British grades = disadvantage for a transfer?

Transfer Students
1

<p>I am curently at a British university (which I hate for a variety of reasons) and want to transfer to a school in America. The schools that I'll be aiming at (or at least a majority of them) will expect a really high GPA, but what is considered 'high' in the UK and the US is very different, to my knowledge. I know that something like a 3.8+ GPA would mean that you got circa 90%+ in your classes, but the deal with Britain is...it doesn't happen, and it's largely not meant to happen. Most courses are essay-driven and 70%, especially in first year, is already considered very good, and getting up to the 80s+ basically makes you something of a genius. Some professors even have a policy of not giving grades above a certain line, so for example my politics professor said that he never (in any of his classes) gives anything higher than 80% because he thinks that such skill it is impossible to attain at an undergraduate level. Would American universities know about this, or would this make it hard for me to transfer?</p>

<p>Second of all, my only non-essay subject is Advanced Math. I couldn't reatake my SAT and only got 660 on the Math section, which I'm really annoyed at because I am usually better at Math/reasoning that I am at wordly things. Would a really high grade make up for the low score, or should I take the ACT in February (I can't re-take the SAT in Jan because I have a debating tournament on that day :()?</p>

2

<p>you should mention the grading system and how your professors grade undergraduates at the same level as graduate students in the additional comments sections.</p>

3

<p>I mean, if this is just common knowledge that British universities are like this, then I suspect Admissions Committees are already aware. I would only be concerned if this was specific to the schools you’ve attended and not Britain at large.</p>

4

<p>Adcoms understand the UK system.</p>

<p>Why can’t you retake the SAT?</p>

5

<p>You guys are assuming a lot.
Assuming your applicant will be read (initially) by faculty member.
Assuming he readers knows the intricacies of the UK education system. </p>

<p>With 1000s of applications to read, lots of universities contract independent reviewers (local teachers or counselors, etc) and those people don’t know nearly as much as the foreign education system as compared to faculty stuff. </p>

6

<p>Wow, getting some conflicting messages here, I’ll probably ask my tutor to briefly explain the marking system :)</p>

<p>Also, @PurpleTitan, I can’t retake the exam in time to submit my scores. I was going to do it in December, but I had a debating tournement that I had to go to or I’d get kicked off the team, and I also have a big tournament on the day of the January test, and they tend to be really harsh with competitions at my uni :frowning: I know it’s probably stupid, but my logic was: if I get a good SAT score, but end up getting kicked off the debating team, which is one of my major extra-curriculars and selling-points, that won’t really help me much, will it? And the deadline for regular registration passed anyway.</p>