Does anybody know how Colleges convert my Abitur (German higher education entrance qualification) average to the US GPA system?
Moreover, do admission officers know that it’s more difficult to get good grades in some German states than in others?
I graduated from the Gymnasium this year with an Abitur average of 1.5 (Baden-Württemberg)
You would normally not convert GPAs between different grading scales. On your college applications, you would report your German GPA and note that it’s on a scale from 1-6. If you need a converted GPA for another purpose, you would convert every grade individually and then average the converted grades.
You can find a suggested conversion guide between German grades and American grades here: http://www.wes.org/gradeconversionguide/
I doubt it. And it doesn’t only depend on the state but on the school as well. (A number of students from my old German high school transferred to a neighboring school at the beginning of the Kollegstufe and all of their grades immediately improved by a grade.)
The same thing is happening across schools in the US and that’s what the school profile and class rankings are supposed to address. The person completing your school report is welcome to provide any additional information that will help colleges interpret your academic performance, e.g. a distribution of grades or an estimated class rank. Here’s a sample school profile to give you a starting point: http://paly.net/sites/default/files/paly_profile_and_grading_key_13-14.pdf