GPA equivalency in Canada and the US

[seanjohn]

---

Members do not see this ad.

I'm interested in knowing how US dental schools or undergraduate schools for that matter calculate GPA. The reason I'm asking is because I'm Canadian and wondering whether my GPA is equivalent in Canada as it is in the US.
Please tell me how your grading system works.
Is an 85-100 considered an A+ and granted a 4.00 GPA score?
Is an 80-85 considered an A and granted a 3.70 GPA score?
Is a 77-79 considered a B+ and granted a 3.30 GPA score?
And so on.
If possible tell me the full scale that is used in the US.
Thank you!

 

[Dr.BadVibes]

Im pretty sure it varies from school, but I went to the University of Toronto, and on my transcripts, they give letter grades as well and that is what we used. So although the percents are different, the letter grades are the same. For instance, a B+ is a 3.3 in Canada and US....so if your school uses letter grades, use that...and your GPA will remain the same...

 

[seanjohn]

Interesting avin, so a B is a 3.0, an A is a 3.7, and an A+ is a 4.0 in the US as well, or is it different?

 

[LestatZinnie]

dont sweat it now just do your ADAS (sp?) application and they will send you a letter afterwards showing your GPA conversion.

 

[Dr.BadVibes]

yes, from what was calculated for me....

 

[seanjohn]

Before I send in my application I'd like to know where my GPA stands so I can gauge my competitiveness.
Is it safe to say that in general, an A+ is a 4.0, an A is a 3.7, a B+ is a 3.3, a B is a 3.0, a C+ is a 2.3, a C is a 2.0 and so on?

 

[LestatZinnie]

Yes your estimations are correct.

 

[seanjohn]

I've heard from other people that an A can also be a 3.8 in some instances, so in your opinion which is more accurate, an A being a 3.7 or a 3.8?
Thank you once again!

 

[3rdMolarRoller]

This is how my undergrad in FL was:

90-100 is an "A" or 4.0
80-89 is a "B" or 3.0
70-79 is a "C" or 2.0
69 and down is an "F" 0.0

 

[gryffindor]

Our undergrad did not give A+ grades. So for us, A = 4.0 and A- = 3.7.

 

[seanjohn]

Brocnizer, are you serious, or am I just on the receiving end of some cruel joke? If that's true then the dental schools must cut you some serious slack when calculating your GPA score.
Seeing as how each undergrad university has different grading systems I wonder how GPA scores are standardized fairly for all students, I'm sure some students may get dubbed in the process and vice versa... just my 13 cents, taking inflation into account. I borrowed that saying from someone else on this board I hope it's not copyrighted

 

[3rdMolarRoller]

Honest to God. Very very few professors gave +/-

UF and Nova both knew how my school graded bec they are in the same state and get a number of applicants from my school.

They did not give D's bec you can't get a degree with a "D" so you might as well as just get an "F"

I think most schools in the FL state university system follow this. Although some schools may give more +/- then mine did.

 

[seanjohn]

Brocnizer that's an interesting system albeit very different from any Canadian school.
One thing I'm struggling to understand is why dental and medical schools in the US have much lower entrance GPA scores than in Canada. In Canada, in order to be a competitve candidate you need at least a 3.8 GPA, and in the US it seems that with a 3.3 GPA you have a solid chance at a substantial amount of schools. This is the exact reason why I'm not even going to apply to Canada, and will only apply to the US. My 3.66 just won't cut it in Canada.

 

[3rdMolarRoller]

we have, I think, 56 dental schools. I believe you have some where in the number of 12.

Point is Canada has way fewer schools and statistics shows its dirty little head.

There are less seats to fill up there so they only take the cream of the crop. It has nothing to do with Canadian schools being better or worse, just less schools so fewer seats to fill.

In order to fill the classes here, seats are filled with people all over the board and the GPA's fall midline vs way high

 

[seanjohn]

Brocnizer, that seems to be the case. Canadian schools aren't "better" per se just pickier because they have fewer seats to fill, just as schools like Harvard have few seats to fill and are thus extremely picky, although one can argue that it is just as difficult to get into any Canadian school as it is to get into Harvard. The moral of the story is that the US is the greatest land for oppurtunity, and that if you live in a country outside the US ,such as Canada, you have to apply to the US and pay a hefty sum to attend a private school, paying in US funds, having to withstand the dismal Canadian exchange rate, and to top it all off you have to get a private loan that will charge you crazy interests rates all because of your vulnerable Canadian citizenship 😡 If I didn't love dentistry so much I could never deal with such hardships. Brocnizer and all other US citizens you should be thankful of the country you live in and the oppurtunities that it provides you with. Any citizen of any other country would love to have the oppurtunities that you have, and that includes me.

