25.Percentage To GPA Conversion. Is it Necessary To Convert?

As all of you might be aware that Universities in the US uses GPA to grade the Students. While in India and many other Asian Countries, the Universities uses Percentage or CGPA to grade the students. So when you see the Requirements for applying to any University in the US, you will see that they might have specified a minimum GPA that a student must have to apply to that University. So students really want to convert their Percentage/CGPA to GPA. But is it necessary to do it? If yes what is the right way? 

What is GPA?
GPA is Grade Point Average. This is the grading tool that the Universities in the US use to grade their students. The highest GPA that a student can get is 4.0. So how exactly GPA is calculated by the Universities? Check the answer in the next question.

An Ideal Way To Calculate GPA.
So GPA is calculated in the following way. Every Student will be assigned a Grade for each of the Courses. Grade A = 4.0; Grade B= 3.0; Grade C = 2.0; Grade D = 1.0; Grade F = 0. So Let’s say you have got Grades for each of the course as: – B, A, B, A.
Secondly Each course will have Credit Hours. Usually when you see the Credit Hours for a Graduate School it will have 3 Credit Hours for each of the Courses. So to calculate your GPA.
Total Grades = Sum of your (Grade* Credit Hours) = B*3 + A*3 + B*3 + A*3 = 42.
Credit Hours of all the Courses: – 3 + 3 + 3 + 3 = 12
GPA = Total Grades/Credit Hours of All Courses = 42/12 = 3.5

Some Of The Wrong Ways To Convert Your Percentage into GPA: - 
You will find in some websites the below Conversion. Please do not follow the below Conversion. It is a incorrect way to convert your Percentage into GPA.
< 40% = 2.0; 41 -50%  = 2.5; 51-60% = 3.0; 61-80% = 3.5; 81-100% = 4.0
Why The Above Way is Incorrect?
Let’s take an Example. Consider Mumbai University in India. Most of the students in Mumbai University are in the range of 61-70% while the toppers are in the range of 71-80%. Consider a topper in a particular filed has got 75%. So ideally being a topper his/her GPA should be 4.0 but using the above conversion, his/her GPA will be 3.5 which is wrong. The Conversion from Percentage to GPA depends a lot on how much percentage does a topper get in your University.

Are Universities in the US aware about the way in which your University grades the Students?
The Answer is Yes. The Universities in the US are very well aware about your University. They know whether a University is strict while giving Percentage to the students or not. For Example consider two Universities in India: – Mumbai University and Anna University in Chennai. Mumbai University is considered to be strict than Anna University. So getting a 60% from Mumbai University will be equal to say getting a 70% from Anna University. So Universities in the US are aware of that and they will bring students from various Universities around the World under an Common platform and then convert their Percentage into GPA. So Converting is a complex process.

The Final Call: - 
I would say that please don’t convert your Percentage into GPA as it’s a complex process to do so.  
While Applying for the University there will be an option called as Grade in which you need to write your percentage and you need to enter 100 in the Scale option. So please don’t get misguided by some conversions that will be provided in many websites.
All The Best.