Honors in the UK vs US

[ProTrans]

I've seen several admissions requirements mention different types of Honors degrees (2.1 vs 2.2) and I'm terribly confused.  What would that be comparable to in the US?

[TakeruK]

I think it's pretty well explained on this page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_undergraduate_degree_classification

 

You can read the article to get the context, but you can scroll down to the table under "International comparisons" to compare 2:1, 2:2 etc with American GPAs. In summary:

 

1st class = 3.68/4.0 GPA = A- (in Canada anyways, I'm assuming this is also A- in the US in the 4.0 system)

2.1 = 3.33/4.0 = B+ 

2.2 = 3.0/4.0 = B 

 

(Of course, conversions are not actually straight forward like this, since all schools have their own procedures, but this could be a rough guide. Also, grades seem to mean different things at different schools/countries as well!)

Edited September 30, 2013 by TakeruK

[id quid]

It's worth noting that some schools have different versions of these scales. Most of the schools should be able to tell you directly if you ask, though many will direct you to a credentialing service.

 

Colloquially speaking, my professors told me that a "first" for Oxford is really a 3.8. UBC's English department has said an A- is a 3.5 (whereas in the US it's usually 3.7+) or an 80%. 

[Usmivka]

I think it's pretty well explained on this page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_undergraduate_degree_classification

 

You can read the article to get the context, but you can scroll down to the table under "International comparisons" to compare 2:1, 2:2 etc with American GPAs. In summary:

 

1st class = 3.68/4.0 GPA = A- (in Canada anyways, I'm assuming this is also A- in the US in the 4.0 system)

2.1 = 3.33/4.0 = B+ 

2.2 = 3.0/4.0 = B 

 

(Of course, conversions are not actually straight forward like this, since all schools have their own procedures, but this could be a rough guide. Also, grades seem to mean different things at different schools/countries as well!)

The last point line is crucial. I'm on a 5 point scale, so good luck translating that! When you report your grades, the school you apply to in the UK will do their own conversion based on both relative range of the scale and what the admissions folks think of your university (sort of a sliding "porestige" multiplier, like what id quid pointed out). Don't try to send in converted scores unless they specifically instruct you to, this is really only for your edification.

[TakeruK]

I definitely agree that you should never try to convert your scores. Many applications I had actually told you to NOT convert it and just leave that field blank if your school did not grade on the same GPA system and/or if you were an international applicant. Sometimes it's not clear if you need to leave it blank, so I asked them about converting scores and they told me that they will inspect the transcript and convert it their way.

 

Also, for those applying to Canadian schools (someone mentioned UBC), it might be helpful to know that Canadian schools have very similar cutoffs across the board, in both sciences and the arts/humanities. The cutoffs are almost always: 90%+ = A+, 86%-89%=A, 80%-85%=A-, going down in about 4% intervals after that. While these percentages are fixed, GPAs are very different though -- UBC doesn't do GPAs, some schools have a 7 point GPA, some 10 point GPA, some 4.3, some 4.0. 

 

I've noticed that this is fairly different from some US schools (e.g. my current school), where there are no fixed percentage-to-letter-grade conversion, and profs tend to set the grade cutoffs after all of the final scores are tabulated to achieve whatever distribution they (or the school/department) want.

[runningincircles]

I got my undergrad and graduate degrees professionally evaluated by a service in the U.S. for employment purposes. I got a 2:1 in undergrad, and it was converted to 3:5 GPA in the U.S. To be honest though, and professors have indicated as much, conversion between the U.K. and U.S. with respect to GPA is pretty much pointless. I've been told by professors at Stanford that there's really no way to convert because the of the way things are graded in the U.S. v U.K. It's a totally different system, which that professor informed me, is much more rigorous in the U.K.

If you really need to have it converted to some type of U.S. scale, then you might go the route I did and get it professionally evaluated for conversion. Just make sure that when you get it converted, you go to a service that comes well recommended. FYI, I got evaluated for community college teaching jobs in the U.S.

[TravelBug92]

I absolutely agree with everyone on here, converting the GPA yourself is fairly pointless. What I did to see if my GPA was high enough was I contacted the pg admissions counsellors at the schools I am interested (unless it explicitly states on the program page what their US equivalent is), and they told me whether or not my GPA is at/above the minimum requirement, because there really is no logical way to convert the grades.

 

From what I've been told by the counsellors, a 2:1 is typically around a 3.3/3.4 and a 1st is about a 3.7/3.8. I haven't seen any that say that the minimum is 2:2, but I'm guessing it's around a 3.0/3.1 GPA. 

 

Best of luck! 

[RoaringMice]

I know a lot of US students ask this question not so they can do the conversion on their applications, but to know whether or not to apply at all, as most of the UK post-grad programs I'm familiar with require a 2.1 degree or higher. So they ask me this question to know if they should apply.

[TakeruK]

I know a lot of US students ask this question not so they can do the conversion on their applications, but to know whether or not to apply at all, as most of the UK post-grad programs I'm familiar with require a 2.1 degree or higher. So they ask me this question to know if they should apply.

 

Right -- which is why everyone is giving very general/vague ranges like a 2.1 is 3.X to 3.Y GPA, not a precise number. And we're all saying that precise conversions will vary a lot and it shouldn't be done by the student! So, if the US GPA is within or close to that range, then it's worth applying!