What does a B+ or A- mean at McGill for admission?

[mainemom2022]

This may seem like a foolish question but does anyone know what a B+ or A- for McGill translates to in a numeric grade? Do they weight for rigor? My son had a 90 in honors english soph year and 90 in AP Calc soph year (at least before covid meant pass/fail). He was thinking of applying to Arts as well as Desautels but not sure that’s an A- w/o any weighting. I am assuming the 90 is a B+ for Arts application? I did check w/McGill, they referred me to their internal grades which had a B+ in the mid-eighties which seems really low…

thanks so much. McGill is his absolute 1st choice so hoping it will work out ok. He is well above on test scores and overall GPA.

[TomSrOfBoston]

Your son would be an American applicant? An A- is a 3.7 and a B+ is a 3.3 on the 4.0 scale. Canadian percentages are different from American percentages. For US applicants a B+ would be 87 to 89%. An A- would be 90 to 93% roughly. McGill only looks at unweighted GPA since there is no standard weighting scale in the US. But based on past postings here on CC if a course is Honors or AP that is considered in borderline cases.

[DadTwoGirls]

Admissions at McGill will be familiar with the grade scales used at high schools in the US. It is easier to get a “90” at a US high school compared to a Canadian high school, and McGill will know how to adjust for this.

I would not be concerned about two 90’s on your son’s report card. One daughter had a number of 90’s at a US high school, and even had two 89’s. She still was accepted to McGill not all that many years ago.

[mainemom2022]

Thank you! Yes, we are in US (Maine). It’s kind of a bummer that they don’t weight but would hope they would take rigor into account for close cases. He’s not 100% sure about management vs. arts. he’s an econ/poli sci/history type but not particularly pre-professional at this point. Plus it is 2x the tuition!! Not sure about any merit opportunities at this point, and post covid…??

He wants an int’l experience and loves to ski so McGill is great in so many ways.

The more posts I see on these forums about what people are going thru to apply to “elite schools”, the more I think Canada is getting it right. We are also looking at Queens University and maybe U of T, but costs are much higher at U of T.

[SwimmingDad]

@mainemom2022 A 90 will be treated as an A- by McGill admissions. No question. My son got into McGill Arts with 3.4-3.5 and a 31 ACT. (Our Boston area high school is known to McGill; we send about 5-7 students there a year.) He was, not surprisingly, rejected by Desautels. Sounds like your son is in good shape for McGill admissions.

McGill has proven to be a great choice for my oldest (Econ major/Poli Sci minor). Fantastic education, excellent student life, and Montreal is amazing. Highly recommended.