I called into admissions 3 times, regarding transferring to SFU, and gotten different information each time. It has been utter nonsense.
The issue stems from the different GPA scale that is utilized at SFU. I have seen a number of students complain about this and state the disadvantage it places them in. This includes a petition I saw online and posted on this subreddit. Does anyone know if that caused any talks of reforming this GPA scale?
Phone Conversations: 1. Learnt my percentage GPA turns into 3.7 GPA for admission
Found that 3.7 GPA may not be correct and the conversion of the GPA is not provided publicly
Was told I can apply and get fast tracked to know if I'm a competitive applicant (means paying the application fee). If I was told my GPA conversion this would not be a problem.
Issues: They have transfer GPA averages posted online at:
https://www.sfu.ca/students/admission/apply/admission-averages.html
This information is not useful unless I know how much my percentage GPA is on the 4.33 scale. Is the posted averages on that link on the SFU GPA scale or the standard scale used by every other school? It isn't useful for any external candidate. Is it for external or internal candidates? So much vagueness!
I told them a solution is for them to be less vague and state whether the link above shows average GPA on the normal scale for all other universities or SFUs scale along with a conversion formula.
I also found another link online that shows a conversion formula but may not be accurate:
http://www.sfu.ca/~sheppard/478/GPA%20Percent%20GPA%20Conversion.pdf
PERCENT = ((GPA - 3.66) * 0.2985) + 0.8
They proceeded to tell me I could apply, meaning pay the application fee, and then they will tell me whether I'm a competitive applicant.
Wtf?
If they take 5 mins to tell me the conversion formula or just convert my percentage to whatever GPA scale that first link uses I will know if I'm a competitive applicant or not.
Then the guy on the phone started implying im lying about my average. They need confirmation about what my percentages are and all this other non sense.
It was super weird and frustrating. I have all 3 phone calls recorded and would like to make a complaint. I'm not sure if I'm going to waste my time with SFU, this is a huge red flag.
Any advice on what to do in this situation?