Hi guys,

Quick question for you, who do I contact (call, email, whatever) at the university to get an official conversion from the 12.0 scale to the 4.0 scale? Also, when assessing your GPA does McMaster round to the tenth decimal place. For example, if I had a 3.58, would they round it to 3.6 or would it remain as 3.58?

I've used this chart ( http://careers.mcmaster.ca/students/...nversion-chart ). However, on the page it says to contact someone at the institution to which you are applying for an exact conversion. I've emailed a handful of people, including people at the registrar's office and contacts for the program to which I am applying, but I have had no luck. They either refer me to someone else, or send me the above link, even though I've told them I've used the chart, but I would like an 'official' conversion. My favourite response was from the lady at the office of the registrar who told me she had 'absolutely no idea how to do that'. Oh McMaster, how I love you!

As a side note, does anyone know why McMaster chooses to use the 12.0 scale, is there a logical reason for this? What really drives me up the wall, is that when you apply for graduate studies at McMaster, they want your average converted to a 4.0, why not just use that scale in the first place? (I found this emoticon, and I thought to myself 'cool').

Anyways, I'm busying myself with this mission, I thought that maybe someone here could help.

Thank you,

Sean

Originally Posted by JasonMcGuirk

Hi guys,

Quick question for you, who do I contact (call, email, whatever) at the university to get an official conversion from the 12.0 scale to the 4.0 scale? Also, when assessing your GPA does McMaster round to the tenth decimal place. For example, if I had a 3.58, would they round it to 3.6 or would it remain as 3.58?

I've used this chart ( http://careers.mcmaster.ca/students/...nversion-chart ). However, on the page it says to contact someone at the institution to which you are applying for an exact conversion. I've emailed a handful of people, including people at the registrar's office and contacts for the program to which I am applying, but I have had no luck. They either refer me to someone else, or send me the above link, even though I've told them I've used the chart, but I would like an 'official' conversion. My favourite response was from the lady at the office of the registrar who told me she had 'absolutely no idea how to do that'. Oh McMaster, how I love you!

As a side note, does anyone know why McMaster chooses to use the 12.0 scale, is there a logical reason for this? What really drives me up the wall, is that when you apply for graduate studies at McMaster, they want your average converted to a 4.0, why not just use that scale in the first place? (I found this emoticon, and I thought to myself 'cool').

Anyways, I'm busying myself with this mission, I thought that maybe someone here could help.

Thank you,

Sean

you don't convert the 12.0 to 4.0, you do your grades individually, there is no translation of a 12 pt scale average to the 4.0, for example a 10.0 could range from a 3.5-3.7 gpa, just follow the chart and convert your grades individually using that scale

Also, McMaster truncates, so if you have a 10.49 average, it's 10.4.

They use the 12.0 scale because each number corresponds to a different letter grade (D- to A+). Although personally I would still prefer the 4.0 scale

Originally Posted by Bernard

They use the 12.0 scale because each number corresponds to a different letter grade (D- to A+). Although personally I would still prefer the 4.0 scale

The two scales are also different. One favours those who are more consistent while the other doesn't as much. I can't remember which is which, but I have a feeling McMaster favours those who are more consistent.

Originally Posted by jhan523

Also, McMaster truncates, so if you have a 10.49 average, it's 10.4.

Are you serious? Why would they do that?

Originally Posted by Bernard

Are you serious? Why would they do that?

They could ask why the student didn't try extra hard for that 0.1 extra point :\ I know there are some students that try their hardest all the time, but a large majority of the time when I talk to people they always say, if only I put in that extra hour instead of playing games or going out.

Originally Posted by jhan523

They could ask why the student didn't try extra hard for that 0.1 extra point :\ I know there are some students that try their hardest all the time, but a large majority of the time when I talk to people they always say, if only I put in that extra hour instead of playing games or going out.

But that extra 0.01 point is different when it's an average of 5 courses. And it doesn't really seem fair to drop 0.09 off the GPA just because some students like to slack off. I mean, everyone did still earn those marks...

Originally Posted by Bernard

But that extra 0.01 point is different when it's an average of 5 courses. And it doesn't really seem fair to drop 0.09 off the GPA just because some students like to slack off. I mean, everyone did still earn those marks...

They are really only dropping .04-.05, because rounding would cause 3.44 to go down (and there's the rounding rules in science to have a more significant number in the end, you round "evens" down and "odds" up. So 3.45 would be 3.4 and 3.55 would be 3.6).

.01 average with 5 courses is just 0.05 in 1 of the 5 courses. So by the end of your career, a .01 would be a .4 in 1 of 40 courses. That means you would only need to raise a mark in 1 of 40 courses by .4 grade points.

The 4.0 scale rewards consistency I think. So even if your CA is like 10.2 you might think it's a 3.7+ but if you convert your individual scores to the 4.0 scale it might be lower than what's predicted by the 12-point scale if your marks aren't consistent.

Yes. My 12-scale mark is better than my 4-scale mark because I wasn't consistent.

Thanks for all your help guys, much appreciated.