10 Online Grad Schools That Accept a Low GPA in 2027

Graduate programs default to a 3.0 grade point average (GPA), and that number discourages a lot of qualified people from applying anywhere at all. It also isn’t universal. A substantial group of accredited public and nonprofit universities publish graduate minimums between 2.0 and 2.75, and they put those figures in writing instead of burying them inside a vague promise of holistic review.

Every threshold described here came off the school’s own admissions page or academic catalog. All ten schools publish a minimum under 3.0, which makes them a different category from schools that set no minimum whatsoever — those are worth a look separately if your GPA sits below everything on this page.

Can You Get Into Grad School With a Low GPA? 

Yes, though your odds depend far less on whether your GPA counts as “low” than on exactly where in that range it falls. Schools don’t distribute their minimums evenly between 2.0 and 3.0. They cluster at three thresholds, and every one you clear widens your options substantially:

• 2.75 and above: You satisfy the published minimum at nearly every school here, along with most other flexible graduate programs nationally. At this level your GPA stops being the deciding factor and your work history and application materials start carrying the weight.
• 2.5 to 2.74: The most common threshold in graduate admissions outside the 3.0 default, and the one the majority of schools here use. Most of these programs waive entrance exams at this level as well.
• 2.0 to 2.49: A shorter list of schools will still admit you, generally through a tiered or provisional route that asks for documented work experience, test scores, or a strong opening term of graduate coursework.

The practical consequence is that two applicants a few tenths apart run very different searches. A 2.6 clears most of the thresholds on this page outright, while a 2.3 narrows things to a handful of schools and the conditional pathways they publish.

10 Online Grad Schools That Accept a Low GPA 

Several online grad schools accept lower-than-average GPAs. We’ve highlighted 10 of these below, listed in alphabetical order.

1. Arkansas State University

Arkansas State is a public university in Jonesboro accredited by the Higher Learning Commission (HLC), and its graduate policy gives you two separate ways to qualify. Unconditional admission calls for a 2.50 cumulative GPA or a 2.75 across your last 60 hours. Applicants who clear neither can still enter conditionally, which requires a B or better through the first 12 hours of graduate coursework.

A-State Online runs graduate programs in business, education, nursing, and related professional fields on accelerated terms built for people working full time. Calculate both GPAs before you apply. A rough start followed by a strong finish often clears the last-60-hours figure even when your cumulative number falls short.

2. Bellevue University

Bellevue University is a nonprofit, open-access institution in Bellevue, Nebraska, also accredited by the HLC, and it requires neither the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) nor the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT). Master’s admission asks for a 2.5 across the most recent 60 credits earned toward your bachelor’s degree, or a 3.0 in a graduate degree you already hold.

Graduate offerings center on professional fields and run in cohort-based formats aimed at adults already in the workforce. Plan around one detail: Bellevue requires a 3.0 in your graduate major to earn the degree, so the bar to get in sits well below the bar to finish.

3. Emporia State University

Emporia State University, a public HLC-accredited school in Emporia, Kansas, publishes one of the lowest graduate floors you will find anywhere. Regular admission requires a 2.5 across your last 60 hours, or a 3.0 if you’ve already completed a master’s. Below that, probationary admission opens to applicants between 2.2 and 2.49 on those same last 60 hours.

The online catalog runs deepest in education — curriculum and instruction, educational administration, special education — alongside an MBA, accounting, information technology, and nursing. That 2.2 figure only moves your file to the department, which applies its own standard. Contact your program directly rather than assuming the university minimum is the one that decides.

4. Lamar University

Lamar University is a public institution in Beaumont, Texas, accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC), and it maintains one of the larger online graduate catalogs among public universities. The graduate standard is a 2.5 across your last 60 hours, and MBA applicants who meet it receive automatic admission with the GMAT and GRE waived.

Online master’s options concentrate heavily in education, with several M.Ed. tracks, plus business and engineering fields. Treat 2.5 as a firm line here rather than a soft target. Lamar’s educational leadership programs state plainly that applicants below a 2.5 institutional GPA will not be admitted, and offer no conditional route.

5. Southern New Hampshire University

Southern New Hampshire University is a nonprofit in Manchester accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education (NECHE), serving one of the largest online student populations in the country. Graduate admission sets 2.75 for full acceptance and 2.00 for provisional acceptance, and completing any post-bachelor’s degree substitutes for the GPA requirement outright.

The online catalog spans business, education, information technology, healthcare administration, psychology, and criminal justice across five graduate terms a year. SNHU stands out for publishing its provisional threshold instead of making applicants ask whether one exists. If your GPA sits in the low 2.0s, that transparency tells you where you stand before you apply.

