Conversion from British standard of Education to American? (Ranto, help please!)?

Question

I got 5 A's and 3 B's on my IGCSE's. (International General Certificate of Secondary Education.)
Can somebody (Ehem... Ranto the Great ) please convert this to the American G.P.A. format? I'm doing my senior year in the US and I have to submit my university applications. Also, can you tell me if I have a chance with these universities?

NYU (1st choice)
Cornell
Carnegie Mellon
Boston University
Fordham
Pace
CUNY Baruch

My SAT scores were 1820. (1210/1600). I could only do the test once because I still have to do my SAT IIs before I can meet the university deadlines.

Any and all advice/help/answers will be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Your average is a 3.625 -- assuming all the classes are for the same number of credits. To find your GPA, multiply the grade point for the class times the number of credits for the class. Add them all up and divide by the number of credits.

The grade point is generally:

A 4.0
B 3.0
C 2.0
D 1.0
F 0.0

Some schools have plusses (B+ -- 3.5). Others have blusses and minuses (B+ -- 3.3, A- -- 3.7).

As for the schools -- you pretty much have them in the right order. I'd put Cornell over NYU for most majors (but not all -- like Business and Math) -- but Cornell is in the middle of nowhere, while NYU is in the most interesting part of Manhattan. Avoid Pace or Baruch if possible.

Your SAT scores are good -- but Cornell and NYU might want higher scores. However, I suspect that their standards are very different for exchange students than for their own students.

Good luck

Answer 2

I'm not sure if grades work the same when transferring, but if they do, here is the scale we use:

4.0 - A
3.5 - B+
3.0 - B
2.5 - C+
2.0 - C
1.5 - D+
1.0 - D

So, with the grades you provided, you GPA would be 3.625 if I am doing my math correctly.

In order to find out the standards that these schools accept I advise visiting www.collegeboard.com and doing a college search for each of these schools. The provide great information all the way from tuition to acceptance rate. Their SAT scores and also provided.

Even if your grades are below the standard, apply anyway. You have nothing to lose =)

Good luck!