<p>So I’ve been all over this website looking for some uniform GPA conversion scale and as you have imagined, and I’ve expected, I haven’t found one. </p>
<p>This is what Haverford says: </p>
<p>"The following numerical grades are awarded at Haverford College:</p>
<p>4.0 (highest grade); 3.7; 3.3; 3.0; 2.7; 2.3; 2.0; 1.7; 1.3; 1.0; 0.0 (failing grade). Equivalent letter grades universally understood:</p>
<p>A (highest grade); A- ; B+; B ; B- ; C+; C ; C- ; D+; D; F (failing grade)."</p>
<p>The problem with the aforementioned scale is that I, like many other HS kids, have received my grades on the 100 point scale. I am accustomed to my scale and I know what’s a good GPA according to it. This new 4.0/Letter grade scale is like shopping for food in a foreign country; I don’t know what’s a reasonable cost. Exactly what is an A or 4.0 to Haverford? Is there some range of 95-100? Is it a perfect 100? I am hoping it’s the former.</p>
<p>Not confused, Just unable to think with clarity (LOL)
-Asia</p>
<p>The general scale (based on my HS experience) is that 100-93 is an A, 92-90 an A-, 89-87 B+, and so on and so forth. However, I’m not really sure that such a conversion is really relevant to Haverford because almost all your grades are given directly on a 4.0 scale and Haverford classes are so different from HS classes that there isn’t really any point in comparing your grades in them to previous classes.</p>
<p>Each professor devises their own grading scale, which may or may not include test curving or participation grades. It generally depends on the professor and the department (is it a social science? natural science? humanities coures?-i.e. there likely isn’t a grading curve in classes that rely solely on essay exams). I’ve had classes where only a 95%-100% earned a 4.0 (A) and the highest actual grade in the class were a few students who got a 3.3. I’ve had other classes where a 85% will still get you a 3.7 (A-). In general, 3.7’s and 4.0’s are tough to get- you really have to be at the top of a class, and everyone at Haverford is intelligent, so that’s difficult. I can say that I had a perfect 4.0 GPA in high school, and i’ve been more averaging out to a 3.6 at Haverford. I’ve heard rumors from my friends that the average GPA at Haverford is about a 2.7 (B-), but I personally think it’s a lot closer to a 3.3. It’ll really depend on your prof, but most are pretty fair in terms of grading at Haverford as long as you put the effort into the course as they expect you to.</p>
<p>I’m not sure if this will assuage your fears or make you stress out further but this is my experience. Please note that we really don’t compare grades @ HC but, when you’ve gone to enough graduations, you can get a sense as to what people can accomplish with certain GPA’s… and close friends will talk in the privacy of closed dorm rooms. *** What you get after HC ALSO depends on other factors such as great summer internships and extracurriculars. *** In terms of summa and magna cum laude, it’s more GPA percentiles than cut offs, but here you go…</p>
<h2>Only 1 person graduated from my class Summa which is a GPA between 3.9-4.0. This person doubled majored in Astronomy and Physics and won a prestigious Navy fellowship to study Astro-Physics at THEE top university for this field. I’m sure he’ll win the Nobel one of these days… and this person is modest and nice, too.</h2>
<p>And everyone else who are more similar than different…</p>
<p>Magna is roughly 3.7-3.9. My friends in the class before me, my class and the class after me who wound up going to HMS (Harvard) or Hopkins were Magna (normally 2-3 per class go to HMS or Hopkins). My friend and lab partner, who was accepted into HMS, Hopkins and UCSF as an out of stater decided on HMS. After she made her decision, the Dean of Admissions from Hopkins actually called her up one morning to ask what he could do differently to attract someone like her to Hopkins (she only told me and her boyfriend this). Of course, she had a lot more than just a nice GPA… Basically, don’t feel bad if you’re not magna @ HC cause 99.9% of people on earth are not stratospheric like this. </p>
<p>For the next group (GPA 3.6-3.7 or so), the next “distinction” are likely departmental honors (no cum laude @ HC) and we wound up at med schools like Yale MD/PhD, Columbia, Penn, Mount Sinai, Duke MD/PhD… U Chicago, Columbia and Stanford Law, or got great job offers…</p>
<p>i’ve heard consistently that the average GPA is around a 3.3 so don’t freak out if your grades are much lower at haverford than they were in high school.</p>
<p>i’ve heard from upperclassmen (as you can also see from the post above) that a haverford gpa greater than 3.5 should get you into a top grad school.</p>