 

[3rdMolarRoller]

The words you speak are very true and hopefully more will read them.

 

[LestatZinnie]

seanjohn:

may i ask what part of canada you're from?

i too planned to go to the us if canada didnt work out, but my dad thought that the 300k tuition at USC would not be worth it......i'm just curious how canadian students plan to pay that kind of money back- work in US? or parents are dentists?

 

[seanjohn]

I'm from Toronto... I'm not sure how I'm going to pay for it, I don't really think that money is an issue for two reasons. One ,which may be refuted, is that in my opinion I think that I can pay off all my loans in ten years paying about $45,000 a year and still have plenty left over for my own personal disposal. Sure it takes a while to build up a practice, but within 5 years of graduation I will hopefully have enough patients and have a decent income. My second reason is that I love dentistry, and if I'm broke for 15 years because of the crazy tuition I have to pay in the US then so be it because I love what dentists do. Lestat, do you not agree though that by the time I retire I will have made much much more money than most other people, so if you look at the big picture, it is worth it, because when I retire I will have much more money being a dentist than other people. Again though money doesn't buy happiness, loving my job will. The moral of this story is pursue whichever job brings you the most satisfaction regardless of how many sacrifices you have to make.

 

[LestatZinnie]

seanjohn:

I admire your spirit!! I would have made the same choice as you if canada didnt work out for me. and man, the people from toronto in my med/dent class work superhard- i don't know how they do it!

I think the best thing for canadian students who go to expensive american schools is to work in the states for a few yrs as you can make 100k+ USD more easily. In canada, the going salary for BC, ON, and Quebec as I heard for associates is in the 70-80k range after graduation (which doesnt work out to that much after canadian tax). Much higher pay in rural, and lower in metro area (due to saturation).

anyway i wish you the best of luck and i'm sure with your determination you'll go far!!

keep us posted!

 

[Woodsy]

For us Canadians, A+ become 4.33 on AADSAS, this really helped give me a nice little GPA boost. I have higher than a 4.0 on my non science as a result. From what I heard from a dental student who had taken both the Canadain and the US dats, he told me that the Canadian DATS are MUCH harder too. Now I'm not sure, may be he thought the American DAT is easier since he took it already... I/m not sure how valid his statements are...anyone else taken both DATS?

 

[seanjohn]

how can an A+ be 4.33? I thought it only goes up to 4.00? How come Canadians are special and Americans who get an A+ don't get a 4.33 also? This seems odd to me, can anyone else confirm this? If this is true then my GPA will be much higher than I anticipated, I got a number of A+'s, woohoo!

 

[Revellian]

Everyone, whether Canadian or American, gets a 4.33 for an A+ for the AADSAS standardized GPA.
A=4.0
A-=3.67
B+=3.33
B=3.0
B-=2.67
C+=2.33
Etc.

 

[Hot-n-Aml]

seanjohn,

I'm a Canadian studying at UPitt. I went to Western for undergrad, and we were given percentage grades. So on the back of an official transcript there are letter grade conversions for the percentages. You then would take those letter grades to fill out your AADSAS, and match them up to the GPA THEY use for each letter grade. So it isn't so much as to what each dental school uses, but mainly what AADSAS uses. You may find that your GPA might come out to be lower than what you thought it would be. Either way, the point of this is to place you on an equal comparision to Americans.

So, you may already know about how this all works, but I just wanted to add in my experience. Hope everything works out well for you. It's a tough process but it pays off in the end.

Good luck!
Hot-n-Aml
______________________________________________
UPitt, SDM, Class of 2007

 

[seanjohn]

I'm still confused about the conversion process. Some schools have A-, A, and A+, whereas others may only have A- and A, or A and A+, how is it equalized? I'm also still confused about the 4.33 GPA for an A+. I go to U of T now, but my first two years I went to Alberta where they used a 9 point GPA scale, I have no clue how to convert my GPA 😕

 

[DrRob]

You must have been given a letter to correspond with the 9 point scale - if not call addsas. As for the rest - You use the letter grades on your transcript to make the addsas conversion not the %. An 80% at western is an A but on the Addsas form its like a C. So you use the Letter and not the %.

 

[seanjohn]

DrRob, I'm still having difficulty comprehending. How can an 80% be given a C if at Western they give 80% an A? You said that the letter grades are what matter, so if they give you an A for 80% at Western, shouldn't that also correspond to an A on the addsas? What if a school only gives you letter grades? Do those letter grades automatically correspond to the letter grade given by addsas?

 

[DrRob]

Yes. If the letter on your transcript is an A - use that to convert it on your application. I had an 87% average - my Addsas GPA was around a 3.77. IF you still don't understand just call addsas of check the website it my clarify it for you in the FAQ section. Addsas acutally sent me a seperate sheet on how to convert my grades.