Often students planning for higher studies abroad worry about their CGPA and whether or not it will make the ‘cut’. And this is indeed a crucial question. Read more to understand the interplay of your GPA and college admissions.  

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Academics do play a crucial role in your final selection, as well as for scholarships. So, you must have a fair idea of how the CGPA conversion process occurs. This would enable you to choose colleges wisely. Your CGPA determines the category of colleges you can apply to and it plays an important role in addition to your GRE scores for shortlisting the colleges you would want to study at.

CGPA conversion process:

Most colleges in the USA use the 4 point GPA scale which ranges from 0-4. The assigned grades are converted to respective grade points using:

Grade Grade Point
A 4
A- 3.67
B+ 3.33
B 3
B- 2.67
C+ 2.33
C 2
C- 1.67
D+ 1.33
D 1
D- 0.67
F 0

Most colleges in India use either a 10 point scale known as CGPA, or simply the percentage grading system. The 10 point scale can be either relative grading or absolute grading.

How to convert?

Converting from an Indian GPA to a US equivalent is tedious since you have to take care of factors such as quality of college, grading schemes, university marking schemes etc. Therefore, they would much rather change them according to their scales and only require your scores without any conversion.

Some schools provide their own conversion table, such as this one for example. It is from the school of Columbia:

Percentage Grade Point
90-100 4.0
80-89 3.3
70-79 2.3
60-69 1.3
Below 60 1.0

If you are applying to a college that specifically asks you to convert your score, but doesn’t specify any sort of scale/ conversion chart, you can use the following table, which is generally applicable so it is a little generic, but will work fine mostly:

Percentage 10 Point CGPA Equivalent GPA US grade equivalent Classification
60-100 6-10 4 A First Class
55-59 5-6 3.5 B+ Second Class
40-49 4-5 3 B Pass
<40 <4 2 C Fail

You can convert and send your scores with the help of various official services such as:

World Education Services, Inc. (WES)

A conversion chart is provided by WES.

World Education Services, Inc. (WES)
Bowling Green Station
P.O. Box 5087
New York, NY 10274-5087


Express Courier Address:
64 Beaver St, #146
New York, NY 10004
Tel: 1 + (212) 966-6311
Fax: 1 + (212) 739-6100
Website: http://www.wes.org

Educational Credential Evaluators, Inc. (ECE)
PO Box  514070
Milwaukee, WI 53203-3470
Tel: 414-289-3400
Tel: 310.258.9451
Fax: 310.342.7086
Email: eval@ece.org
Website: http://www.ece.org

Notarised Document Translation Services:

Columbia Tutoring and Translating Agency
2960 Broadway, Mail Code 5727
New York, NY 10027
Tel: + 1 f(212) 854-4888
Fax: + 1 (212) 663-9398
Email: cutta@columbia.edu
Website: http://cutta.columbiastudententerprises.com/translation

HSA Translation (Harvard Student Agencies)
67 Mount Auburn Street Cambridge, MA 02138 USA
Phone: +1 (617) 495-3033
Fax: +1 (617) 496-8015
Email: translationoffice@hsa.net
Website: http://translations.hsa.net/

There you go. Using the above-given tables and steps, you can check how good your chances are for selection. Keep in mind that the grad schools do not keep GPA as the only criterion for selection. Many times they may consider your application even with a low GPA if you can show them a good overall profile and a well built GRE application package. This implies, if you have a good GRE score, TOEFL score, LoR, SoP etc., then you still hold a prospect to gain an admit.

Careerlabs (in partnership with BYJUs) will be glad to help you in your GRE preparation journey. You can ask for any assistance related to GRE from us by just giving a missed call at 088845 44444, or you can drop an SMS. You can write to us at gre@byjus.com.

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