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I just graduated in aeronautical engineering (master of science) at the Polytechnic of Milan. In the Italian university system, students who finish their major get a final grade that that goes from 66 to 110 (plus honors). In my particular case, I got a 103/110.
Since I am writing my resume/CV in English, I would like to convert my Italian final grade to the American (GPA?) and U.K system.
Can anyone suggest me what conversion I should follow?
There is no "American grading system". There is a fairly common 0.0-4.0 scale for "grade-point averages", but the meanings of those GPA differ significantly among different US universities, among different departments at the same university, and in some cases, even between different instructors of the same course.
The only reasonable way to judge what Italian grades say about your potential for graduate study is to compare them against other Italian grades.
GPA: x/100 needs quite a bit of contextualizing adding: z-th out 230 students in class of 2007 is more understandable to someone with no knowledge of different academic systems.
I would not do a conversion, I would just give your score and the total possible score, as you did in your question.
To be most accurate, you'd need to convert grades at the course level, weighting by credit hours, where, e.g., a strong grade in a longer course is worth more than it is in a shorter course. You could also ignore credit hours, or assume they're roughly the same across courses.
Either way, one approach is to convert the course grade or final grade on the Italian scale to a simple proportion of points earned over points available. You can convert to GPA based on the proportions for each score in the four-point scale. Wikipedia shows this conversion table for percentage to letter grade and grade point:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_grading_in_the_United_States
Once you convert your Italian points to a proportion or percentage you should then be able to convert to any other grading system. There are apps online that will run the conversions for you. Here's one to try:
For the UK system, a first class degree is generally awarded to those who achieve over 70% of the maximum mark. I think having got 103/110 you can safely conclude your degree is equivalent to a UK first. On the other hand, I think you could probably just explain how the grading works (perhaps in your cover letter) and anyone would understand that this is an excellent mark.
The Italian equivalent of 2:1 is actually 100/110 - 104/110 according to Ca' Foscari University's website.
However, in the University of Torino, a 2:1 (3.5-4.49 on a 5 point scale), translates to 70% - 89% on the 100th and 77-98 on the 110th. I was denied admission because I didn't score 90% on the 100th or 100 on the 110th.
I've been through this for a while, searched official sites and so on, and I came to the conclusion that Italian grades are underestimated in the UK. I explain you why.
Note: for simplicity I will speak about exam grades since the graduation score in Italy is given by the average converted in 110th plus a variable score (depending both on the university and the course).
Both in USA and UK, scores are in percentage.
UK:
US:
Now to Italy. Italy has exams votes in 30th, the minimum is 18/30 and the maximum is 30/30 plus honors. So it is:
Italy
Now, if you convert in percentages like the US system (as both have minimum at 60%) you get:
That makes sense, right? In fact, if you convert between IT and US, you get the percentages above. But what happens if you convert IT to UK?
Well, it's kinda funny. As I said before, final score is made from the conversion in 110th PLUS a variable score. Now, let's pretend for a moment that you just have to convert the vote in 110th, according to math you have:
I want to remark again that the score is lower than it should, because you should add points for your graduation. For my university, the points added were between 1 and 3, but other universities gives more or less points.
If you check requirements to enroll to an university, for example Manchester, you are required a score of 100/110 (link below).
If you are from USA, you are required a GPA of 3.0.
Too bad that if you convert from IT to US, you get that a GPA of 3.0 you need 25/30 or 89/110.
If you are from UK you need a 2:1, which is the correct translation for the US score but not for the IT.
Nice job UK.
Requirements for Italian students: http://www.manchester.ac.uk/study/international/country-specific-information/italy.htm
Requirements for USA students: http://www.manchester.ac.uk/study/international/country-specific-information/usa.htm?page=2
Requirements for UK students: http://www.manchester.ac.uk/study/international/english-education-system/
What most people fail to understand is that a 70% in the UK scale does not mean you only got 70% of the exam correct. A score above 70% is something outstanding that very few people manage to achieve, that's why it's considered equivalent to much higher percentages in other countries. If you get everything correct on an exam you will get a 69% (happened to me). To get a score higher than 70, you have to not only answer the questions perfectly correctly but also insert new knowledge into your answers that you obtained from reading outside the course material. I have experience in both the portuguese and British system and I can tell you that a 70 on the UK scale is not your typical 70%. I would say it is equivalent to a 90% in the portuguese scale. Therefore, I don't think it's unfair that they ask for higher requirements for students from other countries.
I think it is impossible to do the conversion. UK universities don't value students with a foreign bachelor's degree as much as those that obtained one at another UK university. Some universities only accept students with a 110/110 grade, which is much harder to obtain than a First (you only need an average of 70%). They underestimate grades from Dutch universities such as TU Delft, which is arguably better than any engineering university in the UK.
The grades vary a lot from university to university. For instance, at my university, the Polytechnic of Turin, the average grade for my course last year was 97.1 for a Bachelor's degree. In another Italian university, it was 101.3. Also, in response to another comment, "38% of the graduates get 105/100 or more" - that takes into account master courses where it is easier to earn a higher grade. Edit: I see that some people were upset but having studied in both countries I have a better understanding than most.
