U of C/Ontario conversion

[Jamer]

Ok, so my friend is attending Queen's but he was born and raised in Calgary and is thus an IP. His Queens GPA is 86.5 which is converted to a 3.90 via OMSAS, but according to U of C's conversion chart, it's only a 3.79. I know U of C uses percentages so I'm sure they use that percentage scale, but do they convert Ontario percentages to their GPA. Could any Ontario attendees who applied to U of C shed some light on how their conversion was done?

 

I'm also interested in the conversion from Ontario (Queens i.e.) percentage to U of A's GPA, if anyone knows. I'd rather not make multiple threads.

[George]

His Queens GPA is 86.5 which is converted to a 3.90 via OMSAS, but according to U of C's conversion chart, it's only a 3.79. I know U of C uses percentages so I'm sure they use that percentage scale, but do they convert Ontario percentages to their GPA.

 

Short answer - yes. I did my undergrad at U of T, where you get both a letter and percentage grade for every course. For U of C, I had to use my percentage grades, scaled as per the applicant manual. The 0.5 "drop" in cGPA is a bit of a kick in the seat, but remember that everyone gets hit roughly the same, so it's not really that bad.

 

Frankly, I think it makes the GPA's a bit more honest - I mean, is a person who barely scrapes 85's and 86's as deserving of a 4.0 as someone getting mid-90's? Similarly, does someone who "falls short" with an 84 really deserve a 3.7 to the 85's 4?

[Jamer]

I completely agree. I think the OMSAS scale is retarded anyway.

[Addy K]

Sorry, but I'm confused as to how the scale works exactly. Do they convert each percentage grade for each course to their GPA scale? Or is it that they take the average/entire grade percentage of a particular year and then convert that to their GPA scale? I'm just confused since on the scale there are 0.5, e.g., 88.5 - as far as I know no one gets non-rounded marks. Thanks..