Applying to Australian grad school with 3/4 GPA

Student Lounge International Students
1

Hi,

I am thinking about applying to an Australian graduate program of Actuarial Science (or Actuarial Practice or similar). My GPA is 3 out of 4 in the American system (A, B, C, D, F, etc), how does this score correspond to the Australian system?

Here are a few programs I am thinking about, with their entry requirements normally at around 5 out of 7 or 65% in the Australian system:

http://programsandcourses.anu.edu.au/program/7420XMACTP

http://courses.mq.edu.au/international/postgraduate/master/master-of-actuarial-practice

https://www.business.unsw.edu.au/degrees-courses/postgraduate/masters/actuarial-studies#Entry-requirements

https://www.study.monash/courses/find-a-course/2018/actuarial-studies-b6014#entry-requirements-2

Do you think my GPA can fulfill this overall requirement?

Also, my GPA in the first two years was very very high, but in the last two years, it dropped quite a lot, for a variety of reasons combined. What should/can I do now to improve my chance, since I only have one semester left?

Best and thank you all in advance,

GPRW

2

American GPAs are reported with at least one decimal. “3 out of 4” can mean 3.9 or 3.1 or even 2.5 if you rounded up. That range covers “top of the class” to “barely scraped by.”

Many American graduate schools require as a blanket policy an undergraduate GPA of at least 3.0. Various sources on the internet seem to equate an Australian 5 with an American B. Which leads me to the educated guess that the Australian 5/7 requirement might correspond to the American 3.0 GPA requirement.

If you are unsure, the best source of information would be the universities you’d like to apply to.