Making a Bad Choice

International Students
1

<p>Hello to all,</p>

<p>This is my first post in this forum but I've been reading this forum since I've decided to apply colleges in the USA. As the issue I am having now is unique, I started a thread about it.</p>

<p>I am an international freshman applicant from Turkey. In Turkey, two different grading systems are used in high schools. One grading system (lets call it the system X) uses grades of 0-5. In US-grading-system terms, 5=A, 4=B, 3=C, 2=D 1 and 0=F. Another grading system (lets call it the system Y) uses grades on a scale of 100 and again US-grading-system terms, 100-85=A, 84-70=B, 69-55=C, 54-45=D 44-0=F. As two systems are officially used, the GPA's in terms of two systems are given the students on school reports. However, the transcripts issued in terms of only one system depending on the student's choice.</p>

<p>However, the both grading systems produce different GPA's because well, they are different systems. One notable difference is the results of the final grades (arithmetic mean of two semester's grades). For example, if your grade in a class is 85.00 in the first semester and 80.00 in the second semester (equivalent to a 5 and a 4 in terms of the system X, respectively). Using the system Y the final grade is 82.50, using the system X the final grade is 5 (there is no fractions so 4.50 is rounded to 5). As a result, same scores produce a final grade of 4 (82.50 is a 4) in one system and 5 in other system! On the other hand, system Y can produce higher averages too if you get more scores like 84,83, etc.
(I am sorry if this paragraph sounds too complicated, I couldn't think of a better way to explain this in a less complicated way. lol)</p>

<p>Like I explained above, both systems have their own pros and cons so I just didn't think that using any of them would put me in any kind of advantage, so when my school official asked what type of transcript I want, I just said I want the one in terms of the system Y without even thinking for a second! The absurd part is my cummulative GPA in terms of this system is 77.77% (if we can just proportion them, it's 3.11 / 4). I calculated my GPA in terms of the other system is and it is 4,34 / 5 (again proportioned 3.47 / 4)!!</p>

<p>I made that calculation a few days ago (like I said, I'd never thought it would make a difference before), so I sent colleges to my transcript with 77.77%. I put the 77.77% on my Commonapp as well. Now I realized my GPA looks lower than it is and I don't know what I can do about it!</p>

<p>Talking about my school, you can't choose which (and how rigorous) classes to take. Instead, there are different kinds of high schools such as Anatolian High Schools, Science High Schools etc. (there are more information here if you'd like to check out lol: Education</a> in Turkey - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia). You get placed in a high school according to your success in a national exam after 8th grade, and I attend to a Science High School of which I got a full scholarship for all 4 years. So I am good at academics. I got a 760 on chem and 750 on math L2 SAT subject tests although I had only week to prepare for the both while I have to fill out my college apps before the deadlines (this wasn't my choice though). However, there are way too fewer Science High Schools across the country compared to the other kinds of high schools and more importantly, Science High Schools' curriculums are INSANELY challenging to prepare students for the another national exam after 12th grade. Thus, the highest GPA in my class is only 85.08%.</p>

<p>I've always wanted to study computer engineering because I have a strong talent and interest in computers. I started programming when I was 9, scored 93% on final exam of Cisco's CCNA course, have worked on numerous personal projects about computers and so on... I spent more time working on my essays more than I did to prepare my SAT subject tests and ACT lol. I have great recommendations, and I am sure all the teachers who gave me classes would give me great recommendations as well.</p>

<p>I applied to about 15 schools including the most competitive ones like MIT, Caltech, Princeton, Stanford and the comparatively less competitive ones like Lehigh, IIT, Michigan Tech, 4 UCs etc. Now I am kind of freaking of about the situation about my GPA would lower my chances a lot and affect my future in a bad way.Since there are so many universities I applied to, I don't know how to fix this (or if I should try to fix this). For example, would sending in my other transcript to every institution would do any good? Or wouldn't they take that into account or even worse, having two GPA's would affect my chances badly? What do you think my chances are with my background and the GPA situation I am in? Thanks in advance for all the advices.</p>

<p>PS Sorry for such a long post lol. Also I don't know if I should have started the thread in the What Are My Chances? subforum, please note if I need to copy the thread there. Thanks again :).</p>

2

<p>Send an explanatory email to the reader of your application. You can find out who the reader is either from the admission website, or by emailing the general email address at the international admissions for each college. If a school is big enough, or if Turkey sends enough students to that particular school, then the reader will be familiar with the systems anyway. But just send anyway. The worst thing that can happen, is they get to look at your file an extra time.</p>

3

<p>You are worrying too much because your GPA computations are faulty. There’s no easy way to convert a percentage average to a letter grade average, and “proportioning” it certainly doesn’t work. What would your GPA on a 4.0 scale come out to be if you converted each percentage grade to the 4.0 scale individually and then averaged them? That’s the only real way to do this conversion.</p>

<p>Way more important than your “absolute” GPA is how you stack up to your classmates. I hope your counselor mentioned that the highest GPA in your class is 85% and gave you an estimated class rank; these numbers are useful to interpret your grades in context. </p>

<p>That being said, unless your school routinely sends several students to the top university (or unless you have some major accomplishment on your resume), your chances there appear to be slim to begin with. You don’t appear to be at the top of your class and your test scores aren’t really all that strong for MIT and Caltech either.</p>

4

<p>Ehy man! I don’t think that you have to worry about that. The only thing that you can do is sending an explanatory letter from your consuleor. We are talking about different school systems and different teachers; you can’t even compare the USA system with others school systems.</p>

<p>ps: In italy we have a decimal scale; in my sister’s school teachers give marks from 1 to 8 without any reasons, because they consider 9-10 like the nobel prize. °_°</p>

5

<p>Hey, sorry for late reply, something must have gone wrong with my subscription settings. So they won’t convert my scores out of 100 to scores out of 5 (or letter grades), if I am correct? And yes, my counselor mentioned about the 85% but he didn’t give a precise or estimated class rank because my school doesn’t rank. Oh I’m the first student who’s applied to a university in US from my school lol. I have no idea if Turkey sends enough students to schools I applied for, but I doubt so.</p>

<p>Just came to my mind, I still didn’t send my midyear report. Instead of sending them an explanatory letter, I thought of asking my counselor to send my midyear report with my GPA and transcript out of 5 (the system X), attaching his evaluation explaining these grading systems? That way they will surely take all these into account. Do you think there’s anything that would go wrong with that? Like would that be confusing for them lol? Or I am allowed to send a transcript with only grades out of 5 (without the percentage marks), right?</p>