Program for a user to enter grades...having a problem

Question

I have a project I am doing for class...this is what i have to do.
"Your instructor needs a program that will input the letter grades of students and perform the following calculations along with the corresponding output: 1.) compute and print a letter grade distribution (makes a chart showing the number of each grade made), 2.) compute and print the class gpa, and 3.) print a bar graph of the letter grade distribution. Program should work for any class size, and should work for any number of classes (dunno what that is talking about)."
the bar graph is just stars printed horizontally using the numbers from part 1.
i have this so far and i'm getting an error at the switch statement saying i'm using a string when i should be using an int, that's problem 1. I'd also like to take some suggestions on a better way of doing this without it getting complicated (we've just gotten to writing our own classes, no array lists or anything "fancy".
import java.util.Scanner;
public class Grades
    public static void main (String [] args)
        Scanner scan = new Scanner (System.in);
        int qualPoints = 0, totalGrades = 0, aCount = 0, bCount = 0, cCount = 0, dCount = 0, fCount = 0;
        double gpa = 0;
        String grade;
        System.out.println ("Enter the student's grade, z to stop.");
        grade = scan.next();
        while (grade.equalsIgnoreCase ("A") || grade.equalsIgnoreCase ("B") || grade.equalsIgnoreCase ("C") || grade.equalsIgnoreCase ("D")
                || grade.equalsIgnoreCase ("F") && grade != "Z" && grade != "z")
                    *switch (grade)*
                        case 'A':
                            qualPoints = (qualPoints + 4);
                            totalGrades++;
                            aCount++;
                            break;
                        case 'B':
                            qualPoints = (qualPoints + 3);
                            totalGrades++;
                            bCount++;
                            break;
                        case 'C':
                            qualPoints = (qualPoints + 2);
                            totalGrades++;
                            cCount++;
                            break;
                        case 'D':
                            qualPoints = (qualPoints +1);
                            totalGrades++;
                            dCount++;
                            break;
                        default:
                            qualPoints = (qualPoints +0);
                            totalGrades++;
                            fCount++;
                    System.out.println ("Enter the student's grade, z or Z to stop.");
                    grade = scan.next();
                gpa = (double) (qualPoints / totalGrades);
                System.out.println ("The class gpa is " + gpa);
        }

Answer 1

had to go watch the Indians lose, unfortunately :P
OK, got the switch to work (or at least be error free). But it's screwing up on the addition (it's giving me a run-time error and stopping the program.
import java.util.Scanner;
public class Grades
    public static void main (String [] args)
        Scanner scan = new Scanner (System.in);
        int qualPoints = 0, totalGrades = 0, aCount = 0, bCount = 0, cCount = 0, dCount = 0, fCount = 0;
        double gpa = 0;
        String grade;
        System.out.println ("Enter the student's grade, z to stop.");
        grade = scan.next();
        char gradeCh = grade.charAt(0);
        while (grade.equalsIgnoreCase ("A") || grade.equalsIgnoreCase ("B") || grade.equalsIgnoreCase ("C") || grade.equalsIgnoreCase ("D")
                || grade.equalsIgnoreCase ("F") && grade != "Z" && grade != "z")
                    switch (gradeCh)
                        case 'A':
                            qualPoints = (qualPoints + 4);
                            aCount++;
                            break;
                        case 'B':
                            qualPoints = (qualPoints + 3);
                            bCount++;
                            break;
                        case 'C':
                            qualPoints = (qualPoints + 2);
                            cCount++;
                            break;
                        case 'D':
                            qualPoints = (qualPoints +1);
                            dCount++;
                            break;
                        default:
                            qualPoints = (qualPoints +0);
                            fCount++;
                        totalGrades++;
                    System.out.println ("Enter the student's grade, z or Z to stop.");
                    grade = scan.next();
                gpa = (double) (qualPoints / totalGrades);
                System.out.println ("The class gpa is " + gpa);
    it's highlighting the gpa = statement at the end giving me a divide by zero error...is the totalgrade statement not working?
and i tried it with lowercase grades and uppercase, only gave me the error on uppercase, but on lowercase it is coming back with a gpa of 0...which wasn't correct.
and thx for the help so far :)