3.0 average to graduate from master sounds hard?

Hi guys,

I am thinking of enrolling on the Fort Hays' master of liberal studies program. (Virtual College )

I have just read that they require a 3.0GPA out of 4.0 max to graduate. I am not American and I am totally unfamiliar with the American system but that sounds impossibly hard. I have looked it up online and it seems like it is a B average or 80% average!?? How do they calculate this?

How many percent of people actually do graduate from master degrees in America? Is it as hard as it sounds like?

Also, I have a 3 year BA from the UK with first class honours. Do you think they will accept my BA for admission? Do I have to do a GMAT or SAT or something like that according to the American system?

3.0 GPA just to graduate!???

 

In my experience every one who starts a masters degree and sticks with it passes with a 'B' or higher average.

Re your entry into a US grad program I know of two others (one UK and one SA) who were accepted into a Cal State U with 3-year degrees - it took a bit of explainng to the registrars but they showed that they had O and A levels plus work experience and so were accepted.

 

I agree, I don't find a 3.0 difficult to maintain in my DL classes or in the 3 traditional institutions that I have attended. My daughter, who is going to Cambridge in a few months, has had no trouble either. It's a standard requirement here in the US. I wonder how the differences will affect her, but she's almost a straight A student, so I'm not too worried. She's beautiful too...and I'm not prejudiced at all just because I'm her daddy.

I am having trouble understanding the 60% scores in the UK; here that would be an "F". I suppose I don't understand the European grading systems. I would be interested to learn.

 

Right by her daddy's shotgun

 

BAsically in the UK/ AUS as well, C means that you know you stuff, and the US that is a B. I do not think that it is so much a reflection of any difference in the education of the student but rather the definition of excellence.

The "same" student would get a C in the UK and a B in the US. A better student student would get B in the UK and an A in the US (4.0).

cheers

peter

 

Now I think I understand; getting a 3.0 in the UK is more like getting a 4.0 here. If our "A's" are like our "B's" but nobody gets "A's" in the UK and getting a "B" average is absurdly difficult, then it's pretty much equal with the US. It's just a different scale of grading. If everybody was making "A's" in the UK then that would be a different story. I honestly don't know much about this but I hope to understand better when my daughter completes her first term at Cambridge. (What? Me bragging...oh no...I would never do that)

 

Basically that is it, except that some do get A's so it really separates the smart from the very smart. Added to that, the UK/AUS systems have a fairly high uniform standard of education whereas the US has extremely high (and many many good universities, and many very low ones as well.

So I think a UK/AUS (also Canada - though B is the standard like the US) have a fairy similar level (in that the gap between the best schools and the worst is not that big) so you have a pretty good idea of what GPA might mean, whereas in the US there is a wide gap in the best and the worst schools.

Basically, it depends on the "standard" but in the US with so many schools and varying gov't regulation, etc., stanadards vary accordingly.

In Japan fro example (also with a lot of private universities) universty stautus is more important than GPA. WIthin National Universities (the most famous of course being University of Tokyo) they use

S A B C X where S is 4, A is 3, and B is 2 and C 1- X is 0.

A is 80%, but basically the sweet spot for "S" is less than 5% of the class. Therefore a VERY strong GPA is anything over 3 . (means A in every class and some class you are in the top 5%)

Cheers

peter
Cheers

Peter

 

Very interesting. If we had something beyond what we use as an "A" it would work out in similar fashion. USA needs to invent an "Über A" just to keep up. With grade inflation it might come to that.

 

Yes, it may, but lets not hope that the Über PhD appears soon... Having enough trouble tracking down a regular one- lol