Percentage to GPA conversion

Thanks Ihotesface

Try this link, it worked for me (although I'm not from India).

https://www.wes.org/gradeconversionguide/india.htm

Hope it helps. L.

The adcoms that I talked to ( and also their online forums ) explicitly requested me not to convert. I would suggest that you check with the schools that you plan to apply to. I applied to Duke, Wharton and UCLA with percentages.

I would second Lhotseface.

I applied to five schools and all with percentages. It all depends on the school. For ex.. Columbia has a table for conversion but i dont think that table is correct for Indian grading system.

Yeah, just leave it exactly as it appears in your transcipt. Do not convert.

The link you sent is total BS how can 60-100 be all A, total rubbish

Yeah I had similar thots! Made me think why I didnt do my undergraduate in India.

Jai, thank you for your message. While I'm not acquainted with the particularities of the Indian system, I would advice caution when it comes to evaluating other people's work (just to clarify, not my work).

Some notes on the spirit behind this table:

- Different education systems perceive grades differently. While As maybe common at grade - inflationed schools / countries, they may be reserved to the absolute stellar in other schools / countries. It is not uncommon in some places for entire classes to get mostly (the equivalent) to Cs and Ds with only 1 or 2 people scoring Bs or above.

For eg: in a scale from 1 to 10, the person with the highest average at my undergrad (not in India, but elsewhere), got an 8.8 (and we were not a bunch of retards, btw). If you translate that grade lightly, you would assume he got a 3.25. Yet this guy graduated within the top 0.5% of his class, with honors, etc.

Another eg.: some professors at local universities explain their grading system on a 1 to 10 scale as follows:

10 GOD
9 me
8 brilliant student
5-7 very good student
4 (last passing grade) average+ student.
0-3.99 everyone else.

So I would not rush to the kind of conclusions that sm has drawn, i.e. "I'd love to study in India" based on assuming grades mean the same all around the world.

And last but not least, lhotse, you are right, I forgot to mention that even when there are some tools available to convert GPAs I would never do so in an application.

Cheers. L.

Lepium, you make a valid point. At my undergrad institution, less than 10% of the class scored above 60% (First Class).

Curious to know your school, but my college( NIT) is at the other end of the extreme..where the topper had scored 95% ....

wondering how can the adcom make sense out of it..if they have to evaluate say a lhotseface vs ozie .....

I included a rank certificate from my state university which indicated where I stood during the 4 years. Moreover, I won the dean's medal for academics which I touted in the data form. I don't know how much my graduate degree in the US from a top school in my field helped.

BTW, is NIT the same as REC ?

I guess both REC (man, I feel old) and IIT did add a lot of value to the international economy..if you know what I mean . Drain..Brain..Drain. When I was in high school, I was a total bozzo and the proverbial frog in the well. I ditched more recognized national universties to join the state college and worked for my father's company in all sorts of functional areas during undergrad. One fine day, I decided that I want to explore the world and not work for my old man or inherit his business. I am still debating whether that was the right thing to do...but didn't Lennon say , "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans".

You have a hell a lot of stories to impress the adcom, which you did any way !!!!

I am still debating whether that was the right thing to do... -- why ? I think it was the best decision you have taken, which helped you to experience the world...which wouldn't have been possible had you sticked to your dad's company back home

well you might have a different opinion

As Lepium quoted

Another eg.: some professors at local universities explain their grading system on a 1 to 10 scale as follows:

10 GOD
9 me
8 brilliant student
5-7 very good student
4 (last passing grade) average+ student.
0-3.99 everyone else.

We at IIT Delhi had precisely this system, where even if I got A- in a course, I felt very satisfied. My overall GPA at the end of 4 years came to be 9.0 which is basically 3.7 in US system. I did get some A's and usually those courses I had a realy deep understanding. It also depended upon professors but usually in a class of 45 it was hard to see more than 5 As and mind you at least 35 students in the class were capable of getting A in a course.

In colleges which use percentages, I think any thing above 80% would qualify as an A. (we had to get at least 80% even to have any chance of getting an A). 60-80% would be more like B- to A-

When I came to US for graduate school, I sailed through and got a 4.0

I agree with Lepium. In my undergrad school the average score was 58% i.e second class. If one scored above 60%(First class) he was above average.
<10 % of the students managed to score more than 65%. <3% of the students managed to score 70% aggregate.
There are few universities in India where people tend to score more 85% on average.

I hope that adcom knows about these discrepancies and considers each accordingly.

But this is almost like the reason for nondisclosure at Chicago GSB. Comparison of marking methods is futile other than how the grades compare to one-another.

I remember that we were told that "marks are in percentages, marked by quality. Above 70% is an A. Above 85% and you should seriously consider looking to have the article published in a journal".

Which basically meant you were marked out of 80, or were too damn good.

All,
I am facing this Percentage to GPA dilemma myself and after having spoken to a professor in Ivy league, I learnt that a <3.5 could be risky as it brings down the average of the entering class. I reached out to the school to find out how my 78%, and being in the top 5 in a class of 60 would be normalized to a GPA but haven't heard back. There are no grades on my mark-sheet, so all one can know is that it is an Honors degree from a certain university in India. Looking at some conversion formulae on Internet, my GPA can go as low as 2.9, which I personally feel is inaccurate.
Should I try to explain my position on percentage and all in the optional essay? Earlier I was thinking of explaining a recent job switch, the only one in last 7 years, in the optional essay. Can I explain two things in the optional essay - % and job switch?

Thanks a lot for your help.