Do grad selections committees know.......

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toex
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Jun 29, 2011 3:05 am

Do grad selections committees know.......

Post by toex » Wed Jun 29, 2011 3:10 am

dun know where to post, maybe here??

I am a Chinese student, going to apply for grad school in the US. I went on for exchange in a school that has quite good reputation in physics research, probably top 20 in the US.

My experience: it is much harder for a student to get an A here than in the US.

I'm NOT saying Chinese students are better or work-harder than Americans, is the grading system and exam papers that make us harder to get an A. For example, my GPA is not good in my school(not in the best 20 in my country), 3.0ish with studying all the time from 9am to 9pm, except lunch, toilet and lecture time, even in holidays. But during my exchange semester, I went to party on average 2-3times a week, hang out, see movies etc. Finally I got GPA 3.87 and all the classes were >300 physics and math.

Some may say something like "well, you were just lucky", but I can say the exam papers were really much easier than in China. Maybe I shouldn't say it's easy, but it is more direct, less complex to reach the answer. Plus the percentage of getting an A+/A/A- is fixed and small here, say like only ~5%.

I doubt that do the grad selection committees know the difference. If they don't, it will be very frustrating (and unfair) for Chinese students' applications. :( :( :(

I post this thread because I have a friend works in a physics department office in a univ in the US, and she said low GPA applications will be screened out in the very first stage. And from the sticky note, some students (with low GPA, 2.5ish-3.3ish) had been rejected by many grad schools very early even they have >850 GRE physics, while some of them have GPA >3.75 but only got 660-750 in GRE physics got offers from top 10 schools.....

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grae313
Posts: 2296
Joined: Tue May 29, 2007 8:46 pm

Re: Do grad selections committees know.......

Post by grae313 » Wed Jun 29, 2011 10:39 am

toex wrote:dun know where to post, maybe here??

I am a Chinese student, going to apply for grad school in the US. I went on for exchange in a school that has quite good reputation in physics research, probably top 20 in the US.

My experience: it is much harder for a student to get an A here than in the US.

I'm NOT saying Chinese students are better or work-harder than Americans, is the grading system and exam papers that make us harder to get an A. For example, my GPA is not good in my school(not in the best 20 in my country), 3.0ish with studying all the time from 9am to 9pm, except lunch, toilet and lecture time, even in holidays. But during my exchange semester, I went to party on average 2-3times a week, hang out, see movies etc. Finally I got GPA 3.87 and all the classes were >300 physics and math.

Some may say something like "well, you were just lucky", but I can say the exam papers were really much easier than in China. Maybe I shouldn't say it's easy, but it is more direct, less complex to reach the answer. Plus the percentage of getting an A+/A/A- is fixed and small here, say like only ~5%.

I doubt that do the grad selection committees know the difference. If they don't, it will be very frustrating (and unfair) for Chinese students' applications. :( :( :(

I post this thread because I have a friend works in a physics department office in a univ in the US, and she said low GPA applications will be screened out in the very first stage. And from the sticky note, some students (with low GPA, 2.5ish-3.3ish) had been rejected by many grad schools very early even they have >850 GRE physics, while some of them have GPA >3.75 but only got 660-750 in GRE physics got offers from top 10 schools.....
Admissions committees are very aware that grading standards vary wildly from place to place, and as they receive and accept a great number of Chinese applicants every year, they are undoubtedly familiar with the grading system there. Your GPA will be judged against the other Chinese applicants and against what they know of the grading system there, NOT American applicants. Where you might run into trouble is if your institution is significantly tougher than the top Universities in China, leading them to discount you for your low GPA without looking into it further. The procedure for anyone in your situation is to ask your letter writers to address the grading system in their letters of recommendation. Have them mention the class average and your position in the class. This will be much more meaningful than your GPA.



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