Help me calculate my GPA

[shai]

Hello everyone,

I have an average of 94.75 out of 100 from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. Can anyone help me understand what it means on the 4.00 scale ? Is it a 4.00 or would only a 100 be counted that way ?

thanks !

[joro]

I would say your gpa is a 3.79 unless I did my math wrong.

94.75/100 = x/4.0

x = (4.0(94.75))/100

I also don't know if this is what you're supposed to do.

[shai]

I don't think the 4.00 is a linear scale.

[melusine]

@ joro - i really don't think that's the way to do it. you're not taking into account the fact that (sorry but it is a fact) u.s. universities tend to inflate grades.

admissions committees normally have conversion tables and that sort of thing for international schools, at least so i've been told by quite a few people.

it makes sense, otherwise, my average of 87% at UBC (I am in the top 5% of my faculty this year) would be such a low GPA as to crash any grad school ambitions of mine right away...

[zilch]

I think each university will also have a different conversion table, you probably want to contact the admissions office of each school that you're applying to and ask them how you should handle it. Some of them may give you a formula, others may just tell you to send your grades as is and they'll do the conversion.

Grade inflation is not as prevalent as the media makes it out to be, however it does exist it depends on the discipline as well as the school so a direct linear conversion is not going to tell you much.

[fuzzylogician]

Are you sure you have to convert your grades at all? Usually schools have their own methods of converting grades from schools in different countries, and they're familiar with several kinds of grading methods. In particular, the percent method is well-known, and hopefully your school will be not too obscure for them never to have had applicants from there before - so they'll know where your 94.75 places you in relation to other applicants from your school. I do want to point out, though, that all of the schools I applied to last year said to put in my original GPA or leave that field blank, but none wanted me to convert on my own. If a university asks for that it must give clear instructions how to do it, otherwise there's just no way you can know. Contact the schools and ask them for their conversion table.

[profound_g]

I agree with the previous poster who said the either the schools provide exact instructions or do it themselves.

Having said that, you might want to calculate something approximate to see where you stand.

Check if your university provides a conversion scale with the transcript (you might want to ask for the English version specifically).

You calculate your GPA by first converting each mark on the 100 point scale to the corresponding one on the 4 point scale/letter grade, and then proceed to calc weighted average as usual.

Rough guidelines:

85-100 - 4

..-84 - 3

..65- 2

..55- 1

[Ziz]

I agree with the previous poster who said the either the schools provide exact instructions or do it themselves.

Having said that, you might want to calculate something approximate to see where you stand.

Check if your university provides a conversion scale with the transcript (you might want to ask for the English version specifically).

You calculate your GPA by first converting each mark on the 100 point scale to the corresponding one on the 4 point scale/letter grade, and then proceed to calc weighted average as usual.

Rough guidelines:

85-100 - 4

..-84 - 3

..65- 2

..55- 1

I think this is pretty rough (as you said). My school doesn't do GPA (we do percentage averages for everything) but if we followed these guidelines, the top student in the class would have less than a 3.0 because 85s just don't exist and 99% of the time the best mark in the class is lower than 84.

[alexis]

To further complicate things, it seems it depends on the country...I studied for a semester in England, where anything over 70 (out of 100) is considered a 1st, aka, a strong A...60-70 is like a B to A-. I hope the admissions committees are aware of the differences, though I would think they must be as they get international applicants.

[Ziz]

To further complicate things, it seems it depends on the country...I studied for a semester in England, where anything over 70 (out of 100) is considered a 1st, aka, a strong A...60-70 is like a B to A-. I hope the admissions committees are aware of the differences, though I would think they must be as they get international applicants.

I think they probably are aware because so many applicants are either from the UK or studied abroad there. I did my masters there and we actually have a diploma supplement that's included in our transcripts that explains that a 70 is actually an excellent mark and actually equivalent to an A as opposed to the B- or C it would be in the US/Canada.

[Carn the 'Scray]

Not sure how accurate it is (and I assume it'd have to be applied to individual subjects rather than a cumulative average), but this might help:

http://www.wes.org/gradeconversionguide/israel.htm

[shai]

Hi Everyone and thank you all for your advice.

I am still so puzzeled because it seems that a 94.75 would be somewhere between 3.975 and 4.00 GPA. This seems highly unlikely...

anyhow, I'll try and leave the option blank in the application forms and see where that gets me.

[joro]

Hi Everyone and thank you all for your advice.

I am still so puzzeled because it seems that a 94.75 would be somewhere between 3.975 and 4.00 GPA. This seems highly unlikely...

anyhow, I'll try and leave the option blank in the application forms and see where that gets me.

I think the best way to actually find out is to email grad admissions for the schools you're applying to.

[psycholinguist]

I think they probably are aware because so many applicants are either from the UK or studied abroad there. I did my masters there and we actually have a diploma supplement that's included in our transcripts that explains that a 70 is actually an excellent mark and actually equivalent to an A as opposed to the B- or C it would be in the US/Canada.

I was just going to ask about this! I did a semester abroad in the UK, and received marks equivalent to two A-s and an A. However, my main undergrad institution left them as percentages on my transcript, which is potentially very misleading. While applying to grad-schools last year, I went to our study-abroad office to request a form of that sort to highlight the differences in the marking scales, and they (somewhat abrasively) told me not to worry about it. I can only hope that this means that grad-schools are used to seeing UK numbers, because otherwise mine would be making my grades from my semester abroad look awful.*

* I was really sick for virtually my entire semester away, but luckily this (somehow) didn't get in the way of my academic performance.

[shai]

Hope this helps anyone - I just got a reply from one school I'm applying to which said that international students don't need to fill in the GPA info. They calculate it for you.

Cheers

[Ziz]

I was just going to ask about this! I did a semester abroad in the UK, and received marks equivalent to two A-s and an A. However, my main undergrad institution left them as percentages on my transcript, which is potentially very misleading. While applying to grad-schools last year, I went to our study-abroad office to request a form of that sort to highlight the differences in the marking scales, and they (somewhat abrasively) told me not to worry about it. I can only hope that this means that grad-schools are used to seeing UK numbers, because otherwise mine would be making my grades from my semester abroad look awful.*

* I was really sick for virtually my entire semester away, but luckily this (somehow) didn't get in the way of my academic performance.

I'd be nervous about that too! A friend of mine did his study abroad year at Oxford and his grades were converted into a GPA on his transcript. So when he got above 70, it translated to 4.0 which is much less misleading. I think if it were me, I would probably include a short explanation in my application ( not necessarily in the SOP) that explains that the following courses were taken in the UK where the grading system is different. My worry would be that they tried to do a cumulative average without noticing the fact that they were taken in the UK.

[profound_g]

Hope this helps anyone - I just got a reply from one school I'm applying to which said that international students don't need to fill in the GPA info. They calculate it for you.

Cheers

Oh, but what if they make a mistake? A bad, bad mistake. :evil:

[psycholinguist]

I'd be nervous about that too! A friend of mine did his study abroad year at Oxford and his grades were converted into a GPA on his transcript. So when he got above 70, it translated to 4.0 which is much less misleading. I think if it were me, I would probably include a short explanation in my application ( not necessarily in the SOP) that explains that the following courses were taken in the UK where the grading system is different. My worry would be that they tried to do a cumulative average without noticing the fact that they were taken in the UK.

That's a really good idea! (I do have to wonder whether a few programs took my UK grades at face-value last year, since at least one specifically pointed to my grades being a bit low when they rejected me...and my GPA wasn't particularly low.) Thanks for the suggestion!