Low undergraduate marks

[galpogujob]

Hello,
I am planing to take admission in a institution for GRE training course. I want to do my PhD from USA in the field Astrophysics. I have good research experience and rest of the application. But I scored 51 percent in my B.Sc ( undergraduate level). Could you please tell me what is the equivalent grade corresponding to my marks (51%). If I score well in GRE general and GRE subject, will I get admission ? Please give me your advises.


Anirban

[Catria]

Hello,
I am planing to take admission in a institution for GRE training course. I want to do my PhD from USA in the field Astrophysics. I have good research experience and rest of the application. But I scored 51 percent in my B.Sc ( undergraduate level). Could you please tell me what is the equivalent grade corresponding to my marks (51%). If I score well in GRE general and GRE subject, will I get admission ? Please give me your advises.


Anirban

Ouch... now that's low grades. At my undergrad, averaging this low would barely clear 2.0...

[TakeruK]

What country are you from? It's probably best if you look up the equivalent for your country in the North American system. As Catria said, 51% in North America is a very low grade--it means you just barely passed. At many schools, you would be placed on academic probation after one semester/year with this average and kicked out if your average remains this low.

However, I know that many other countries use a different scale so 51% would not be as bad.

[galpogujob]

I am from India. I have finished my 3 year B.Sc degree in physics from The university of Calcutta. actually in India grading system is different. Here 60% to 65 % is very good score as compared to the US grade above 3.5.

I searched internet. In wikipedia I found that percentage of score in India between 50 to 55 % is equivalent to the B grade of US.
But I am not sure. different people is saying differently. I have to know the correct thing. Because according this I have to select schools to apply.

Please share with me your suggestions.

[TakeruK]

I am from India. I have finished my 3 year B.Sc degree in physics from The university of Calcutta. actually in India grading system is different. Here 60% to 65 % is very good score as compared to the US grade above 3.5.

I searched internet. In wikipedia I found that percentage of score in India between 50 to 55 % is equivalent to the B grade of US.
But I am not sure. different people is saying differently. I have to know the correct thing. Because according this I have to select schools to apply.

Please share with me your suggestions.

There is no exact conversion. Each school might interpret your grades differently. Some schools will weigh GPA less heavily for international students because it is hard to directly convert them to US grades and compare with US students. Also, US grad schools generally evaluate applicants on their entire application. So, it is not like they will convert every aspect of your application into a number and then pick the highest number. Instead, I think your grades will be interpreted as "about a B" which is not a terrible GPA but it is not the highest either. I think this should be enough information to decide where to apply--I don't think knowing whether your GPA is exactly 3.0 or 3.2 will make a big difference.

[dragon_warrior]

I am from India. I have finished my 3 year B.Sc degree in physics from The university of Calcutta. actually in India grading system is different. Here 60% to 65 % is very good score as compared to the US grade above 3.5.

I searched internet. In wikipedia I found that percentage of score in India between 50 to 55 % is equivalent to the B grade of US.
But I am not sure. different people is saying differently. I have to know the correct thing. Because according this I have to select schools to apply.

Please share with me your suggestions.

I do not agree with the fact that B in US corresponds to 55%. It all depends on the faculty. In ASIC design class, I got a B, and my average was 75%. In control system class, my average was 89%, I got a B. If wikipedia says so, it is stupid.

[TakeruK]

I do not agree with the fact that B in US corresponds to 55%. It all depends on the faculty. In ASIC design class, I got a B, and my average was 75%. In control system class, my average was 89%, I got a B. If wikipedia says so, it is stupid.

Just to clarify, are you talking about a 55% in the US or a 55% in another country? (That is, in the two classes you give as examples, were they at US schools or elsewhere?).

For an example, in some countries, grades above 70% are very rarely awarded, so 70% in that country is an A+ in the US. In many schools in Canada, we use a different grading system, where a B is defined to be 73% to 76% (B+ is 77-79, A- is 80-84, A is 85-89, A+ is 90-100) and these ranges hold no matter what the class average is.