Tool
Your board percentage on a US GPA scale.
Every converter online gives you one number and implies it is the answer. There is no single answer, so this runs all three methods at once and shows you the spread.
- 3.76
Linear (mark ÷ 25)
Reads as a strong student. The one that causes the panic. No US school assigns a 3.4 to a 94.
- 4.00
US letter banding (90+ is an A)
Reads as a 4.0, the same as a 91. Defensible and useless: it erases the gap between 91 and 97 that the reader wants.
- 4.00
WES-style country table (60+ is an A)
Reads as a 4.0, the same as a 61. Same flattening, and it signals that a third party was involved.
Three methods, 0.24 of spread, all from the same 94%.
That spread is the point. There is no correct conversion, so do not enter one. On the Common App, put 94 with the GPA scale set to 100 and weighting set to unweighted, and let the reader do the rest against your school profile. Selective US universities do not convert: they read Indian marks directly, and they have read thousands of them.
If your school issues its own cumulative figure, match that instead. The school report will contradict anything you invent.
Questions
What people ask
What is 94% in CBSE on a US 4.0 GPA scale?
Depending on which method you use, 3.76, or 4.0, or 4.0. That disagreement is the honest answer. A linear conversion undersells a 94 as a B-plus, which no US school would assign to it, and the banding methods flatten it into the same 4.0 as a 91. Selective US universities do not convert at all: they read the percentage against your school profile.
So what do I put in the Common App GPA field?
The figure your school issues, on the scale your school uses. For most CBSE and ISC students that is the percentage, with the GPA scale set to 100 and weighting set to unweighted. If your school issues a cumulative GPA of its own, enter that and match the scale. Never enter a 4.0 number your school has not issued, because the school report will contradict it.
Will a low converted GPA hurt my application?
A converted number you entered yourself can, which is the reason this tool exists. The reader compares your marks to your school's profile and to the thousands of Indian transcripts they have already read. A 94 read as a 94 is a strong mark. A 94 you converted to 3.4 is a problem you created.
Does this work for IB, A-levels or state boards?
The arithmetic will run on any percentage, but the reasoning is about percentage-based Indian boards. IB and A-levels are already on scales US readers know well and should be reported as issued, never converted. State board marks are read the same way as CBSE and ISC, against the school profile.
The long version, including what a US reader actually does with an Indian transcript and how a Class 11 dip is read, is in CBSE percentage to GPA. For the rest of the form, see the activity fitter.
The marks are one line of the application.
Send the transcript and the activity list. You get a written review of both, free.