UVic GPA conversion

[Guest Katie MB]

Hi,

 

I was wondering how to convert my GPA from UVic to that which UBC would use. I have tried to find out on the UBC website, but unsuccessfully. At UVic we do not have percent values on our transcript and an A+ is 90-100, A is 85-90 and A- is 80-85. Does that mean that they take the average ie. an A+ equates to a 95%??

 

Thanks, Katie

[Guest Novoulmi]

Katie,

 

I've talked with Dr. Sherwood about this myself, and as unfair as it sounds, UBC converts UVic GPAs as the lowest possible percentile for that grade. Kinda puts us UVicers at a slight disadvantage to the rest as the max score we can achieve is 90%.

 

Novo

[Guest Ollie]

the max score we can achieve is 90%

 

True, but in awarding points for the academice score, all averages above 85% receive full marks. So there is no difference between an 86% average and a 96% average.

[Guest lex]

but a uvic student could get nineteen 89%'s and one 74% and end up missing the 85% cutoff to get full marks. she'd receive 84.25% while someone from ubc would receive 88.25%.

[Guest Novoulmi]

Along the same lines as lex is describing. The GPA to percentile conversion aplies to all grades, not just the A+ grade. Therefore, where UBC students score 80-85%, 75-80%, 70-75%, and so on, a UVic student will score 80%, 75%, 70%...

 

This can really bring down an academic score, and seems a little unfair.

 

Any other thoughts?

 

Novo

[Guest thatuvicguy]

I talked with someone in the UBC Admissions office about this a couple of weeks ago and got the impression that our last-60 and cumulative GPAs are calculated first and THEN converted to a percentage (ie. not each grade converted individually). I didn't specifically ask whether each individual grade was converted to a percentage versus the one-time conversion but got the impression the former was the case cause she asked me what I had calculated as my GPAs and was willing to tell me what they translated into percentage-wise. It would be worth asking although it's probably just pre-med neuroticism at work... (ie. nothing we can do about it!)

 

Cheers,

thatuvicguy:p

[Guest thatuvicguy]

I wanted to get the conversion of UVic grades straight once and for all and so explicitly asked admissions:

 

1)Is conversion done individually for each course or once only for the last-60, prereq or cumulative average? (While the former made more sense to me, a previous phone conversation with an admissions person had given me the impression the latter was the case - see previous post)

 

and

 

2)What percentage is associated with the respective letter grades/9pt GPA?

 

The reply from admissions:

 

"Thanks for writing.

 

1. Conversion is done at a per course basis.

2. The Conversion table is reserved for internal use only. We regret that we are unable to share this information with you.

 

Regards,

 

Faculty of Medicine, Admissions"

 

So there we have it. All we've got to go on is what Novo heard from Dr. Sherwood about them using the lowest possible percentage but apparently they won't tell us that outright. Makes you wonder about any UVic people who might be borderline for the 70% overall but have no way of deciding if they should save their $$ and not apply since they would be ineligible... :rolleyes

 

Gosh, it's all such a mystery until you finally get in I guess. :b

 

Cheers,

thatuvicguy

[Guest Tyler]

From what ive figured out from looking at my past rejection letter and my GPA stats and trying to figure out what this years GPA will be for myself (after taking an extra year of school) it seems that by taking your total number from Uvic (the 9-point scale) you can convert it to a UBC percentage, and this was the most consistent patter I found:

 

9 - 90%

8 - 85%

7 - 80%

6 - 75%

5 - 70%

4 - 65%

3 - 60%

2 - 55%

1 - 50%

 

So if you have an overall Uvic GPA of 6.5 then your UBC percentage should be 77.5%. If you have a 6.9 it should be about 79%.

 

They may have fancy, complicated formulas, but this seemed the most logical, and even though it doesn't follow Uvic precent breakdowns it seems to work.

Tyler

[Guest natman]

It's too bad that UVic grades are assumed to be the lower end of the bracket. I have gotten 84.8% in a course, which translates to an A-, and UBC takes it as 80%. Dr. Sherwood has mentioned that she would ask UBC about changing this policy so that the converted percentage is taken in the middle of the range (an 8 would translate to 87% instead of 85%). This would raise GPA's 2%, which could make a big difference. Should we talk to her about this?

 

Natman