American Graduate School Grading Scales / GPA Scales

[Ro_Laren]

So my graduate school has a really weird grading scale / GPA system. I was wondering how it compares to other schools:

Grades
A+ = 100 - 99
A = 98 - 96
A- = 95 - 93
B+ = 92 - 91
B = 90 - 88
B - = 87 - 86
C+ = 85 - 83
C = 82 - 80
C- = 79 - 77
D + = 76 - 75
D = 74 - 72
D - = 71 - 70
F = 69 - 0

GPA
A+/A = 4.0
A - = 3.7
B+ = 3.3
B = 3.0
B- = 2.7
C+ = 2.3
C = 2.0
C- = 1.7
D+ = 1.3
D = 1.0
D- = 0.7
F = 0.0

I almost went to graduate school at the same university where I received my undergrad degree. The grading scale was much better at that school:

A = 100 - 90
B = 89 - 80
C = 79 - 70
D = 69 - 60
F = 59 - 0

GPA:

A = 4.0
B = 3.0
C = 2.0
D = 1.0
F = 0.0

That means that if I received a 91 in all of my courses at my current school I would graduate with a 3.3. If I had graduated with the same grades from the my old school/the school I almost got my graduate degree at then I would graduate with a 4.0. That is a difference between graduating with no honors and graduating with high honors.

Also, if I decide to get my Ph. D. it would be much harder for me to be accepted into a program. That also means I could be competing against students from my old school for the same program and they could get in just because the grading school and GPA system are more friendly at their school.

Not fair!

 

[Vulcan Princess]

Your university's grading scale is a bit harsh, but the GPA scale is pretty typical. At least the grading scale is absolute, though. Theoretically, anyone could get an A.

I'm in law school, and it's graded on a strict curve. The top 5% get an A or A-, the next 40% get B+ to B-, the next 45% get a C+ to C, and the bottom 5% get a C- or below. It doesn't matter how well you know the material or how well you do on the exams; if everyone is better than you, you'll get a C-, and you have to maintain a C average to avoid getting kicked out.

 

[RoJoHen]

I don't understand why GPAs aren't just the same across the board. Hell, in high school, my GPA was a 5.6 out of 4. Honors classes were worth 6.1. It was bizarre.

Never went to grad school, but my undergrad had a similar GPA system to the one you describe. I think the +/- system needs to go away. It hurts more than it helps.

 

[Spot's Meow]

The GPA scale seems pretty normal, it was the same in high school too. However the grading scale seems weird. Normally a 90 to 100 is an A, 80 to 89 is a B, 70 to 79 is a C, etc. If we were using plus and minus then, for example, a B- is 80 to 83, B is 84 to 86, and B+ is 87 to 89.

Though I've gotta say, grades mean very little in my graduate program. If you show up to class and do the assignments you get an A. If you don't, you get an F. The professors will put comments on our papers to try and improve our writing, but it is assumed that if you did it at all you you would be getting an A.

 

[RoJoHen]

Actually, now that I'm looking at it, that's also the exact same grading scale we had in elementary school. Then in high school we finally switched to a 100-90-80, etc system, which made a lot more sense.

 

[Garrovick]

I believe my GPA was a "B" or was it a "D", it only took 14 years to get my BS in Structural Engineering. I really don't use it for employment. So, I guess a GPA is pretty meaningless in my case.

 

[archeryguy1701]

For both my college and high school, grades and GPA's looked like this:

A: 100-90, 4.0
B: 89-80, 3.0
C: 79-70, 2.0
D: 69-60, 1.0
F: 59-0, 0.0

 

[Lord Garth]

When I was a student:

Undergraduate

A = 95-100 = 4.0
A- = 90-94 = 3.7
B+ = 87-89 = 3.3
B = 83-86 = 3.0
B- = 80-82 = 2.7
C+ = 77-79 = 2.3
C = 73-76 = 2.0
C- = 70-72 = 1.7
D+ = 67-69 = 1.3
D = 63-66 = 1.0
D- = 60-62 = 0.7
F = 0-59 = 0.0