6. Touro University Worldwide

Touro University Worldwide operates entirely online from Los Alamitos, California, accredited by the WASC Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC). Master’s admission requires a bachelor’s degree with a 2.5 overall GPA, and the university declines to require the GRE or GMAT at all, on the reasoning that entrance exams predict graduate success poorly.

Programs cluster in psychology, business, health administration, human services, and dispute resolution, delivered in eight-week sessions with no residency requirement. The 2.5 is a university floor rather than a universal one. Several programs, human services and industrial-organizational psychology among them, set their own 3.0 standard, so confirm yours early.

7. University of Findlay

The University of Findlay is a nonprofit HLC-accredited university in Findlay, Ohio, and it measures your record over an unusual window — the last 64 semester hours rather than the more common 60. The general graduate minimum across that span is 2.5.

Program requirements vary more here than almost anywhere else on this page. The education master’s asks for a 2.75 cumulative or a 3.0 over those last 64 hours, athletic training requires a 3.0, and several programs offer conditional acceptance contingent on maintaining a 3.0 through your first nine hours. Findlay’s online graduate catalog is smaller than most others listed, so confirm your program is offered fully online before building a plan around it.

8. University of North Carolina at Pembroke

UNC Pembroke is a public SACSCOC-accredited member of the UNC system, and its online MBA publishes the most specific low-GPA policy on this page. The cumulative minimum is 2.0, with requirements that tighten as your GPA falls: between 2.5 and 2.9 you add one year of work experience, and between 2.0 and 2.49 you add work experience plus a GMAT score of 400 or a GRE score of 292.

The Graduate School lists more than 50 pathways, many of them fully online, and reviews applications holistically.

9. University of the Cumberlands

University of the Cumberlands is a nonprofit SACSCOC-accredited school in Williamsburg, Kentucky, holding one of the largest and least expensive online graduate portfolios among private universities. Master’s admission requires a 2.5 on a 4.0 scale, and conditional admission is available for certain online programs.

The catalog leans toward business, information technology, cybersecurity, education, and counseling, at per-credit rates well below what comparable private programs charge. Department variation is what to watch here. Cumberlands states directly that academic departments may set their own GPA requirements, and its counselor education doctorate climbs to 3.5, so the university-wide 2.5 tells you less than usual about your particular program.

10. Western Governors University 

Western Governors University is a nonprofit competency-based institution accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU), where you progress by demonstrating mastery rather than logging seat time. Its School of Education sets a 2.5 minimum for teaching master’s programs, higher in some states, and applicants between 2.0 and 2.49 can qualify instead by passing a basic skills test such as the Praxis CORE.

Teaching programs cover elementary, secondary, and special education, with licensure tracks aligned to individual state requirements. Check two things before applying: whether your state raises that 2.5, and whether education is actually your field, since WGU’s business and technology schools publish no GPA minimum at all.

How We Rank Schools 

To create this list, we review data from the U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard and the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), along with program-level details published by each university.

On a topic like this one, the published number does most of the work for the reader, so verifying it mattered more than any other step. We read every GPA minimum directly off the school’s own admissions page or academic catalog, and we set aside schools whose circulating figures traced back to outdated catalogs or couldn’t be confirmed at the source at all. Several well-known names dropped out on exactly that basis. Here’s what shaped the final ten:

• Accreditation: Each school holds regional accreditation and operates as a public or private nonprofit institution, which governs your federal aid eligibility and whether your credits transfer later.
• A published minimum under 3.0: Every school states a graduate GPA threshold between 2.0 and 2.75 in writing. Schools offering only a vague promise of holistic review, or a 3.0 with no documented alternative, didn’t make it.
• Online availability: Each school delivers master’s programs fully online, and we noted the cases where a school’s online catalog runs narrower than its overall one.
• Affordability: We compared per-credit tuition against what similar master’s programs charge and weighed how far each school’s aid actually reaches.
• Student outcomes: Completion rates and post-graduation earnings, since a reachable admission threshold only counts for something if the degree gets finished and holds its value.

Learn more about our ranking methodology.

How Schools Calculate the GPA They Review

The threshold a school publishes matters less than the span of coursework it measures. Most of these ten calculate your GPA over a recent window rather than your full undergraduate record, which changes the arithmetic considerably for anyone whose grades climbed over time.

