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I am completing my second year of Master in mathematics in France and applying for a PhD in the UK, I wonder how to present my grades. I had average grades of 17.1/20 and 17.4/20. Shall I just write this (I'm afraid the 0-20 scale might be confusing), add that it is equivalent to First Class Honours (I was for sure in the first 10% of the class, maybe first, but there is no record of the ranking), or do you have any other suggestions? I appreciate your answers

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    Every admission committee sees lots of foreign applicants, and are used to different scales. For countries as close as France and UK, that is especially true. Your recommendation letter writers are likely to know the actual ranks, and mention it in their letters.
    – Boris Bukh
    Dec 26, 2018 at 18:27
  • @BorisBukh Just to clarify: do you mean "close" in the geographical sense or in some kind of Hamming metric of the respective systems? (I have some doubts that the two systems are close in the latter sense)
    – Yemon Choi
    Dec 27, 2018 at 3:11
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    @YemonChoi I mean that, due to geographical proximity, French students are quite common in UK.
    – Boris Bukh
    Dec 28, 2018 at 18:06

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I would be careful when trying to make a direct comparison between the grades. Having "honours" after your degree in the UK generally means that you didn't fail any of your courses, so a 1st class and a 1st class hons. are not equivalent. Furthermore, research-based Masters degrees in the UK are generally marked Fail/ Pass/ Merit/ Distinction rather than 1st/ 2:1/ 2:2 etc. The exception to this are so-called "integrated Masters" which are common in the sciences. These are four year courses where the candidate finishes with (for example) an MSci rather than a BSc, and are graded with the usual classifications.

So, I think there is no direct equivalent, so you should simply write your grade as you have it. Understanding a mark out of twenty is not too challenging and chances are there will be academics familiar with the French system wherever you apply, or at least they will have dealt with French applicants before.

One additional detail that would be helpful is to write next to your grade "top 10% in my year" or "one of the top 5 students", if you have that information. You could also ask one of your referees to write that in their reference letter too.

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