2.0 GPA must be maintained.

Graduate

A = 95-100 = 4.0
A- = 90-94 = 3.7
B+ = 87-89 = 3.3
B = 83-86 = 3.0
B- = 80-82 = 2.7
C+ = 77-79 = 2.3
C = 73-76 = 2.0
C- = 70-72 = 1.7
F = 0-69 = 0.0

3.0 GPA must be maintained.

 

[Ro_Laren]

I don't understand why GPAs aren't just the same across the board. Hell, in high school, my GPA was a 5.6 out of 4. Honors classes were worth 6.1. It was bizarre.

Never went to grad school, but my undergrad had a similar GPA system to the one you describe. I think the +/- system needs to go away. It hurts more than it helps.

My high school was the same way. They weighted the GPA so that if you took an Honors class and got an A they gave you 5.0.

 

[archeryguy1701]

I don't understand why GPAs aren't just the same across the board. Hell, in high school, my GPA was a 5.6 out of 4. Honors classes were worth 6.1. It was bizarre.

Never went to grad school, but my undergrad had a similar GPA system to the one you describe. I think the +/- system needs to go away. It hurts more than it helps.

My high school was the same way. They weighted the GPA so that if you took an Honors class and got an A they gave you 5.0.

That was one thing I hated about my high school... honors or AP classes were only worth regular credit, so it was much harder and more work for te exact same grade.

 

[propita]

Elementary, high school, and all undergrade--all were the
90+ was A- to A+
80 to 89 was B- to B+
70 to 79 was C- to C+
60 to 69 was D- to D+
below 60 -- why are you in that class

I'm in law school, and it's graded on a strict curve. The top 5% get an A or A-, the next 40% get B+ to B-, the next 45% get a C+ to C, and the bottom 5% get a C- or below. It doesn't matter how well you know the material or how well you do on the exams; if everyone is better than you, you'll get a C-, and you have to maintain a C average to avoid getting kicked out.

I'm finishing law school. Ours doesn't grade on a curve. Live or die on your own. Minimum to pass a class is 55, maintain a cumulative gpa of minimum 65. What is it, 72? passes the State Bar.

My gpa going into my last final is just over 78. Almost every test I've had has been essay/IRAC. I've had only ONE open-book test, and even that was essay; and one 20 page essay as an elective final--plus Moot Court being "essay-ish."

 

[Ro_Laren]

I don't understand why GPAs aren't just the same across the board. Hell, in high school, my GPA was a 5.6 out of 4. Honors classes were worth 6.1. It was bizarre.

Never went to grad school, but my undergrad had a similar GPA system to the one you describe. I think the +/- system needs to go away. It hurts more than it helps.

My high school was the same way. They weighted the GPA so that if you took an Honors class and got an A they gave you 5.0.

That was one thing I hated about my high school... honors or AP classes were only worth regular credit, so it was much harder and more work for te exact same grade.

I graduated from High School with over a 4.4. Of course colleges like to look at unweighted grades and my unweighted GPA was a 3.something. I was actually in a special college preparatory program at my school and our academics were harder then normal honors classes. Of course the colleges I applied to didn't know that. So they were comparing my unweighted 3.something GPA to kids took regular classes and also had 3.something GPAs. In my opinion there should be more uniformity in the U.S. school system. Didn't they always say that in Soviet Russia you could take a class one day in Moscow and then fly across the country to Vladivostok and pick up on the same material the next day? I don't think that it has to be that extreme in America, but at least fix our GPA and grade systems so there is more fairness when trying to receive higher education and when applying for jobs.

 

[Goliath]

Believe it or not, when I was an undergraduate, we were graded on a scale from 1 to 9, with a 4 needed to pass.

They called it the "stanine" system. I've never seen any other university use it.

EDIT: Interesting. According to Wikipedia, even my alma mater stopped using it, and switched to a 4-point system, in 2003. Tempus edax rerum.