Grades from abroad lack fairness

What do the demarcations "Sehr Gut," "Tres Bien," "H1," and "A" have in common?

In Germany, France, Australia and the United States, respectively, they are the highest grades attainable at the university level.

But the similarity ends there.

Schoolwork worthy of a mere H2A in Australia or a less-than-perfect As sez Bien in France may in fact be A-level material in America, but rubrics for translating scores will interpret the grade otherwise.

Consequently, Penn's policy of converting grades from universities abroad into American letter grades and factoring them into cumulative grade point averages, while well-intentioned, often ends up understating students' academic performance abroad and should therefore be discontinued.

The Office of International Programs thinks that students should not view time abroad as an opportunity to goof off and drink beer and sit on the beach while "earning" credit. I think so, too. But it was not the threat of my grades at the University of Melbourne being factored into my cumulative GPA at Penn that made me think this way.

I would feel the same way even if my grades at Melbourne weren't included into my GPA because -- gasp! -- like most Penn students, I'm already a highly motivated individual who wants to do his best.

Therefore, telling Penn students before they depart for distant lands that their performance abroad will impact their cumulative GPA is not so much a motivation as it is an undue risk, a risk that something will get lost in the translation when your grades from abroad get converted to American standards.

Sometimes, that something can be quite a lot.

At Melbourne, my semester average was a 79 -- one point shy of an 80, which is the cut-off for the H1 distinction. By Australian standards, I had a great semester.

As one of my Aussie friends put it, "No one gets eighties around here, mate."

And, considering that I took three honors-level classes at Melbourne, which are much more rigorous, I have even more reason to be content with my academic performance abroad. But under Penn's rubric for converting Australian grades into U.S. letter grades, once the grades get posted on my transcript, my semester at Melbourne will stand out as one of my weakest, and my GPA will fall.

Obviously, this is a huge discrepancy, and one which ought not to exist since it takes away from the overall study-abroad experience.

It makes it more difficult for students, who already have to struggle to overcome cultural and linguistic differences while abroad, to do well academically. And for those considering going abroad in future semesters, why should they risk getting less than they deserve while abroad due to flawed conversion scales if they can just stay home and earn the grades they should get?

This is precisely why so many universities refuse to let flawed score conversions understate students' academic performance abroad.

Not surprisingly, Penn is the only Ivy that both converts grades from universities abroad into U.S. letter grades and factors them into the student's GPA.

Other Ivies either do not post converted grades from courses taken abroad onto the transcript. Some Ancient Eight schools -- like Cornell, which admits on its Cornell Abroad Web site that "grades from other institutions are rarely equivalent to Cornell grades" -- post them but do not factor them into the GPA.

Penn should follow in their footsteps.

At the very least, Penn should compromise half way by listing courses and converted grades from abroad on transcripts while not factoring them into students' cumulative GPAs.

Ideally, though, Penn should abolish converting grades from abroad all together and let the transcripts from universities abroad speak for themselves. Future employers and graduate programs can draw their own conclusions when they see that Penn has not taken the liberty to interpret the grades from abroad for students.

Until that happens, though, the great irony will remain: Penn encourages us to go abroad to realize that the American way is not the only way and that there are different norms, different cultures and different ways of doing things not commensurate with our own -- except, of course, when it comes to grades.

Cezary Podkul is a junior philosophy major from Franklin Park, Ill. Return of the Salad appears on Tuesdays.

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