Emporia State and Lamar both measure your last 60 hours. Findlay uses the last 64. Bellevue looks at the most recent 60 credits you earned toward the bachelor’s degree. Arkansas State hands you the choice outright, accepting either a 2.50 cumulative GPA or a 2.75 across your last 60 hours, whichever works in your favor.

A second mechanism helps anyone who has already done graduate work. Bellevue accepts a 3.0 in a graduate degree you already hold in place of the undergraduate figure, Emporia State does the same for a completed master’s, and UNC Pembroke will weigh graduate coursework either alongside your undergraduate GPA or instead of it.

So calculate three numbers before you apply anywhere: your cumulative GPA, your GPA across your final 60 hours, and your graduate GPA if you have one. Applicants regularly count themselves out of a threshold they would have cleared on the measurement the school actually uses. 

Conditional and Provisional Admission Explained 

Schools use four different words for roughly the same arrangement. Arkansas State calls it conditional admission, SNHU calls it provisional acceptance, Emporia State calls it probationary admission, and others use restricted or special admission. In every case you enroll below the published minimum and earn full standing by hitting a grade target across your first graduate courses.

That target is usually a 3.0, measured over a set number of credits. Arkansas State requires a B or better through your first 12 graduate hours. Several Findlay programs ask for a 3.0 across your first nine. Cumberlands offers conditional admission specifically for certain online programs, and Emporia State’s probationary track covers applicants between 2.2 and 2.49 on their last 60 hours.

Understand two things before accepting a conditional offer. Missing the target generally ends your enrollment in that program, and you’ve paid for the coursework either way. And at some schools conditional status delays financial aid eligibility until you convert to full admission, so ask the aid office directly rather than assuming the two arrive together.

Financial Aid for Grad School With a Low GPA 

Your undergraduate GPA has almost no bearing on federal loan eligibility. File the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and your eligibility turns on enrollment status rather than past grades. Where a low GPA costs you is everywhere else in the aid picture.

Institutional merit scholarships nearly always screen on grades, which means the awards that would cut your tuition most are the ones a weak transcript puts out of reach at the moment of admission. Graduate assistantships operate the same way, generally requiring a 3.0 and often awarded through academic departments rather than the financial aid office.

The workable sequence is to earn those awards rather than arrive holding them. A strong first term of graduate coursework makes you eligible for most institutional aid by your second, and it doubles as the grade target a conditional admission already requires.

Two other levers carry more weight than usual here. Employer tuition assistance gets decided on your job performance rather than your transcript. And picking a lower-cost program from the start — Cumberlands’ per-credit rates run well below comparable private schools — shrinks how much aid you need to find at all.

FAQs About Grad Schools That Accept a Low GPA

A few more questions tend to surface once you’ve matched your own GPA against these thresholds.

Can You Raise Your GPA Before Applying to Grad School?

Usually not in the way people hope. Many schools exclude undergraduate coursework taken after your degree was conferred from the GPA calculation entirely, so retaking classes often doesn’t move the number admissions reviews. Graduate coursework is the more productive route, since several schools here will weigh a graduate GPA alongside or instead of your undergraduate one.

Do GRE or GMAT Scores Help Offset a Low GPA?

At most schools on this page, no, because they neither require nor consider them. UNC Pembroke is the clear exception, accepting a GMAT score of 400 or a GRE score of 292 from applicants in its 2.0 to 2.49 tier. Sitting for either exam is worth the time and fee only when a specific target program names it.

Does a Low Undergraduate GPA Follow You Into the Program?

No. Your graduate GPA is calculated on graduate coursework alone and starts clean. What does carry forward is the standard you’ll need to maintain once enrolled, which is commonly a 3.0 for good academic standing, continued aid eligibility, and graduation — Bellevue, for instance, requires a 3.0 in your graduate major to earn the degree.

Should You Apply to Several Schools at Different GPA Thresholds?

Yes, and especially if your GPA sits in the low 2.0s. Clearing a school’s minimum outright and squeezing in through a conditional route produce very different first years, in both workload and aid eligibility. Apply to at least one program where you comfortably exceed the published number rather than landing right at it.

Are Online Programs Easier To Get Into Than On-Campus Ones?

Not inherently, though schools built around working adults do tend to publish lower thresholds, and a few here apply conditional routes specifically to their online programs. Cumberlands is one example. The degree you finish and the accreditation behind it are identical either way, which is what employers and licensing boards actually check.

Find Online Grad Schools

A GPA under 3.0 narrows your graduate options without closing them, and these ten schools show how much room exists between the 3.0 default and the actual floor. Learn.org’s program guides and school profiles can help you compare online master’s options and pinpoint the programs your record already qualifies you for.