Potential Grad student - question about GPA?

Question

Hi, I'm a UK citizen thinking about applying to Grad Schools in the United States. I understand that I have to take the GRE exam, but I'm confused about the GPA rating. I do not have such a thing. It's been 14 years since my undergraduate degree which I obtained at a London university, and the grading system in the UK is also completely different. Are there other 'tests' I can do, or some other means by which to obtain a GPA, or is it it waived in certain circumstances such as this? Perhaps other considerations are taken into account instead? I'd be grateful for any help/insight, or personal experience with such an application process. Thanks a lot.

Answer 1

You need not worry.

The Graduate School administrators at each university calculate approximations of things like GPA for international students. In fact, there are specialists whose job focuses on precisely these things.

All you must do is submit an official copy of your transcript. The administrators will then do the work, and send on the results to the department to which you are applying. Then the Director of Graduate Studies in that department will include your application among the others that are presented to the departmental admission committee.

Answer 2

There may be tests, but it's pretty easy to calculate your GPA in the U.S. The last 60 credit hours are the ones usually used in calculating a GPA. The way to do this is on a scale. I don't know whether you use a grading scale of A,B,C,D, & F but most graduate schools have a computing method to crossover grades if you don't use that scale. But if you do I will show you how to get your GPA. All letters are worth a certain amount of points as follows:
A=4
B=3
C=2
D=1

Ok so let's do 15 credit hours for instance and assign grades.

MicroBiology=4 credit hours= grade of B you earn 12 grade points, because you multiply credit hours by the amount of points the grade is assigned. Ok let's do 15 at a time.

MicroBiology=B=4credit hours=12 grade points
Eng. 101=A=3 credit hours=12 grade points
Analytic calc.=C=5 credit hours= 10 grade points
Humanities 206=A=3 credit hours=12 grade points

Ok we now have 15 credit hours and 46 grade points. We then take 46 divided by 15 to get our GPA so, for this example the GPA would be 3.066 or we round up here to a 3.07 GPA. Which is a B average. You should be able to use this to calculate your own GPA so you have no surprises later.

Answer 3

In general, you can rely on the admissions process to American Grad Schools to do their due diligence on foreign degrees. I entered the Yale Graduate School in 1959 with an honors degree from a Canadian University. and was in a program where my class included students from the UK, New Zealand, Sierra Leone, Germany and Jordan, as well as students from various parts of the U.S. Even then, they must have had a system for assessing "grade point equivalency".

From some checking of admissions requirements now, I have a general notion that a cut-off threshold for UK grade point equivalency would be the upper part of a second class honors degree (this is a general impression, however). One table of GPA equivalents for various countries is at http://www.graduateshotline.com/gpa/gpac.html

Answer 4

I believe most major universities in the U.S. have an office of international student services. Here is the contact information for the University of Tennessee where I'm applying to grad school. Perhaps they can assist you or look on the web site of universities you wish to apply to.


International Student Services
1620 Melrose Avenue
Knoxville, TN 37996-3531

Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]

Answer 5

GPA doesnt that mean grade point average?