Secondary school grades for international/overseas students

[raccoon]

Hello! I studied in the US before coming to the UK for university. US high school is the equivalent of secondary school. The academic results I achieved in high school my GPA (Grade Point Average), SAT score and AP exams. The UK university I studied at asked for these results. I am doing my best to give firms context of my secondary school grades, but there is no unified conversion method to convert these results to A-Levels or UCAS points. For example, Durham University has their own conversion system, as does Bristol University, etc.

I do not have a good sense of how careful I should be about this section. I'm freaking out a little.

Some questions I have are as follows:

1. Do I need to disclose each and every single result from every class or is my overall GPA enough? Will they conduct a thorough background check? (I don't want to be penalised for failing to disclose results, but disclosing all results is tedious).
2. Should I be emailing all grad rec teams to ask specifically what they want to know or is my best guess enough? I assume that grad rec is familiar with processing international grades, especially from the US, so I don't want to badger them with unnecessary questions.

 

[AvniD]

Hello! I studied in the US before coming to the UK for university. US high school is the equivalent of secondary school. The academic results I achieved in high school my GPA (Grade Point Average), SAT score and AP exams. The UK university I studied at asked for these results. I am doing my best to give firms context of my secondary school grades, but there is no unified conversion method to convert these results to A-Levels or UCAS points. For example, Durham University has their own conversion system, as does Bristol University, etc.

I do not have a good sense of how careful I should be about this section. I'm freaking out a little.

Some questions I have are as follows:

1. Do I need to disclose each and every single result from every class or is my overall GPA enough? Will they conduct a thorough background check? (I don't want to be penalised for failing to disclose results, but disclosing all results is tedious).
2. Should I be emailing all grad rec teams to ask specifically what they want to know or is my best guess enough? I assume that grad rec is familiar with processing international grades, especially from the US, so I don't want to badger them with unnecessary questions.

I would disclose each and every result on its own with our converting it unless the application form specifically asks you to do this, in which case I would contact grad rec and ask them how best to proceed/which conversion system to use in case they have a preference. This is not at all an unnecessary question and key for you to send in an accurate application!

 

[Maria d'Orey]

Hi @raccoon ! I also studied abroad before coming to the UK for university, so I thought I would share my thoughts on this.

I personally had to include 2 years worth of grades for about 10 classes in every application form (since my qualification was nothing like A-levels) and I must say that it was the most annoying part of the process. But I fully agree with @AvniD in that this is a key part in sending in an accurate application, so this is not at all an unnecessary question. If you feel like the application form cannot accommodate your situation (I remember that in some of them I couldn't include all my grades, for example), it is important to reach out to grad rec to understand whether they want you to send in additional documents via email or what kind of information they would like you to prioritise on the form.

Please also note that some application forms have a box where you can explain the system you went through if you studied abroad. Personally, I always made sure to use this to explain why I was including so many grades, and how my final average was calculated. Sometimes, if the form doesn't have this, grad rec might also be happy to have you include this in the mitigating circumstances section of the form, but make sure to reach out to them to confirm.

Also, in general, firms' recruitment teams have their own standards for converting grades, so you're usually expected to share your actual grades as you received them in the US (+ the name of the system you went through), rather than trying to convert them yourself.

Honestly, reaching out to grad rec is the best tip I can give you - it helped save me so much time and headache. I would sometimes get frustrated if an application form didn't apply to my situation, which would prevent me from applying - please don't let this affect you as much as it did me! 😂

I hope this helps! Best of luck with your applications! 🌟