GPA conversion for Australia?

[godgiveme528]

To be more specific - do schools in Australia look at an incoming grade as a letter or percentage?
In other words, does it go from "Non-Australia percentage --> Australia GPA", or does it go from "Non-Australia percentage --> letter grade --> Australia GPA"?

The reason I ask is because I have a bunch of grades that would be amazing in my within-country 4.0 GPA scale (they would be a 3.9)... but they would be converted to an "A" letter, which is only a 6.0 out of 7.0 GPA in some Australian schools. So I'm wondering if I'd actually have a worse GPA in Australia than if I applied in my home country.

So I'm simply wondering if most Australian schools look at my "percentage grades" on my transcript or if they first convert them to letters and then look at them.

Thanks!

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[Wolvvs]

Usually they convert the GPA directly, but this could vary by school and is sometimes not at all transparent. I wouldn't stress too much about this, if you're getting ~3.9 GPA then your GPA will not be what holds you back from admission and could make up for a lower admissions test score (up to a point). Admissions to Australian schools for international students is not really that competitive.

 

[godgiveme528]

Ah interesting, I know AMCAS converts it from grade to letter (I'm from Canada so had to make extra sure I understand how they do it) so I was assuming something similar for most schools in Australia, but guess that's not the case for the most part. It's unfortunate that these criteria are so "black-boxed" for so many schools though. But thank you for the reply!