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Written by Sarah Hastings-Woodhouse
One of the most popular grading systems used worldwide at various levels of study is Grade Point Average (GPA).
If you are considering a Masters degree, you may have already come across the term 'Grade Point Average (GPA)'. But what exactly does it mean, and why should it matter to you as a prospective postgraduate student?
In this blog, we dive into the world of GPA and explore why it's important for your Masters application and studies. We'll also compare it to other grading methods from across the globe for any students who need conversions.
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A GPA or ‘Grade Point Average’ is a very common metric for assessing student attainment. Many countries have adopted some variation of the GPA system. In the USA, GPA is used at both the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. It is calculated using the grades for each piece of coursework or assessment you complete. As such, it can fluctuate throughout the course of your programme.
This continuous method of assessment means you’ll need to achieve consistently high grades to maintain a strong GPA. This can be especially important for students who are receiving funding for their degree, as some scholarship programmes will not continue financial support for recipients who fall below a certain GPA.
Calculating your GPA can be a fiddly process, and exact methods differ between countries. To make things easier, we’ll take the USA as an example.
Put simply, your GPA is the total sum of grades achieved throughout your course, divided by the total number of credits taken. In order to do this, each letter grade (from A-F) is assigned a numerical value or ‘quality point’:
The resulting figure will be a number between 0 and 4, which is your GPA.
Things can get a little more complicated when you consider the fact that not all letter grades will translate into nice round numbers (a grade of A- would be assigned a value of 3.67, for example).
Some programmes also take into account the difficulty of each module when calculating your average score. This is called a ‘weighted’ GPA, and uses a 5.0, rather than a 4.0 scale. This means you may be awarded up to 5 quality points if you achieve an A in a particularly taxing course. It’s possible for your overall GPA to be higher than 4 if calculated using a weighted system.
Many countries around the world use a GPA system, and a 4.0 grading scale is by far the most common. This can vary, however – some institutions in India use a 10-point GPA system, for example.
A 4.0 is the highest GPA a student can achieve (using an unweighted system), but it’s very difficult to maintain this throughout your course of study. So how high a GPA do you need to achieve for your final score to be considered ‘good’?
In the USA, universities will often award ‘honours’ to graduates at the end of their degree, which provide a useful framework for thinking about what is considered a ‘good’ GPA. The highest honour a student can achieve is summa cum laude, followed by magna cum laude and finally cum laude.
Honours are usually awarded either to a set percentage of the highest performing students, or according to predetermined GPA thresholds. Because of this, the GPA required to earn each honour can differ from institution to institution, and from year to year. To give you a general idea, the University of Pennsylvania uses the following cumulative GPA boundaries to award honours for undergraduate degrees:
As we’ve said, these can vary considerably. At Michigan Law School, for example, only students with a GPA of 4.0 will graduate summa cum laude. Nonetheless, the above figures should give you a sense of how various GPA scores will be perceived by graduate school admissions departments, or by potential employers!
Not all graduate schools in the USA will set minimum GPA requirements for Masters programmes, but amongst those that do, 3.0 is a fairly common figure. For more competitive programmes, you’ll likely need a considerably higher score than this to be in with a shot of securing a place (at Harvard’s school of Engineering and Applied Sciences, for example, the average successful Masters applicant in 2021 had an undergraduate GPA of 3.8).
Minimum GPA requirements for PhD applicants in the USA are rare, but a GPA of lower than 3.0 in your Masters will likely be a disadvantage.
What should be obvious by now is that exactly what constitutes a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ GPA score is fairly subjective. Remember that while you should, of course, strive for the best possible academic transcript during your time at university, GPA is far from the be-all and end-all of a good Masters application. Even with a lower than average score, you’ll have plenty of other opportunities to set yourself apart from the crowd, such as in your personal statement or CV.
In the UK, your overall result is calculated at the end of your course using the results of the assessments and coursework you have completed, rather than based on your average attainment throughout the course, as in the USA and other countries using a GPA system.
There is no official method to convert UK grades to GPA. If you’re applying to UK university with a degree obtained in the US (or vice-versa), be aware that each institution will calculate international equivalencies differently.
