In Ontario, the GPA is calculated based on a Grade Conversion Scale released by OMSAS (Ontario Medical Schools Application Service).
Outside of Ontario, each school has their own GPA chart.
To calculate GPA, you take every course that is on your transcript, convert it to the number of points assigned in the conversion table (for example 90+ = 4.0, 85 – 89 = 3.9, etc).
Full courses (1.0 credits or 6 credit hours) count twice, half courses count only once. You then add up all the points, and divide by the total number of courses you have taken in each semester.
For example:
Rob’s final marks at the of his school year are:
English – 1.0 credit – 80
Social Psychology – 1.0 credit – 77
Organic Chemistry – 1.0 credit – 88
Statistics – 0.5 credit – 90
Cell Biology – 0.5 credit – 83
Biochemistry – 0.5 credit – 86
History of Medicine – 0.5 credit – 77
Rob goes to University of Western Ontario. He looks at the table, and goes through the conversions in column 3.
Now, for each course, kook at the table and convert it into the number of points that each mark corresponds to.
English – received an 80 – look at the chart to see it corresponds to 3.7.
His English course is a 1.0 credit, so it counts twice:
3.7*2 = 7.4
Social Psychology
3.3*2 = 6.6
Organic Chemistry
3.9*2 = 7.8
Statistics (0.5 credit, half credits count only once)
4.0
Cell Biology
3.7
Biochemistry
3.9
History of Medicine
3.3
Now add up all the points, and we get: 36.7 points
Divide 36.7 by 10 because Kevin took 5 classes each semester, so in total he took 10 classes during the school year.
36.7/10 = 3.67
Kevin’s GPA is 3.67
Schools outside of Ontario calculate the GPA a bit differently, but the principle is similar. Go to the dental school websites, and find out what conversion scale they use. Additionally, check to see if they have any weighting formulas that apply to your GPA. For example, some schools drop lowest marks, some schools weigh later years more, some schools only consider two years, etc…
For list of Canadian Dental Schools, click here.