US to UK College GPA conversion?

**windycitycassie** · 15-04-2006, 08:21 AM

Hi, all.

I can't really figure this out... How do you convert a US college GPA to a British one? I am taking a few classes at a local University while I'm still in the States, and am wondering how they'd convert over. Obviously I am hoping to get an A, which should come across well, I just wonder how Bs look.

**ANDREAS** · 15-04-2006, 01:58 PM

I have applied from a US school to a UK School
I never had a clear answer on this but emal the schools and ask them what GPA they r asking from.

I know St. Georges and Nottingham at Derby are asking for at least 3.0 and for those you have to take the GAMSAT

Having gone through this process I would say:
3.0-3.3 - 2:2
3.3- 3:5 2:!
3.5+ 1st

even though I believe it is a bad conversion because it is hard to get these grades

also..if you are not EU member then your chances are low

**windycitycassie** · 15-04-2006, 02:03 PM

Thanks, Andreas.

Yeah, I did a bit of looking and the 2:2 seems appropriate.

Ugh. And I'll still need to take science A levels, especially if I need to take the GAMSAT I'd think.

I have about 3 years of time to prepare and do whatever I need to get approved... In 3 years I'll qualify as a resident due to being married to a Brit and living there.

Any suggestions? I guess I'm screwed in terms of GPA, so I need a stellar GAMSAT and As in A levels?

**sural001** · 15-07-2006, 05:17 AM

Originally Posted by ANDREAS

I have applied from a US school to a UK School
I never had a clear answer on this but emal the schools and ask them what GPA they r asking from.

I know St. Georges and Nottingham at Derby are asking for at least 3.0 and for those you have to take the GAMSAT

Having gone through this process I would say:
3.0-3.3 - 2:2
3.3- 3:5 2:!
3.5+ 1st

even though I believe it is a bad conversion because it is hard to get these grades

also..if you are not EU member then your chances are low

If it helps, I did a quick Google search and it seems that Cambridge consider a GPA of 3.8 to be equivalent to 1st class honours. To be honest, I don't think they're even directly comparable, as the American method of assessment is so different from that in Britain.

**psyche87** · 15-07-2006, 05:41 AM

Actually, I think that between even universities in the US, it's difficult to compare GPAs due to grade inflation (or the lack of). And obviously it's very hard to compare the UK and US systems given that the systems work so differently (as sbailey said). But generally, it seems to me that the "accepted" conversion from a few scholarship boards here (who send people to study in the US and the UK) is
3.8-4.0: 1st
3.6-3.8: 2:1

**GladtoB** · 17-07-2006, 03:43 AM

I think, as psyche87 said, it's v. difficult to compare. I and some friends I know of were succesful applying for medicine in the U.K. this year and here are the final GPAs we were asked for:
Oxford GEM: 3.5 or higher
Cambridge 6-yr: 3.4 or higher
Imperial: 3.4 or higher

These may not be general offers, I don't know if they were tailored to our individual situations/backgrounds. These grades are very hard to achieve, and if you go to an Ivy or v. rigorous school it can be even harder to graduate with this level of GPA. That said, it is about the range that the most competitive U.S. medical schools ask for too, so it definitely was not easier to get in in the U.K. Bear in mind everybody's situation is different: for my friends and I, none of us are U.S. (or U.K.) citizens, and all of us did A levels, so that was probably taken into consideration too. Having proved ourselves at A levels may have helped, some of us had even got into U.K. medical schools straight from high school and turned them down to go to the U.S. It also helped to prove that we were competitive on the U.S. level: by our GPAs, having scored highly on the MCAT and similar things, because none of us wanted the schools to think we were applying there because we couldn't get in in the U.S. Also they look at how serious you are about studying in the U.K. -- all of us had important reasons for choosing the U.K. over the U.S. (for me: my family is here, and I highly respect the training here), but I know many of these schools aren't keen on accepting people for whom medicine in the U.K. is a backup.

**Bambi** · 17-07-2006, 04:07 AM

Originally Posted by psyche87

Actually, I think that between even universities in the US, it's difficult to compare GPAs due to grade inflation (or the lack of). And obviously it's very hard to compare the UK and US systems given that the systems work so differently (as sbailey said). But generally, it seems to me that the "accepted" conversion from a few scholarship boards here (who send people to study in the US and the UK) is
3.8-4.0: 1st
3.6-3.8: 2:1

That is dfinately more accurate than what andreas said. I have a friend studting in America and when she came here for a semester 61% here was equivalent to an A in America and for us 61% is just barely a 2.1

**GladtoB** · 18-07-2006, 10:11 PM

Originally Posted by Bambi

That is dfinately more accurate than what andreas said. I have a friend studting in America and when she came here for a semester 61% here was equivalent to an A in America and for us 61% is just barely a 2.1

I'd heed psyche87's advice and steer clear of generalizations. Even within schools grades vary widely. I took an organic chemistry class (one of the most effective "weeder" classes to separate "real" pre-meds from the "wannabe" ones). It was the most gruelling class I have ever taken in my life, A levels, the MCAT and all the other "hard" classes I have taken did not even begin to compare with this class - and there a 61% was by a longshot definitely an A. On the other hand consider that the class average on our midterm was 27% you can see why. More than 10 people (in a 400+) class got 0%. I worked hard and I was very happy with my 38% grade on that midterm. On the other hand consider a 400 person Biology class I took where the professor told us at the first session that he was only giving 4 students As. I can't tell you how frustrating it was to see my hard, hard work, and correspondingly great performance on all the tests and assignments amount to an A- in the end. Yet my average % was in the 90s. So making general statements about grading in the US (and I'm sure this applies in the UK too) is a v. dangerous thing to do.

**Bambi** · 18-07-2006, 10:20 PM

Yeah I expect it does vary quite a bit, she went to the University of Florida by the way, dont know how good it's meant to be.

**Scottish Chap** · 23-07-2006, 06:14 PM

Originally Posted by windycitycassie

Hi, all.

I can't really figure this out... How do you convert a US college GPA to a British one? I am taking a few classes at a local University while I'm still in the States, and am wondering how they'd convert over. Obviously I am hoping to get an A, which should come across well, I just wonder how Bs look.

It can't be done fairly. The two systems could not be more different. When I applied to U.S. medical schools, I had to do something similar (U.K.->U.S. conversion) and there are professional agencies in the U.S. that can estimate this. The U.K. probably has something similar.