The following conversion table (adapted from information supplied by the Fulbright Commission) gives a rough idea of how to convert UK grades to GPA:
UK module marks | UK classification (Masters) | UK classification (Bachelors) | US GPA |
---|---|---|---|
70+ | Distinction | First | 4 |
65 - 69 | Merit | 2:1 | 3.7 |
60 - 64 | Merit | 2:1 | 3.3 |
55 - 59 | Pass | 2:2 | 3 |
50 - 54 | Pass | 2:2 | 2.7 |
49 or below | Fail | Fail | 2.3 or below |
Considerable variation will occur between institutions. A GPA of as low as 3.7, for example, is sometimes considered equivalent to a first-class or distinction grade in the UK.
For more information on how postgraduate students are assessed in the UK, you can read our full guide to Masters degrees grades.
Most countries in Europe are members of the European Higher Education Area, meaning that they use the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS), which provides a common framework for measuring academic attainment across different higher education systems.
There is a centralised ECTS grade conversion method which aims to make qualifications easily comparable between countries, but each country still has its own unique grading system. Below we’ve provided a rough guide to how university grading in a few major European countries compares with the US GPA scale.
Please note that there are no official conversions between US and European grades, and the following tables are intended as approximate guidelines only. If you’re considering applying for Masters study with a degree obtained in a foreign country, it’s best to consult your chosen university directly about how they calculate international equivalencies.
German universities grade on a 5-point scale, where 1.0 is the highest score and 4.0 is the minimum passing grade (note that some universities will use a 6 point scale, but any mark below 4.0 is still considered a fail).
German grade | US letter grade | US GPA points |
---|---|---|
1.0 - 1.3 | A | 4.0 |
1.7 - 2.3 | A- | 3.7 |
2.7 | B+ | 3.3 |
3.0 | B | 3.0 |
3.3 | B- | 2.7 |
3.7 | C+ | 2.3 |
4.0 | C | 2.0 |
5.0 | C- or below | 1.7 or below |
French universities use a 20-point grading scale, where 20 is the highest mark and 10 is usually the minimum passing grade.
French grade | US letter grade | US GPA points |
---|---|---|
17 - 20 | A | 4.0 |
16 | A- | 3.7 |
15 | B+ | 3.3 |
14 | B | 3.0 |
13 | B- | 2.7 |
12 | C+ | 2.3 |
11 | C | 2.0 |
10 | C- or below | 1.7 or below |
9 | D | 1.0 |
Dutch universities use a 10-point grading scale, where 10 is the highest mark. 5.5 is the usually the minimum pass mark.
Dutch grade | US letter grade | US GPA points |
---|---|---|
10 | A+ | 4.0 |
9.5 | A+ | 4.0 |
9 | A+ | 4.0 |
8.5 | A+ | 4.0 |
8 | A | 4.0 |
7.5 | A- | 3.7 |
7 | B+ | 3.3 |
6.5 | B | 3.0 |
6 | B- / C | 1.7 - 2.7 |
5.5 | D | 1.0 |
5 | F | 0.0 |
Grades of 9 and 10 are awarded very rarely in the Netherlands, hence why a grade of 8 or higher is approximately equivalent to a US GPA of 4.0.
At Italian universities, individual assignments or exams are marked out of 30. Students need at least 18/30 to pass.
Italian grade | US letter grade | US GPA points |
---|---|---|
30 | A+ | 4.0 |
30 | A | 4.0 |
30 | A- | 3.7 |
29 | B+ | 3.3 |
28 | B | 3.0 |
27 | B- | 2.7 |
26 | C+ | 2.3 |
25 | C | 2.0 |
24 | C- | 1.7 |
23 | D+ | 1.3 |
18 - 22 | D | 1.0 |
Below 18 | F | 0.0 |
A student’s final graduation mark is given out of 110. This is calculated by multiplying their average score out of 30 by 11, and then multiplying by 3 to give a base mark. The points awarded for the dissertation are then added to the base mark.
66/110 is the minimum pass grade, which is roughly equivalent to a US GPA of 2.3. You’ll generally need to score 110/110 to achieve a US GPA of 4.0.
Masters grading systems differ widely – between countries and even between institutions. We have detailed guides to postgraduate study in a wide range of countries in our study abroad section.
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Sarah joined FindAMasters as a Content Writer in 2021 and produces polished and thoroughly researched pages to inspire and inform prospective postgraduate students. In her time at FindAMasters, she has gained a comprehensive understanding of the postgraduate journey and has engaged with hundreds of prospective postgraduates while manning the advice stand at our popular study fairs.
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