GPA Issues

Question

How many schools are there that treat the + and - on grades differently? My UG used this scale:
A = 4
A- = 3.7
B+ = 3.3
B = 3 
B- = 2.7
C+ = 2.3 
C = 2
C- = 1.7

and in Law school, they went on 12 point scale.

A+ = 12
A = 11
A= 10
B+ = 9
...

Any suggestions on dealing with the way my GPA is different than many other schools method of calculation?

terp26 · Answer

A=4
B=3
C=2
D=1

+/- do not transfer to GPA

jallenmorris · Answer

At your school maybe, but at my UG, they do. I just figured up my GPA using the score system below, 1, 2, 3, 4. It increased my GPA by 0.01. How hilarious is that? I guess I didn't get as many - on my transcript as I thought.

It was a pretty humbling experience to go back and look at my transcript. I graduated UG in 2002. It's amazing how I took very little seriously back then, and I actually told myself at the time "I'm doing the best I can." Rubbish!

ko · Answer

My UG uses the + and - the same way that yours did. I go to a large state school.

isa · Answer

My school did what your undergrad did:

A = 4
A- = 3.7
B+ = 3.3
B = 3 
B- = 2.7
C+ = 2.3 
C = 2
C- = 1.7

jasonc · Answer

my ug also uses the same +/- system.

misterlev · Answer

jallen,

Do you report your law school gpa out of 11 or out of 12?

Raabend · Answer

A 4.00 
A– 3.67 
B+ 3.33 
B 3.00 
B– 2.67 
C+ 2.33 
C 2.00

State school

jallenmorris · Answer

It's out of 12.

I think #1 in the class had a GPA of like 10.6 or something. We didn't curve and professors were told to maintain a % of failing grades and keep the grades evenly disbursed throughout the class.

highhopes · Answer

My school had +/-. They used three decimal points (3.667,3.333), but the breakdowns are the same.

jallenmorris · Answer

Looks like the consensus is that multiple schools use the +/- breakdown and not just the A, B, C, D across the board. This at least lets me know that my GPA will be comparable to others as far as scale goes. Now as to strength of program, I just hope the adcoms have read the rankings of US News and recognize my University.

Yahsek · Answer

Add one more for the use of +/-, which was good in my case because I ended up getting a lot of X+ grades (not A's, LOL).

jallenmorris · Answer

I spent a good 30 minutes just looking over my unofficial transcript faxed to me by my UG university today. I definitely know that i'm going to answer the Kellogg quesiton "I wish the adcoms had asked me about. . . " Hopefully that will allow me to explain how my perspective has changed since UG and why I didn't do all that great in law school (working full time).

I know my personality and I'm best when I'm focused completely on something and nothing else. I'm sure a bunch of people are like that, but there are always those that say "I can multitask with the best of them." I can do that on a small scale, but if I have so many "big" things going on, then I can't focus as well and it shows in how I perform. I'm looking forward to b-school where I won't work but go fulltime and focus on nothing but b-school. This way I will avoid a similar blunder to my UG grades.

dabots · Answer

maryland had the dumbest system while i was there. they had +/-'s but did not count them in gpa calculation because they transitioning from no +/- to a +/- system and professors did not all comply. this sucked for law and med school applicants where gpas were recalculated for applications using +/-. at least for bschool there is no recalculation.

IHateTheGMAT · Answer

I would be careful with that explanation just because mba will require juggling classes, clubs, recruiting, etc. Granted, we may know that does not compare to law school + full time job, but the adcom may be thinking that their program is extremely intense and that the combo of classes, clubs, hw, projects, recruiting, socializing, etc requires the ability to multi-task

jallenmorris · Answer

What I'm talking about when I say having too much on my place it this:

- Work full-time
- Family ( wife + 2 kids)
- Social, friends
- 2 start-ups that I'm working with. Each gave me 25% to be their attorney / programmer / Marketer
- political campaign volunteer
- multiple websites I'm creating for clients/friends/non-profits aside from the start-ups

I'm looking forward to having 1 thing that I'm doing, even thought that 1 thing has multiple parts. That I can handle. What I want to get away from is having multiple website clients, the startups, and the job. I want to focus my efforts on one particular thing. Terp06 made a good point the other day that I've heard before, but it was good to hear again. It's better to be an expert in one area than mediocre in many. He didn't say I'm mediocre, but I got his point. I'm certainly not the world's expert in any of these areas. I have an opportunity to go to one of the world's best business schools. I think I'd be a fool not to drop the things that I can drop and focus only on b-school and being one of the best business leaders in the world.

ryguy904 · Answer

LOL - Where I come from, this is called a curve.

jallenmorris · Answer

What I mean is that if the best score in the class was a B+, then that's the highest score. That grade would not become the A+ as should happen with a true curve.

kryzak · Answer

Berkeley used the +/- system, but capped it at 4.0

Stanford used the +/- system, with A+ as 4.3

To be safe, I would check the GPA system of the school you're applying to see how you should calculate your GPA.

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