GPA Calculation - University of Toronto

[Jaskanwal]

Hello,

I am having a confusion in calculating GPA according to University of Toronto's guidelines. According to guidelines GPA = sum(Grade*weight/max grade)/sum(weight), where weight is the number of course credits (https://www.dropbox.com/s/f62qevf34hekpt9/GPA.PNG). If i use this formula to calculate my GPA it will always be less than 1. Is this correct or i am misinterpreting the guidelines?

 

Thank you

[surefire]

I'm currently at U of T, but I don't know much about that formula you've cited above.

 

It might be easier to start with the School of Graduate Studies minimum admissions calculator that accounts for international credentials:

 

http://portal.sgs.utoronto.ca/current/admission/intdegequiv.asp

 

Hope that helps! Good luck!

[TakeruK]

I did not remember having to do this when applying to U of T (twice). The formula you have mentioned above is perfectly valid, and it is designed so that a GPA calculated in this way is on a scale of 0 to 1. Remember that not everyone uses the 4.0 or 4.3 GPA system, and if you use this formula, then U of T is expecting a max GPA of 1.

 

The reason the maximum is one is because you have to divide by the "max grade". Alternatively, you can view this as a weighted average percentage grade. The weights are the number of units the course is worth, which is usually proportional to how much work is expected or how long the course is. For example, at my undergrad school, a 3 month course is worth 3 credits and a 6 month (year long) course is 6 credits. So, a grade in a year long course is worth twice as much towards your average as a semester-long course. 

[Jaskanwal]

I'm currently at U of T, but I don't know much about that formula you've cited above.

 

It might be easier to start with the School of Graduate Studies minimum admissions calculator that accounts for international credentials:

 

http://portal.sgs.utoronto.ca/current/admission/intdegequiv.asp

 

Hope that helps! Good luck!

The minimum GPA calculator gives the minimum required GPA for my institute on the scale of 10. This is the reason i was confused. They are giving the minimum GPA required on the scale of 10 but are asking applicant's GPA on the scale of 1. I think i should use the formula to get my GPA on the scale of 1.  Thanks for your response.

[Jaskanwal]

I did not remember having to do this when applying to U of T (twice). The formula you have mentioned above is perfectly valid, and it is designed so that a GPA calculated in this way is on a scale of 0 to 1. Remember that not everyone uses the 4.0 or 4.3 GPA system, and if you use this formula, then U of T is expecting a max GPA of 1.

 

The reason the maximum is one is because you have to divide by the "max grade". Alternatively, you can view this as a weighted average percentage grade. The weights are the number of units the course is worth, which is usually proportional to how much work is expected or how long the course is. For example, at my undergrad school, a 3 month course is worth 3 credits and a 6 month (year long) course is 6 credits. So, a grade in a year long course is worth twice as much towards your average as a semester-long course. 

 Thanks for your response. I think i should use the formula to get my GPA on scale of 1.

[TakeruK]

I think what might be happening is that the School of Graduate Studies have their own conversion scale for international grades, but based on the instructions you posted, it sounds like the department you are applying to want this formula computed instead. This formula would help them quickly compare different countries' systems efficiently! Otherwise if two people from two different countries reported GPAs of 4.0 and 7.0, it's hard to tell who got closer to the maximum amount of points. Even if they were reported as like 4.0/4.3 and 7.0/8.0, it's not as convenient as normalizing all the grades to be from 0 to 1.0.

 

Good luck!