Any Queen's University applicants to the US out there?

[queenslifesci]

Is any applying/ has applied from Queen's? I am majorly confused on GPA conversion and would really appreciate some help. Just post back and then I'll elaborate.

[queenslifesci]

Hey asdfjkl,

I PM'd you.

[Doraemon]

me too! I'm an artsci '08, politics/econ medial, with a 177 (June '06)....and I have absolutly no idea how the GPA conversion works. How did you come up with a 3.7?

Do you need 85+ to get a 4.0? or just 80? or even higher? getting 85 in a politics course is damn near impossible, but it's pretty easy in econ...will that be taken into consideration? I figure I rank about the same in both programs, but my average is 10% higher in econ.

I noticed that there aren't any queen's grads at harvard law school - I think there's 6 or so from U of T and at least 1 from most canadian schools....maybe they aren't treating us fairly?

How do you think they do it? Should I become a straight econ major to help my raw average? need to decide soon....

I don't go to Queen's. So if I'm wrong, please correct me.

Are there letter grades on your transcript? If there are, A = 4.00, A+ = 4.33, etc. If not, then the rather harsh LSAC numerical scale is likely to be used (90%+ = A- = 3.67). Regardless, law schools receive each school's applicants' average LSAT score and GPA so they do have some idea of how much grade inflation or deflation there is.

On econ v.s. pol. sci., I don't think law schools consider there to be a significant difference in difficulty. If anything, pol sci is known (perhaps unfairly) as a common and relatively easy major among applicants.

[Doraemon]

yeah, there are letter grades, so i'm hoping they use those...the problem is that our letter grades call everything over 80% an 'A', which they might think is overly generous (it seems to be for econ, not for pol sci)

This is a similar situation with the U of T then. We have +/- but an otherwise identical system. You should be fine.

[farouk]

"it is true that politics is generally easier than econ - that is, it's easier to pass and easier to get 70%. But at queen's at least, sujective departments like politics don't give out marks above 85 or so, while econ marks go up to 95-100 (if you get all the questions right, you get 100%), making it somewhat easier to get an 80 in econ, and significantly easier to get 85. like I say, i'm not much better at econ, but my grades are 10% higher, because I'm on the higher end of the curve."

Exactly the same.  I'm a double major, and my LSAC GPA for econ is around 4.25, while for poli it's more like 3.8.

[queensbs]

Hey queenslifesci,

Very impressive LSAT! Congrats!!! My question for you is: have you confirmed with LSAC about how they actually convert our "stupid" marks into their GPA system? i.e., which one, percentage marks or letter grades are they going to use? I'm a student at b-school, so I have both in my transcripts.

Appreciate your answer.

[queenslifesci]

queensbs, i PM'd you.

I think the general consensus is that they will use our letter grades:

80-100=A=4.0
?-79=B=3.0

I have spoken to another LSD member who goes to Queen's and her transcript was processed this way. Also, Queen's' avg GPA was 3.25 and avg LSAT was 157. I don't know how this makes the school look but I think it's somewhat respectable. It's really too bad that Queen's doesn't give out +/-'s. 80-100 is such a huge range of marks that an 'A' doesn't really have much meaning.

[queensbs]

Hey, guys,

Thanks a lot for the answers. That makes me feel a bit better. Wish they use letter grade, otherwise I will be screwed up too. So, queenslifesci, if you have any info about the range of B (i.e., what range of percentage marks in our transcripts gets 3.0 gpa?), please let me know. Thanks again.

[queenslifesci]

I'm not sure, but this is a question that someone at Queen's could certainly answer. Contact the registrar's office.

[queensbs]

Thanks a lot, queenslifesci. In my transcripts, 65%-79% is a B. I am not quite sure whether LSAC will treat a 65% as a B, and convert it into a 3 in GPA. That's the thing bothering me cus I have several high 60s (it's pretty normal at Queen's B-school). Anyway, I just leave it to God.

Thanks again.