The Empirical Economics Letters, 6(5): (September 2007) ISSN 1681 8997 Factors Affecting Grade Point Average of University Students * Cumhur Erdem ** 1 , İsmail Şentürk 2 and Cem Kaan Arslan 3 Department of Economics, Gaziosmanapaşa University Taşlıçiftlik Kampüsü, Tokat Abstract: The objective of this study is to determine which socio-economic and demographic factors have impact on students’ cumulative grade point average. To meet this objective, a survey was carried out at Gaziosmanpaşa University with fourth grade students. The data were analyzed by using ordered probit model. According to the results, factors such as the type of high school graduates, gender, the number of sisters/brothers in school, education level of parents, expression of family expectations about the school and study time have impact on the grade point average. Keywords: Ordered Probit, Grade Point Average, University JEL Classification Number: A22, I21 1. Introduction Since the number of people who graduated from a university has increased in Turkey, there is a high competition among the graduates in white collar job market. One of the indicators that highlight the university students’ qualification is the academic performance mostly measured with the cumulative grade point average (CGPA). Many employers use the CGPA to screen out the job candidates and they mostly prefer a candidate with a higher CGPA. Many factors are considered as determiners of the students’ CGPA such as gender, previous academic performance, living place and income level of family, social environment, the type and quality of the high school graduated, the high school grade point * This research was supported by Scientific Research Projects Commission of Gaziosmanpaşa University. The paper was presented at the 3. International Conference on Business, Management and Economics in Çeşme, İzmir. ** Corresponding author. 1 Assistant Professor. Email: Cumhur_erdem@yahoo.com 2 Research assistant. Email: İsmailsenturk@gop.edu.tr 3 Research assistant. Email: Kaantin@hotmail.com