<p>We all come from vastly different educational systems, each with different grading cultures which are very difficult to compare with the American GPAs, and honestly it has me worried.</p>
<p>Take my example, I'm from a good Jesuit school in Asia and I belong to the top 8% of my class, however I only have a cumulative GPA of 3.38</p>
<p>I've seen Americans in results threads saying they have a 3.6-ish GPA even if they are in only in the top quartile and as far down as the fourth decile, which I frankly find surprising, since that means that they sprinkle out an awful lot of A's and B+'s. (and these are students who don't do too well in the SAT either.)</p>
<p>How do you guys explain your specific situation? Just note it down on the Common App or what? I'm losing sleep thinking of how adcoms will perceive my GPA given its comparatively low value.</p>
<p>Most universities that welcome international students have adcoms specific to the educational system from which an international student is applying. They also request a particular school to send them its breakdown of students – for example if a school does not rank its students, it will send a grid that shows how many people received an A in a particular class, etc.
So you generally should not have worries about it. If you still do, have an administrator from your school send a letter of explanation.</p>
<p>Your guidance counselor or head teacher needs to provide a school profile, which should describe its selectivity and selection criteria, how well students who get in have done in lower secondary school examinations, how well students do in upper-level national examination, if they have won academic or athletic or any other awards and how consistently, etc. What percentage of students on scholarship, on reduced/free meals/free transportation, ethnic or international diversity of the school, whatever provides a more complete picture of the environment in which you were educated.
Then they should provide at least scales, ie, what percentage of students in your country reach the national score of 1, 2, 3 (or A, B, C, etc) for national examinations, and what percentage of students in your school achieve these scores 1° internally and 2° nationally - highlighting whether your school grades harsher or on par with the national exam grading scale. Most universities will be familiar with the national grading scale but need to context to make sense of your achievement.</p>
<p>You need to tell your counselor. CA will request an international report, a school profile, and a report for you (Cumulative at time of application; mid year report; final report after you’ve been admitted: if you get D’s or F’s after maintaining a high average, you can be rescinded, ie, your admission can be “withdrawn”.) However, the CA does not specify what the reports or profiles should look like.</p>