Canadian UK grade equivalency

[argo360]

Hi

So I recently got my MSc offer from oxford and the condition is to have a GPa equivalent to UK first class. In canada we are on a 4.0 scale and my mark basically drop about 0.03 points from my application average. I got no idea what oxford considers first class by Canadian standards and not sure if this will affect my final admission. I was just wondering if anyone has a similar experience and can comment on it?

[djlewis]

From my understanding a First Class designation is equivalent to a 3.68-4.00 GPA or 70%+ mark in North America.

[argo360]

From my understanding a First Class designation is equivalent to a 3.68-4.00 GPA or 70%+ mark in North America.

But my application mark is not even 3.68. I was just thinking they won't make an admission offer if they are not sure my final grade even reaches the bar, would they?

[djlewis]

Well you said you already have an offer, so they clearly think you are qualified.  Is your offer conditional or unconditional?  Check the offer conditions if it is conditional.  There will likely be a line about your final marks being up to a certain standard when you send them your transcripts, if you haven't done so already.  If you are close to the required GPA but not quite there I doubt that alone would completely disqualify you, if you already have an offer.   This should all be in the fine print of your offer though.

[argo360]

Thanks for the help. Tere are only 3 lines on my conditional offer

1. Graduate with final mark equivalent to UK first class

2. Pay fees by the deadline

3. Respond by the deadline

I applied with GPA 3.64 and after 4th year and all the hard courses my final GPA is 3.61. One consolation I got was that mcgill has serious grade deflation so most university lower their standard when considering us.

It's not a huge drop and my major GPA actually increased cuz I performe well on classes under my major. But the wording of the letter is so elusive and there isn't really a good equivalency table on the net about where oxford stands when comparing Canadian GPA. It's not a huge drop, but I just want to make sure that they make offers to those they already considered qualified and won't make the offer to students who are below bar but "might" meet the bar, does that make sense?

So if anyone has any prior experience with this please let me know. I contacted the grad office but they are super slow at getting back at me.