How McGill University Grades Compare to the Standard American 4.0 Scale

The McGill Grind

McGill University in Montreal is often called the "Harvard of Canada." It is notoriously rigorous, incredibly competitive, and brutally strict with its grading.

You are an American citizen who went to McGill for your undergraduate degree. You are now applying to US Law Schools. Your McGill GPA is a 3.4.

You look at US Law School admission statistics. A 3.4 is below the median for almost every Top 50 Law School in America. You assume your legal career is over.

The McGill Percentage Translation

What you don't realize is that McGill's 4.0 scale is mathematically harder to climb than an American 4.0 scale.

At a standard US college, an A- (3.7 GPA) is usually earned by getting a 90% - 92%. At McGill, an A- (3.7 GPA) is earned by getting an 80% - 84%.

Because McGill professors grade exams so harshly, achieving an 85% raw score on a midterm is considered a monumental achievement (which awards an 'A' / 4.0).

How US Grad Schools View McGill

When US Law Schools (via LSAC) or Medical Schools (via AMCAS) receive a McGill transcript, they do not just look at the raw 3.4 GPA.

They look at the University Tier. Elite US graduate programs know exactly how hard McGill is. They know about the Canadian grading deflation. A 3.4 GPA from McGill is often viewed with the same respect as a 3.8 GPA from a mid-tier American state university.

The Catch: You cannot rely entirely on the "McGill Prestige" to save a 3.4 GPA. If you apply to a Top 14 Law School (like Columbia or NYU), they are obsessed with their US News & World Report rankings, which are based on raw GPA numbers, not "prestige adjusted" numbers.

The Strategy: If your McGill GPA is slightly lower than the US median, you must utterly demolish the LSAT (170+) or the MCAT (515+) to prove that your low GPA was a product of McGill's deflation, not a lack of academic capability.