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arpan31289
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GPA conversion 19 Jun 2012, 23:02
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Hi there,

I have a quick question...I am trying to convert my GPA from a 10.0 scale to a 4.0 scale....I had an undergrad GPA of 8.243/10 and a postgrad GPA of 8.30/10 (both on an absolute basis).....If I convert them directly then I get to somewhere like 3.2/3.3 (is that correct?) but if I change each course according to the grade I received then the numbers will be different.....also since in my case both were based on an absolute scale, does that place me at a disadvantage to schools which give out relative GPAs (as in the class topper gets 10.0 and the rest follow)....any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks a lot in advance

Regards,

Arpan
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geometric
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GPA conversion 20 Jun 2012, 00:06
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First, it's very important to note that many schools in the US use slightly different systems for their GPA calculations.

That said, here's how my undergraduate worked:

You received a percentage grade out of 100 for each class. That percentage grade equated to a letter grade in the following manner:

93 and above = A (quite impossible to achieve)
90-92 = A-
87-89 = B+
83-86 = B
80-82 = B-
77-79 = C+
73-76 = C
70-72 = C-
67-69 = D+
63-66 = D
60-62 = D-
59 and below = F

Then, your letter grade equated to a number on the 4.0 scale.

A = 4.0
A– = 3.7
B+ = 3.3
B = 3.0
B– = 2.7
C+ = 2.3
C = 2.0
C– = 1.7
D+ = 1.3
D = 1.0
D– = 0.7
F = 0.0

Finally, you took the weighted average of your grades from each class (with respect to the number of credit hours that each class represented) to determine your overall GPA. So, let's assume that all of your courses had equal credit hours, an 82% would equate to about a 2.9 GPA while an 83% would equate to exactly a 3.0 GPA.

Again, that's just one system. I'm not sure how popular it is, but it's the undergraduate grading system at Vanderbilt University. For some more colour, I believe that, at Vanderbilt, latin honors begin around a 3.5 (that is, qualification for cum laude is about a 3.5). Hope that helps.
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arpan31289
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GPA conversion 20 Jun 2012, 05:03
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Hi,

Thanks a lot for the clarification...its really helpful. But just to clarify I was 8th in my graduating batch in my undergrad and 4th in my postgrad. Does that count in terms of the final GPA allotted to me post conversion?

Thanks a lot.

Regards,

Arpan
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Youngjames
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GPA conversion 20 Jun 2012, 05:45
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That post from VandyGrad is excellent. I'd say that's the most common grading scale there is in the US. Sometimes (and I think this is mostly before you reach college), the scale starts at 70, so a 69 is an F, but for the most part, the logic is the same and the numbers presented are the ones most commonly used.

When I was on the adcom, the questions you've raised were ones that were difficult to understand. In fact, I'm thinking of doing a blog post just on this precise topic, b/c it seems to come up so often.

IMO, there are a couple of factors that confound the adcom's ability to understand international GPAs. The big ones are:
(1) The translation table you've cited above is VERY difficult to conceptualize. There's an understanding that in general terms a number above 8 out of 10 is solid, but it's still not the same level of precision an adcom reader could make about a US undergrad GPA that is on the trad'l 4.0 scale.
(2) Class ranking + GPA is helpful for demonstrating the significance of the UGPA, but even this was difficult because we didn't know the competitiveness of some of the schools. Everyone has heard of U of Tokyo, Seoul National, or the IITs, but there are many many excellent programs outside of these that are world-reknown, and I always felt graduates from the lesser known schools had a disadvantage, simply b/c of that.
(3) The transcripts from an int'l school look extremely different from a typical US transcript. US transcripts are pretty standardized. But because we'd be receiving transcripts from schools all over the world, just making sure we understood how to interpret the transcript was not easy.
(4) There would often be jargon used to describe things that we didn't really comprehend. For example, the word "topper." I know what it means and it's kind of self-explanatory, but IMO, it's better just to be clear and say "#1 in my class" and avoid the jargon altogether.

Like I said...This topic is one (I feel) the adcoms really struggle with since the top MBA programs evaluate candds from all over the world. My advice is to try to break things down into terms that are as simple as possible to understand.

hope that's helpful
-james young
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Youngjames
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GPA conversion 22 Jun 2012, 05:54
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For those who might be interested, I've written a bit more about the advantages and pitfalls of international applicants here: https://www.thefirstread.com/internation ... -programs/

hope that's helpful,
-james young