Hi there
I am a junior in a public high school in Ontario, Canada.
I recently became interested in applying to schools in America particularly Emory, John Hopkins, maybe Ivy leagues etc…
To get into Canadian universities, all you need is high grades except Waterloo requiring supp forms and McMaster Health Sci requiring supp essays.
I found out that to get into American universities, not only do I need high grades, but also high scores on SAT, ACT, impressive extracurriculars, and of course supp essays.
So I am just wondering how U.S universities convert Canadian high school grades into American GPA?
I have done some research but I got way too many different answers.
Below is an academic grading chart in Ontario found on Wikipedia.
A+ 95% - 100%
A 87% - 94%
A- 80% - 86%
B+ 77% - 79%
B 73% - 77%
B- 70% - 72%
C+ 67% - 69%
C 63% - 66%
C- 60% - 62%
D+ 57% - 59%
D 53% - 56%
D- 50% - 52%
F 0% - 49%
Suppose I get an 80% in a course, it is an A- according to the chart in Canada. But how does an A- gets converted into American GPA?
Also, what is a competitive GPA for international applicants for universities mentioned above? Emory, John Hopkins… maybe Ivy leagues too 
Thanks!
A- = 3.7
To be competitive, you should have 3.8+
Im from Canada too so I wanted to know the scale as well, my GC said 80+= 4.0, but idk tbh.
go on this website: foreigncredits.com they have a way in which you jus enter your marks and they calculate it for you.
But the grades dont really matter as much, your scores may be weighted heavily if you come from a random school they never heard of, and you just cant say in your junior year that you wanna go to the states, they see how long you have been doing your activities for and what not. If you need help on your ACTs jus msg me and I can give you some advice as to which books to get and what not.
Wish you all the best!
Thanks for the reply.
I used the calculator on foreigncredits.com and got ~3.9 GPA… seems too good to be true.
There is another high school that is close to my house and they actually have a guide for applying to American universities. Under “Calculating GPA”, it says 80+ is 4.0 like you mentioned.
But I also saw another member on CC suggesting that Canadian grades do not get converted into a 4.0 GPA scale; the grades are just submitted in percentages.
Mmhm, I am not sure which opinion to believe.
As far as extracurricular activities are concerned, how impressive do they have to be in order to be competitive at universities I mentioned?
Good luck to you as well!
The EC situation is a bit weird, they want to see leadership position and commitment. They want you to do each activity for more than one year. In my case, I founded the math club in my school and added a math program to an organization in my city. Also, this year, my senior year, I founded the physics clinic.
Also, I volunteered at the retirement home and my commonapp essay was regarding that, so I think my ECs are ok, to the point where it shows im a leader and am a good person. Some people start businesses or do research with professors.
BTW, what are your grades?
Mine are:
Grade 9: 90%
Grade 10: 90%
Grade 11: 87%
Grade 12: 96.67%(so far)
@spencer2306 Your grades are submitted in percentages.
If this is still relevant, your grades are submitted in percentages. There’s no need to convert to American GPA because you’re competing against international students (more specifically Canadians) to get into schools