International GPA conversion

[leetchisgod]

This is always a frustrating topic. Going from bachelors in the US, to a masters in the UK wasn't too bad. Most departments there knew how the US GPA system roughly works, although the BU grade deflations needed to be explained a bit more. For my PhD I'm applying to schools in Canada and I'm slightly worried that my 67 (including a 76 on my dissertation) might not be viewed in the same manner it would have been in the UK. I know Canada also uses a 1-100 scale, but the grading there is slightly inflated as compared to the UK. In the UK, it's very difficult to get over a 70, and nearly impossible to get anything over an 80. Do you think that having faculty at the department I've applied to, who did some of their studies in the UK ought to be enough to allow for a better understanding of my marks? Or should I try to find a some official type of conversion, if any is available (and if there is, please let me know where to find it), and include it with future applications. God damn, I should have thought about this BEFORE applying, but there might be another chance to apply some of this learning.

[psycholinguist]

I studied abroad for a semester in the UK and received two marks in the 60s and one 75, then thought of this problem just before applying to grad-schools and went to ask the study-abroad office about it. They assured me that American and Canadian schools are used to seeing British grades on transcripts and advised me not to worry about it. However, I got a rejection from one Canadian program supposedly as a result of my grades being a bit lower than they would have liked; my American grades are fine, so I have to wonder whether that program glanced at my British marks and thought they were looking at scores out of 100.

If in doubt, I would email the programs with your concerns. Also, visit your university's career-office or registrar and see if they have any international GPA-conversion guidelines.

[liszt85]

I heard this from a source but this could very well be wrong:

If the university is aware of the grading policies of your university (how tough/easy), they will have an idea about where the topper would be, where the middle of the class would be and where the bottom would be. In my case, my department (Physics) at my university (Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur) is pretty well known because illustrious students in the past have applied to top programs and have been accepted. So the physics departments in the US know the range of GPAs here and my 7.0/10 (a mediocre one) would mean that I'm somewhere at the middle of my class. Middle of the class would translate to a 3.0/4.0, the issue with my particular application is that people from my department probably have never ever applied to a psychology or a linguistics department. Hence those psychology and linguistics departments would not have this information (unless they are willing to walk over to the physics dept and ask for their input which I doubt they'd take the pains to do). This conversion is the only one that makes sense.

I've heard of other nonsensical nonlinear conversions like: (Intl GPA - 2)/2 which would mean my 7.0 goes to 2.5/4 and I guess this is what happened at most places because these departments probably never have had an application from the physics department here. (McGill, I'm talking to you!)

[leetchisgod]

Well, I guess that works, the school I went to is decent enough in the UK, hopefully that works for me. More importantly, let's hope they look at my undergrad grades and think it's UK marking, those first two years were absolute hell (family issues), I'm surprised I made it through at all.

[StudyMom]

My UK Master's didn't hinder my acceptance to PhD but it was a problem trying to get the graduate office to approve credits from my Master's towards the PhD. My program required 90 credits for the PhD but you can transfer up to 30 from a Master's so it was pretty important to get those credits unless I wanted to stay in school for five years (which I do not!). The UK Master's is much different from the US and had only four courses on it with grades in the 60's (I had a 2.1 in England for those of you who know, that's pretty good). It took 7 months to get the credits approved and a lot of pushing. So, my point is even though there was an explanation of grade translation, the graduate office still was not comfortable with the UK degree. Hope it all works out for you.

[RF237]

I wouldn't worry about it too much. I also have a master's from a UK university. After applying to two programs last year and not getting in, I contacted both schools to see if my UK grades were the problem, and was assured that the professors in the department were used to seeing UK transcripts. That was history--I don't know what your subject is. I did look into pay services that "translate" your transcript for you, but they're very expensive. I would suggest starting your research into PhD programs early (over the summer), emailing your potential future advisors, and, among other things, asking them if they or their departments would have trouble interpreting such transcripts. You could also talk to your professors at your UK university (the ones you'll be asking for letters of recommendation) and ask them to be clear about how good your grades are and how your work compared to other students' work from your year.

[leetchisgod]

Thanks for the insights. It's good to hear that other people have had the same concern, but have been adequately reassured. I sense that should be enough for this application round. Hopefully with any luck I won't have to worry about this the second time around, but if there is a second round, I'll definitely take this advice and make sure to prepare my application to include something to put everything into context.