This post was written especially for College Essay Guy by

Emily Dobson, Educator, College Counselor, Administrator, Mom, and Access Warrior at EDGE College Consultants, LLC and the Caribbean and Latin America Network

Are you an international student applying to college right now and trying to understand how to reconfigure your grades/marks/notes so that they fit the context of a university in a country where grading is different? (Like, say, for a college in the United States?).

Wondering if you should convert your 12 or 7 point scale to the 4 point scale, or your Indian GPA to a US GPA?

You don’t need to use a GPA conversion calculator.

In fact, you don’t need to convert your GPA at all—and the admissions representatives do not expect you to.

The fine details: Higher education institutions across the globe agree that it is their job, not the student’s, to understand international students’ documents within a greater context. They will take the time to convert your grades/marks/notes into a grading system that works for them. Not only that, but they’ll also consider country context, university program requirements, high school rigor, recommendations/personal statements, and more.

A set of fantastic universities from the UK, Europe, and the United States—both public and private—kindly agreed to answer a survey and demystify some of the most frequently asked questions/comments they get from international students about grades.

My high school does not use the same grading scale as the universities to which I will apply. The university won’t understand my grading system and that will totally affect my admissions decision!

Hmmmm. Unlikely. In fact, not a chance.

Universities have been welcoming international students, in many places, for centuries. Somewhere along the line, they developed a set of resources dedicated to understanding international applicants.

There are admissions representatives that travel across the globe getting to know regions and schools so they know how to ‘read’ the students better; there are courses, conferences, and literature by specialists such as ACCRAO Edge, NCAA, and WES iGPA calculator; UK Naric and the British Council and the Netherlands Universities Foundation for International Cooperation; many more reach out directly to the high schools, local EducationUSA offices, a country’s ministry of education, colleagues, and local counselors for more context when needed. In other words, this is their job—and they are good at it.

There are admissions representatives that travel across the globe getting to know regions and schools so they know how to ‘read’ the students better. This includes:

Courses, conferences, and literature by specialists such as ACCRAO Edge, NCAA, and WES iGPA calculator
UK Naric and the British Council and the Netherlands Universities Foundation for International Cooperation
Input from local high schools, local EducationUSA offices, a country’s ministry of education, colleagues, and local counselors

In other words, this is their job—and they are good at it.

Straight from the source: what admissions officers want to share with you about recalculating grades:

"International admissions officers spend time and resources traveling all over the world to understand applicants better and to meet them where they are.

Don’t stress out about converting your grades to another grading scale.

Do not stress about your grades and which classes you’re taking. If you have the ability to pick your courses, choose ones that are challenging and fun for you. This is only one piece of the application and doesn’t tell us the whole story of who you are.

In our office, we see a variety of different transcripts and will always evaluate them within the context of the country and its educational system. We work closely with national bodies (e.g. NUFFIC) to evaluate and understand these transcripts. Translating grades yourself will often result in a mismatched evaluation of your academic potential.

We have enough experience to determine your grades in the context of the scale used in your school or country.

If the university values international students from your region, they will invest in the professional staff that will be able to read your application in the fairest way possible. If not, that is a big sign for how you will be valued as a member of the community. That's harsh, I realize, but it is honest.

In the Netherlands, GPA isn't all. It is about having the ability to complete high school successfully and being responsible as a student. There is always room for growth. You just have to prove yourself once started."

Okay. But I still need to have a GPA (grade point average), right? That’s what I keep seeing on a lot of the applications and websites. How do I find mine?

Out of the schools surveyed, at least half of them said that they have an internal system of recalculating grades and finding an overall GPA and it is specific to each university. The other half simply said recalculation wasn’t part of their process, so no one, applicants nor admissions staff, needed to be taking out their calculators.

Let’s remember that the idea of a GPA is a very US-based system, and it is also a little outdated. Even US domestic students have a curriculum that extends beyond what the usual 4.0 scale used to be, and colleges have adapted to that in the same way they have to international students—they have educated themselves by reviewing the context.

"We are very aware that GPA is a very American idea —there are even many schools in USA that do not provide a GPA! We care about who you are and where you come from, not whether or not you can calculate a GPA —a number we know you shouldn’t have.

The school you are applying to will calculate this upon receiving your application.

For many UK institutions we are rarely interested just in an overall GPA and have the resources to understand your grades without the need for complicated recalculation so just let us know the grades you have and we will be able to figure it out.

You are more than a number or GPA.

Don't worry about trying to determine what your GPA would be on the U.S. scale.

If a university does not ask for GPA, students should not provide it."

What if I’m still asked for my “GPA Average” for a university?

I’m aware that when this question comes up, international applicants can feel anxious. So, I asked the college admissions counselors for advice, and here is what they said:

Almost 60% said, “If not mandatory, leave it blank and we will figure it out.”
30% said, “Do your best estimate and we will figure it out OR just write something, anything, and we can figure it out.”
And from the Netherlands? Asking for a GPA actually goes against educational access (so don’t worry about that question for those universities)

So, what are the universities looking at if they are not looking at my grade point average?

For the most part, you can be certain that any university requiring grades for admission is looking at them—but through whatever lens they choose and with the tools they need to use as we covered above. Remember that some universities only look at certain years of high school grades; others recalculate/isolate grades focusing on the courses you wish to take in college; and many have a holistic approach—which means looking at the applicant as a person and not just a set of numbers.

"We are often looking for specific subject grades rather than overall as we are (for many majors) interested in ability in related areas). Also, as the UK is a 13—year education system where students come from a 12—year system the GPA will be of secondary importance to qualifications of equivalent standard such as the IBDP, APs or University/College credit.

Counselor recommendations, school reports, school profiles, grade rating scales.

Each country and its grading philosophy is taken into consideration, as are individual schools. For example, Brazil employs a punitive grading philosophy, but the degree varies by school. The reader must therefore develop the expertise necessary to give the applicants the fairest read/recalculation. There are schools for which we'll add an Advance Placement—like weight to the gpa in order for the student to be competitive for admission and perhaps even institutional funding, etc.

Courses needed to start a certain program, depending on the choice of study."

The Big Take-Aways

There are a few learning points that can be taken from this piece that every international student needs to remember:

International admissions readers are trained to read your application and understand you within your context. You do not need to change your coursework, grades or anything else into another curriculum to be accepted to a university.
An applicant must focus on what they can control. Some examples may be: what grades they receive, what type of statements/essays they write, the perceptions they send to others (think letters of recommendation and interviews) and how they choose to use their time and opportunities, to name a few.
It is a university’s job to understand how an applicant’s academics will match up to what is going on at the university coursework level. Therefore, an applicant must also trust that the admissions officers have a certain way of seeing the information that may not be public information.
International applicants do not need to recalculate who they are to get admitted, but they can recalibrate how they understand the process. Take a look at other helpful hints on the International Hub!

A final note from some caring admissions officers:

"I think students have become too hard on themselves when it comes to their grades and college admissions.

They think they need to be perfect to be admitted, when it’s not the reality.

Our main objective is to admit students not deny.

Students that are on the bubble, but show success in other ways, are usually admitted."