<p>I just moved countries and I was having a hard time adjusting to everything (including school). Now, the problemis I have 2 C's and a lot B's. I know that this may sound very bad. However, our school grading system is a lot harsher than most.
A=95(or higher)
B=85-94
C=75-84</p>
<p>(My GPA, currently is a 93)</p>
<p>You see, my "C"s would be B's (because both of them are 83's) and my B's would be A's in most other schools (almost all my B's are over 90%) </p>
<p>My question is, when my school sends my school transcript, will they send grade percents or letter grades, or both? Or doest it depend on the school. Any help would be great :D!</p>
<p>Oh yea, if I improve my grades for next quarter will that make a difference?</p>
<p>Ask your school! How are any of us supposed to know what your school will do?</p>
<p>Beyond that, yes, get your grades back up and, when you send in your application, include a paragraph explaining the drop in your grades. And, if your school principal or advisor is familiar with your situation, ask that person to provide an explanation as well. That explanation, combined with a significant improvement, should go a long way.</p>
<p>Any explanation you provide, though, needs to explain your individual circumstances. Don’t just blame things on your school’s “harsh” grading system.</p>
<p>I know that, for college, there’s a special international supplement to the Common Application that allows schools to show their scale and grading curves so that it can be “re-calibrated” to American grading systems. My son’s school used an American system so that wasn’t necessary. My daughter is in the local school and they have no idea about American schools…but their plan is to send a transcript with her grades restated to reflect what they would “translate” into for American students. They even asked whether they should send numbers on a scale to 100 or letter grades to A+ or numeric grades on a 4.0 scale…or any combination of them. I think having this operation performed on your end limits the chances that there will be some miscommunication or mistranslation of your grades on the other end, so – if that’s possible – try to get the conversion done on your end.</p>
<p>When my son applied to boarding school (from a U.S. middle school) the school just sent copies of his report cards. I learned about that from an admission officer. That was bad because the report cards contained teacher comments that – unlike recommendations – were never intended to be considered by third parties. What a mess! I don’t see any reason why a school would not let you see the transcript that they are sending. And I would encourage everyone to look at it – without the principal’s or counselor’s recommendations (unless they offer to show that to you as well) – BEFORE it gets sent to the boarding schools, if only because it will help you see for yourself what areas you need to address in your essays and other submissions.</p>
<p>My daughter went to a private school here in the states that had the same “retentive” grading scale. We made sure the school sent the scale along with the grades so they would know a B was actually an A at other schools that actually like kids. :-)</p>