UK student applying US university
How to find out the equivalent of your grades, GPA?, since we all just given grades here. Any advice on applications? What does junior vs varsity mean?
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Since the UK uses either 1 to 9 scale or an A-F scale, I'll try to explain GPA.
If you use a 1 to 9 scale I would say the
9 = 4.0
8 = 3.7
7 = 3.3
6 = 3.0
5 = 2.7
4 = 2.0
3 = 1.0
1, 2 = 0.0
And if you us a grade system an
A = 4.0
A = 3.7
B = 3.0
C = 2.3
C = 2.0
D = 1.0
F = 0.0
So let's say you take 6 courses per semester and there is 2 semester per year. Let's also say there are 4 years of High School. So you will have 8 semesters of grades by the time you graduate. So you would add up all your grades on a 4.0 scale and for argument's sake, let's say that adds up to 144 points. Then you divide by 48 data points to arrive at a 3.0 GPA. If your total was 192/48 = 4.0 GPA. So when someone says they have a perfect 4.0 GPA, it means they only received the top marks for their entire academic career.
The difference between Varsity and Junior Varsity is the those who play on Varsity teams are the best 1st team the school has put together. So if your high school or club sports team has a football team and there are enough players to make up 3 teams, the very best team of players would be the Varsity team, then the Junior Varsity team, and in the States, some call the 3rd team the "B" team or "B" squad. So Varsity also implies teams played on by the most talented and senior players. I'm not sure what the grades are in the UK but I've heard terms like Upper 6th Form or Upper 7th. So that would be Varsity players and JV players might be Lower 4th form. Something like that.
As someone from the UK, I find it interesting that you'd consider applying to schools here when Oxford and Cambridge and others seem to be as good or better than the Ivy league with much higher admissions rates, perhaps 4 X times easier than the better Ivys.
Hope that helps.
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What about the GPA for international students from developing countries, I mean the education system there is not that robust, thus the GPA might not be trustworthy, so how do the admission officers approach this, I mean how do they assess international student academically; is it only based on SAT or ACT. Also, there are no APs or any rigorous courses which I preassume will put international students at a disadvantage, so how can I show my academic abilities if I have strong ones?