Percentage Grades going to the U.S

[idlewild]

Hi,

I'm looking at applying for law school next year and I saw the gpa conversion scale on the lsac website and just thought it was totally ridiculous. All my grades are in percentages, but when I convert them using a regular Canadian gpa conversion like they do at U of T or other Canadian schools my gpa is around 3.56, but if I were to do it using the lsac one it would be far lower. Does anyone know why this is the case? I mean I've gotten low 90s in classes before and known that I had the 3rd highest mark in the class, but using the lsac it would not convert to a 4.0 on the gpa scale. It makes no sense!!

Dave

[SilverDolt]

Hi,

I'm looking at applying for law school next year and I saw the gpa conversion scale on the lsac website and just thought it was totally ridiculous. All my grades are in percentages, but when I convert them using a regular Canadian gpa conversion like they do at U of T or other Canadian schools my gpa is around 3.56, but if I were to do it using the lsac one it would be far lower. Does anyone know why this is the case? I mean I've gotten low 90s in classes before and known that I had the 3rd highest mark in the class, but using the lsac it would not convert to a 4.0 on the gpa scale. It makes no sense!!

Dave

Disclaimer: this is an explanation I was GIVEN, I'm not making it up from my head or saying it's the Gospel Truth.
It's because the US inflates grades and Canada deflates them. In the US, lots of people (especially at the Ivy League schools) get very high marks. It's not hard in the US to get 85% or higher, so thats why its not very high on the GPA scale. In Canada, it's more uncommon for people to get 85% so accordingly its worth a lot in terms of GPA. Hopefully American schools you apply to will be aware of this difference, and perhaps adjust.

[Cheeks]

Hi,

I'm looking at applying for law school next year and I saw the gpa conversion scale on the lsac website and just thought it was totally ridiculous. All my grades are in percentages, but when I convert them using a regular Canadian gpa conversion like they do at U of T or other Canadian schools my gpa is around 3.56, but if I were to do it using the lsac one it would be far lower. Does anyone know why this is the case? I mean I've gotten low 90s in classes before and known that I had the 3rd highest mark in the class, but using the lsac it would not convert to a 4.0 on the gpa scale. It makes no sense!!

Dave

if all of your grades are in percentages, I'm not sure how they would calculate.  You don't have any letter grades on your transcripts?  For pretty much everyone I know applying to the US (and there's a few people), there GPA pretty much stayed the same.  Mind you, I really only know people from UofT and toronto area schools.