fees, preparation time, and several weeks of waiting. The exception is a program that accepts a score as a substitute for a GPA you don’t have, or one that uses scores for assistantship and fellowship decisions separately from admission.

How Long Do GRE Scores Stay Valid?

ETS does not release scores older than five years, though individual program policies on accepting older scores vary. If you tested during a previous application cycle, confirm the score is still reportable before building a plan around it. 

Do Online Programs Report Admitted-Student Averages?

Rarely, and the reason is structural rather than evasive. Programs that admit against published criteria have no competitive class profile to report, so the minimum is the only meaningful number they can give you. Selective programs — including selective online ones — are far more likely to publish averages, precisely because comparison is how they decide.

Does Your GPA Matter More Than Your GRE Score?

At most online programs, yes, for the simple reason that many of them don’t look at a test score at all. Where both are used, GPA typically sets the baseline and the test score functions as a correction for it. The exception runs the other way in heavily quantitative fields, where a strong quantitative score can carry more weight than a cumulative GPA assembled across unrelated coursework.

Find Online Grad Schools

GPA and GRE scores are just two factors grad schools consider, and their importance varies significantly between institutions and programs. Learn.org’s program guides and school profiles can help you compare online master’s requirements side by side and find the programs your record already meets.