Convert a 4.5-Scale Korean GPA to the US 4.0 Scale
The application form wants one number. Three different, defensible methods produce three different answers.
Most Korean universities report GPA on a 4.5 scale (some use 4.3). Nearly every US graduate school application form, and every credential evaluation service, wants a number on the 4.0 scale. The problem isn't finding a formula — it's that there isn't one formula. Three different methods are all in active, legitimate use, and they don't produce the same result for the same transcript.
Need the number now? Convert your GPA on GPA 4.5 Converter — it shows all three methods side by side, each explained below.
Method 1: Linear
Divide your score by the source scale's maximum, multiply by 4.0.
result = your_score / 4.5 × 4.0
This is the simplest method and the one most GPA converter tools default to. It assumes the two scales stretch evenly across their full range — which means a 4.5 (a perfect A+) on the Korean scale becomes exactly 4.0 on the US scale, and a 3.5 becomes roughly 3.11.
Method 2: Grade band
Instead of scaling the raw number, find which letter-grade band your score falls into, and take that band's standard 4.0-scale value directly — the same way a US transcript already assigns A = 4.0, A− = 3.7, B+ = 3.3 regardless of the exact percentage behind the letter. This is a step function, not a smooth scale: two scores in the same band convert to the identical result, and there's no partial credit for being near the top of a band.
Method 3: Via percentage
Convert your score to a percentage first (score / max × 100), then apply the US percentage-to-letter cutoffs that most evaluators publish (usually something close to 93%+ = A, 90–92% = A−, and so on down). This method is usually the strictest of the three for a 4.5-scale transcript, because a 4.5-scale 4.00 works out to only about 88.9%, which lands in B+ territory under typical US percentage cutoffs rather than the A range Method 1 or 2 would suggest.
Why the disagreement matters more than the formula
None of these three methods is "the" official one — there is no single international standard, and individual universities and third-party credential evaluators (WES, ECE, and others) each publish their own rule, which can match any of the three above or blend them. The practical risk isn't picking a bad formula; it's picking one formula, getting one number, and not realizing how much that number can move if your target school happens to use a different method. For a transcript near a band boundary, the spread between the three methods can be several tenths of a GPA point — enough to cross a program's stated minimum in one method and fall short in another.
GPA 4.5 Converter runs all three methods on your transcript at once and shows the spread between them as an explicit number, so you see the size of the disagreement instead of one confident-looking result. An optional course list works the average out from individual courses and credits before converting.
Related pages here: the other page on a Korean rule checked against its source text is 애플 구독 환불, 며칠 안에 되나 (Korean), on the refund deadline for an Apple subscription, checked against the statute and Apple's own terms. If the same application also has an essay box with a character limit, 자소서 글자수, 공백 포함인가 (Korean) covers whether spaces count and how a form counts line breaks.