100 GPA scale to 4.0 GPA scale conversion?

Answered

@blohsh_13

Thanks for the question. While there are differing opinions on converting a 100 pt scale to a 4.0, the consensus is that anything above a 93 = 4.0.

Since the common and coalition app accept either a 100 point or 4.0 point scale and any other scale your school uses, I highly recommend that you report your 98.088 UWGPA and your 102.444 UGPA because there is more granularity in your answer and you are not a borderline 4.0 scale student but someone at the top of the scale.

Example, if you report a 4.0 UWGPA, the admissions officers will assume that it's between a 93-100. And in many school transcripts a 90.00 constitutes an A so even if it is marked as a A-, the school might round it up to an A or a 4.0. So you want to emphasize your academic prowess by sharing your 98.088 vs a 90.000 student who is also a 4.0 UWGPA applicant.

A 4.0 is great but depending on your school marking policy, 90.00-100.00 is a wide range plus there is no granularity. At my old public HS, there were literally 10-15% of the class with 4.0s. And within that group, there were certainly varying degrees of course rigor, intellectual vitality and grade marks between 90.00-100.00. We didn't rank, so let say there are 50 people with 4.0s applying to similar schools, it's clear that if we did rank students, then some would be ranked in 1-10 out of 330, while others would be ranked 40-50 out of 330. But they all had 4.0s, so this creates more work for the college admissions officer to figure out who are deserving applicants.

Hope this is helpful to you and other 9th,10th and 11th graders.