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GPA and Rank in North America?

lalala

Joined
5/5/10
Messages
28
Points
11
Hi all, just a bit curious about how GPA is calculated in US and Canada. No offence, but it seems to me that my school in Singapore has tougher GPA calculations and I don't know if this would put our students to disadvantage when we apply... I am in top 15% of my cohort, out of 800 engineers, and my GPA is around 3.3, and 3.7 for senior years. My school does not report GPA, all are my own calculations. Something happened to my family and I got 2Ds and 1C for my core subjects in my second year. Bad enough:( Our workload is about 6 subjects/semester (13 weeks).

According to some online forums, it seems that it is quite common to have top 30% of the cohort to have >3.5 GPA? Discouraging when I see others' profile here, a lot of close to 4 from Canadian Universities:( I heard from my friend that Georgia Tech is another case for tough GPA, but they are famous so I suppose no problem for them.

Also, does school ranking matter in my case as international? Just wonder what would happen between a 4.0 GPA from a 200th university to a say 3+ from a top 50? Anyone knows if my school Nanyang Tech Singapore is recognized in North America? QS puts us as 36th in engineering worldwide but seems that many don't really know us? mm...

Thanks a lot for your opinions. I could be wrong, please feel free to correct me. I don't mean that higher GPA means easier life, I just like more lenient teachers:)
 
Your GPA is largely out of your control when you apply and yes, the admission committee is aware of grade inflation, top schools, dept on each continent. Programs that have been around for awhile mostly have calibrated their own system.
US Universities have been taking international students for decades so this is nothing new to them.
You are worrying about things you can't control. Pay more time on where you can control, such as the essay, who you ask for recommend letters. That's where a lot of people with high GPA failed to get an admit.
 
You might ask your recommenders to describe/mention how tough the grading policy is.
 
Thanks dude for the info. Bad news about my GRE, I actually took it two years ago and with not much preparation, I got 800q and 310v, writing 4. Anyway, for MFE, I don't really have a plan for US so the score is kinda useless so far.

Just a bit curious, I don't know if I should just try one or two top US schools. App Fee is fine to me. So as long as its not like a direct reject from my verbal, I would give it a try most likely. Has anyone come across admitted candidate with such GRE score? I know a guy in UBC CS department with such score, he got scholarship some more! mm...

I don't feel like fixing my GRE verbal / memorizing the vocabulary for another attempt. I am actually working on few conference paper submissions to top destinations in my field, highly quantitative. Assuming I am applying for coming intake, I don't have much time left, so I feel like giving a 100% boost on trying to get 1 or 2 more publications before decision, I guess that matters more than my low verbal, very likely because I was too nervous that time. The committee should be able to see my writing skill from my bachelor, master thesis and also my papers. What do you guys think?

Thanks again for your inputs.
 
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