School Comparisons
U of T vs. Osgoode, Queens vs. Western, so on and so forth: Get advice about which school is better to go to over another.
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What's Happening
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Any applicants that attended US Undergrad? Problems with harsher grade/percentage conversion
I mean where was it supposed to go? I was quite clear with my intentions and was only curious on learning more. All I've seen is just accusatory and defensive copium in regards to looser letter grade assignments with no evidence to boot. I mean fair enough, Canadians will understand, but if you were to go outside and tell people in the US, Asia or even parts of Europe you got an A by getting an 85% they'd laugh in your face. -
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Any applicants that attended US Undergrad? Problems with harsher grade/percentage conversion
No, I meant now you're just picking fights. And this is a very old, worn-out fight. You've even thrown "med school" into the mix now. You're not the first person to try this argument, and you're not the first person to draw it out long after it's apparent it gets you exactly nowhere except getting into more and more hypothetical and extreme circles with the few who have the energy to keep responding to you. If I were you I'd invest my energy elsewhere. -
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Any applicants that attended US Undergrad? Problems with harsher grade/percentage conversion
Eh perhaps, but I already noted awhile ago in this thread I didn't plan on hoping the admissions committee would go through my request. It is just interesting to see how defensive people get in the Canadian based forums. Most people that I've talked that have been to school in both Canada and the US as well as in other forums like for med school have noted how much easier it is to accumulate higher cGPA in Canada than in the US. Ah yes. The 90% i got on my multiple choice test is because the prof made it that easy, and the 70% you got on yours in Canada is because the prof made it that hard. Way to keep assuming difficulty between the two despite scolding me for apparently doing the same. Please show me the evidence where profs in Canada are purposely making it so the class average is sub 70%. And where in the US are profs handing out free A-s? -
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Any applicants that attended US Undergrad? Problems with harsher grade/percentage conversion
OP, you’re spinning your wheels here. -
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Any applicants that attended US Undergrad? Problems with harsher grade/percentage conversion
Yes, I agree with you grading in most arts classes are subjective so in this case doesn't really matter. However, for courses like maths, science, etc with clear right or wrong answer exams, you don't see the disadvantage of having to reach a higher threshold for an A? The percentages were developed independently, true. I believe the 70% as a benchmark in Canada came from the UK. However, the 4.0 system came from the US, and if schools like UBC or UT are going to use those, they shouldn't assume the % to letter grade conversion for those institutions are the same as here. Yes, I've already stated that its fine that the admissions committee isn't going to go with my request. I was curious to know whether or not there was evidence to prove that a Canadian undergraduate experience was more difficult than the US as many on this thread have implied. -
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Post Initial ITC - Vancouver
Have people in past gotten in-firm offers from big full-service firms after not getting an ITC early on the first day of ITC day? -
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Chance me @ 3.88 GPA (OLSAS) / Projected 165-170 LSAT
if you did get that lsat, i’d say in for all for sure. that being said you should pt in test conditions from now on, it simulates it better. it’s normal to score a few points lower on the actual test, so you want to minimize that possibility- 1
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Any applicants that attended US Undergrad? Problems with harsher grade/percentage conversion
There's a reason why Canadian and American schools don't compare percentages from the different systems: they are not comparable. Letter grades translate just fine (or, within a margin that institutions in both systems deem acceptable), which is what any admissions committee will take into consideration. The systems involving the percentages were developed independently from each other and, as others have pointed out, there is no correlation between the two. It's like trying to compare a 3.5 from someone in a 4.0 system versus the same score from someone in a 4.3 system. The comparison is meaningless because the 3.5 means two different things depending on the system. The same is the case for the percentage systems. And I will also point out that not every school in Canada follows the 90 = A, 80 = A-, 70 = B system. And not every school in the US follows the 90 = A, 80 = B, 70 = C system, either. The only things comparable between Canada and the US are letter grades. -
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Any applicants that attended US Undergrad? Problems with harsher grade/percentage conversion
I honestly wasn't sure if I was missing some nuance. I mean, the thing that I think a lot of people miss is that, especially in most arts classes, a grade of 80 does not mean that you got 80% of the stuff right. The letter grade is a subjective assessment of, "How good is this?", and then the number grade is designed to correspond to the letter grade, not the inverse. B work is B work whether you call it a 50, a 70, or a 100. I did a master's degree where if you hand in the paper, you get a 100 on the paper. It does not mean every single person in the class was doing A+ work. If someone does B work and their school calls it an 85, that doesn't mean it wasn't B work, any more than if I do D- work and my mom says it's 100% perfect. OP, I'm sorry this isn't what you want to hear, but you're not facing a disadvantage here; you're just not gaining an unfair advantage. -
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Any applicants that attended US Undergrad? Problems with harsher grade/percentage conversion
You're not wrong, and you know you're not wrong. It really is that simple. If a B in one system equals 80% and a B in another system equals 70% - completely omitting the fact that both of these representations are totally arbitrary and pulled out of thin air - OP's basic argument is that someone should recognize the percentage grade is the "real" measure of performance quality, whereas the letter grade is not. And that's basically it. -
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Any applicants that attended US Undergrad? Problems with harsher grade/percentage conversion
All right, I'm an idiot and maybe I'm missing something. If I get a B in Canada, that's a 70. If I get a B in America, that's an 80. These numbers are basically arbitrary and don't reflect that school is harder in one country than the other. It's not that Americans call an 80 a B; it's that they call a B an 80. So if you get a B in an American school (80), and you apply to Canadian law schools, and it's reflected as a B, that's fair, because it's a B. No? -
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Any applicants that attended US Undergrad? Problems with harsher grade/percentage conversion
If you can't even embrace the realization that numbers themselves, as applied to academic performance, are a completely subjective concept then you don't have sufficient perspective to even talk about this meaningfully. There are programs in the world where even achieving 60% is incredibly difficult. That doesn't mean the people in these programs are bad at what they are doing. It means the grading system is using numbers differently. The fact that you refuse to accept and embrace this basic reality - and that you're trying to insist that 70% in one place must be directly comparable to 70% in another place such that the distinction needs to be justified - is just wildly off base. In simplistic terms, you can ask 100 multiple choice questions in a way that is designed to create a curve to around 70% correct. You can also ask 100 multiple choice questions in a way that will yield more 90% correct. And that's before we even start with how those numbers are applied to an essay or more subjective work. Everyone knows this. I mean, everyone working at even a basic level in academia knows this. Anyway, if you don't get that - and you obviously don't - we're nowhere. Which is exactly where I knew this would go when we started.- 1
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Any applicants that attended US Undergrad? Problems with harsher grade/percentage conversion
But so what? Let's say it is all true, how is anything you're fighting about relevant to your question? Admission committees aren't going to share your view and aren't going to do anything close to your request (going through syllabi). Even if we all agreed that your American degree makes Canadian education look like a joke it isn't going to persuade anyone making admission decisions.- 1
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