Converting A Percentage GPA To The 4.0 Scale

Applying to College
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<p>In most of the posts I've seen here where students list their High School stats, the GPA is given on the 0 - 4.0 scale.</p>

<p>I'm wondering if those students receive grades on that scale on their HS transcript, or if they're converting a GPA out of 100 to the 4.0 scale. </p>

<p>If people are converting, is there a standard method of conversion that is used by colleges for admissions purposes? Is there a standard conversion method used by people on this site?</p>

<p>Thanks,
WalknOnEggShells</p>

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<p>Courtesy of the College Board
<a href=“How to Convert (Calculate) Your GPA to a 4.0 Scale – BigFuture”>College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools;

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<p>Thanks for the quick reply @whenhen!</p>

<p>Those are huge ranges. So anything from 93 - 100 is considered a 4.0? </p>

<p>Do you know if some high schools report to the colleges on the 4.0 scale, or do they all report a number grade? I’m pretty sure my daughter’s high school reports the number grade.</p>

<p>If the grades are mostly reported on the 4.0 scale, that means colleges wouldn’t be able to distinguish between a student with a 93 average and a 100 average. That seems unlikely to me. Do you know if that’s how it works?</p>

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<p>Not true. It has to be calculated by class. For a 93 to be a 4.0, every single class will have to have been a 93. Take each class (with its appropriate weight/number of credits) and convert to the 4.0 scale. Now figure out your GPA. One class of 92 or lower brings that 4.0 down.</p>

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<p>Thanks Erin’s Dad. That’s something I completely forgot about since my daughter’s grades are all number grades, out of 100. I told her she had a 4.0 so far this year, but I was wrong.</p>

<p>Thanks for the information. I gently told her today that she doesn’t have a 4.0. Fortunately, she handled it very well, and she’s determined to get it up to a 4.0 by the end of the year.</p>

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<p>@WalknOnEggShells‌ You can’t “get it up to a 4.0”, at least not unweighted. Once you have a grade in a single class that is not an A, you will never have a 4.0 (unweighted that is)</p>

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<p>^ Unless the non-A classes are just interim/quarter/semester reports.</p>

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<p>^ This can vary by school. At our kids’ HS, there are only quarter grades, with no final reconciliation. An “almost perfect” transcript with four years of all "A"s other than one A- for one quarter would be less than 4.0. In other words, at their HS an unweighted 4.0 can only be achieved by getting all "A"s in all classes every term.</p>

<p>As an aside, this school doesn’t follow a standardized 93-100 sort of scale. Each teacher is free to set their own. The AP Physics teacher chooses to write very rigorous exams that closely mirror the actual AP tests. His curve is 65+ = A and, typically, his A students gets 5s.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the information, everyone. I had no idea that some schools calculate GPA after each grading period. My daughter’s school keeps everything on the 100 scale, so that won’t affect us.</p>

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<p>I went through this last year with my daughter’s GPA (also 1-100, unwieghted.)</p>

<p>For a really general picture, I converted her 1-100 overall GPA to the 4.0 scale using one of the more precise scales that assign a value to every number, not just ranges. I’ll see if I can find that scale…</p>

<p>Edit: I found it: <a href=“Calculate Your GPA With Our GPA Scale | The Princeton Review”>http://inquiry.princetonreview.com/leadgentemplate/GPA_popup.asp&lt;/a&gt;
I simply called the guidenace office and asked for her most recent cumulative GPA, then used that scale. But are you saying that your school doesn’t keep a cumulative GPA?</p>

<p>If you want to be truly accurate, you have to remember that some classes count more, ie a science with a lab that is 1.25 credits versus a .5 credit class. So you can’t just average all the grades / number of classes, you have to do it by credit. I found a calculator online, and it was tedious! (And, really, kind of a waste of time. It didn’t really give us that much useful information… I was just kind of obsessing!!) </p>

<p>And you also have consider that many colleges are going to recalculate based on their own formulae. They many not count art, music, tech classes, for example. </p>

<p>Another thing you can do is to ask the school for a copy of exactly what they send colleges. In our case this was the students transcript, showing all classes, quarter, semester, and final grades, and cumulative GPA on a 100 pt scale. It also includes a pamphlet with the school’s stats. (They sent me the previous year’s, since they hadn’t done the current class yet.) It describes the academic environment of the school, how many AP/IB/honors classes are offered, how many students took those classes, what the SAT score range is like at the school and compared to the state, athletics and clubs offered, etc. Since admissions look at students performance in the context of their school, I found this useful in understanding how my daughter was likely to be viewed in the admissions process.</p>

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<p>@staceyneil‌, thanks very much for all of the great information. I’m obsessing, too :slight_smile: I did exactly what you did, and recalculated without all of the fluff classes. And my daughter is only a freshman! </p>