<p>I am an argentine student, who will get her electrical engineering diploma by the end of this year. I attend one of the best engineering schools in the country, but have several problems with the admission requirements of grad schools..</p>
<p>My problem is the following: my school is extremely small.. If we are lucky, 14 of us will graduate this year. This seriously affects any percentile calculations since 1 person represents 7% of the total. Thus, I can't talk about top 5% or top 10%...</p>
<p>What's even worse, our grading system is 1 to 10. The problem is nobody ever gets 10, it's nearly impossible. Within this system, getting more than 8 in average is fantastic. But that translates to a 3.2 GPA. </p>
<p>That screws up any chance of admission into a good graduate school, doesn't it? What can I do (I have 1 year left) to improve my chances or to at least give a more accurate description of what my average means?</p>
<p>I'd appreciate any help...</p>
<p>Maru</p>
<p>Maru,</p>
<p>Your school should explain class size, class rank, the grading system, etc. on the back of your transcript. If not, one of your recommenders needs to address the grading scheme and class size in their recommendation letter.</p>
<p>If you haven't done it already, it would be really bright to do EE research at a leading lab in the US during the summer or the year before you apply. Having a letter from a PI who will be recognized instantly by other US professors would really help an admissions committee gauge your talent, which your class rank/average might not permit.</p>
<p>Thanks for your suggestion.. So far I've done research in my current college, but I hadn't thought of doing that in the US... It seems like a good idea...
I'll try to find out which labs could take me in for the summer.. Thanks!</p>
<p>Hey Maru, I am from Peru and my situation is very similar.
I got my BS degree in Mechanical-Electrical Engineering, I was #1 in my class (only 20 students graduated) and my average was 14/20 (2.8 GPA).The grading system in South America is different from USA system, GPAs, grades and averages are much lower here, and that is a big disadvantage for us :(
I hope I get admitted to grad school next year tho.</p>
<p>I suggest you to study hard for the GRE test, the verbal part is a pain in the ass and since you study Electric Eng and probably wantto pursue a MS o PhD degree in the same area you need high Quantitative scores too. High recommendation letters from deans or the chairman should help a lot too. That’s all I can think of right now.</p>
<p>Buena suerte Maru.</p>
<p>If your school is indeed one of the best in the country, I would assume that most graduate schools will recognize it. It might not be a bad idea to ask your professors to include the grading schemes and such on your recommendation.</p>
<p>Thanks... I've been doing dome research on colleges to apply to, but I got really disappointed.. I have the same problem you do mechanics101.. I've been killing myself trying to achieve the 8/10 I want to graduate with (here it gives you a Honors Diploma which is great), but if a look at it as a 3.2GPA it sucks...</p>
<p>I've taken some practice GRE tests, getting about 670V 800Q.. I don't even know if that's good enough.. I guess I'll have to talk to people in my school to get them to write something explaining the system, etc.. I have 1 year, but I guess it's not too early to start dealing with this...</p>
<p>Thanks for your replies!</p>
<p>Marina,</p>
<p>In Australia, we have the same sort of system - especially in the departments I studied in where 80s were hard to come by. The conversion is definitely not equivalent to a literal conversion into a 4 point scale especially since I suspect your school does not inflate grades (as some, not all, American universities are known to do). It might be worthwhile to ask your administration whether they have a conversion scheme. If they don't, like my university, then ask the exchange office how they handle grade conversion. Unfortunately, I found this information only a week ago on my university site that essentially converts our grades into the 4-point scale for American Exchange students (although, strangely, they won't convert domestic students' scores). It would have been nice information earlier when I was deciding which schools to aim for but I'm not sure I'd have changed anything about my application process, except maybe I would have actually filled in the Grades boxes, rather than having the Grad Schools try to do the conversion. </p>
<p>Good luck!</p>