Queen's University's Grading Scale, Explained for Grad School and Exchange Applications
By Muntasir Minhaz • Published Dec 01, 2024 • Admissions & Applications, Canadian Universities & Colleges
Queen's converts every percentage mark into grade points from 0.0 to 4.3, with a straight A worth 4.0 and an A+ worth 4.3, but the university stopped printing your cumulative GPA on the official transcript in 2014.
| Letter | Grade points | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| A+ | 4.3 | 90 to 100 |
| A | 4.0 | 85 to 89.9 |
| B+ | 3.3 | 77 to 79.9 |
| C | 2.0 | 63 to 66.9 |
| F | 0.0 | 0 to 49.9 |
The Full Queen's Numeric to Letter to GPA Table
Queen's University assigns a letter grade to every percentage mark, and each letter carries a fixed grade point value on a 4.3 point scale. This table applies to Arts and Science, Smith School of Business, Smith Engineering, School of Graduate Studies and Health Sciences, effective since May 1, 2011.
| Letter grade | Grade points | Percentage range |
|---|---|---|
| A+ | 4.3 | 90 to 100 |
| A | 4.0 | 85 to 89.9 |
| A- | 3.7 | 80 to 84.9 |
| B+ | 3.3 | 77 to 79.9 |
| B | 3.0 | 73 to 76.9 |
| B- | 2.7 | 70 to 72.9 |
| C+ | 2.3 | 67 to 69.9 |
| C | 2.0 | 63 to 66.9 |
| C- | 1.7 | 60 to 62.9 |
| D+ | 1.3 | 57 to 59.9 |
| D | 1.0 | 53 to 56.9 |
| D- | 0.7 | 50 to 52.9 |
| F | 0.0 | 0 to 49.9 |
You can confirm this table any time on the Queen's University Official GPA Scale page, since your program's specific rules can sit alongside faculty level exceptions.
This Table Doesn't Cover Every Queen's Program
The scale above applies specifically to Arts and Science, Smith School of Business, Smith Engineering, School of Graduate Studies and Health Sciences. If you are enrolled in Law, Education, Nursing or another faculty not listed there, check that faculty's own academic calendar page, since Queen's does not guarantee the same table applies university wide. The current version of the scale took effect May 1, 2011, so a transcript with grades from before that date may reflect an older conversion method rather than the table above.
Why Your Transcript Doesn't Show a Cumulative GPA
Effective January 7, 2014, Queen's stopped printing a student's cumulative GPA on the official transcript. Your individual course letter grades still appear, but the university no longer calculates and displays the overall average for you. This surprises students applying somewhere that expects a printed GPA figure, since the number simply is not there to copy.
How Grad Schools and Exchange Partners Calculate It Anyway
A missing cumulative figure on your transcript does not stop a graduate admissions committee or an exchange partner from working out your average. Queen's School of Graduate Studies, and most external programs, take your individual course letter grades and recompute a GPA using the table above or their own conversion formula. Application services that forward your record to another institution typically pass along your raw grades, not a pre-calculated GPA, so the receiving school does its own math regardless of what you submit.
Letter Grades Still Appear Even Without a Printed GPA
The 2014 change removed only the cumulative average from the printed document, not the underlying letter grades for each course. Anyone reading your Queen's transcript, whether that is a graduate admissions officer or an exchange partner abroad, still sees every individual grade and can apply the table above course by course.
How Course Weight Changes the Calculation
Not every course contributes equally to your average. A course worth more credit units counts for more in your cumulative calculation than a half unit course, so two students with the same list of letter grades can end up with different GPAs if their course loads were weighted differently. Factor in credit weight, not just the letter grades themselves, whenever you estimate your own average using the table above.
Why Queen's Still Uses This Scale Internally
Even though your printed transcript no longer shows a cumulative GPA, Queen's continues to run this exact table behind the scenes for purposes such as academic standing reviews, Dean's List eligibility and admission into limited enrolment programs. The number still exists inside the university's own records, it simply is not printed on the document handed to you.
What to Do When an Application Asks for Your Queen's GPA
Pull your official transcript first and confirm every letter grade against the table above so you know your own number before anyone else calculates it. Apply the conversion yourself only as a planning estimate, since the school or program on the receiving end will very likely redo the calculation with its own method. Contact the School of Graduate Studies or your exchange coordinator directly if a specific program's process is unclear, especially if you are applying somewhere that has not stated which conversion table it uses.
Steps If You Need Your Queen's GPA in Writing
Request an official transcript through the Office of the University Registrar.
Use the table above to calculate your own estimate from your listed letter grades.
Contact the School of Graduate Studies, or the relevant admissions office, if you need Queen's to confirm a specific figure.
Ask the receiving institution which conversion method it plans to use before you submit anything.