INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL EDUCATIO N Tung Shing Square, Suite 505 2 Ngo Quyen, Hanoi, Vietnam Tel: (84-4) !5-04"2 #a$: (84-4) !5-04"8 %-mail: iiehn&ii'norg *e+ite: iienorg
Dear Admissions Officer, I am writing this letter on behalf of a Vietnamese student who is currently applying for a place at your school. I wish to clarify the issue of grade point averages, which has been an ongoing problem for a number of students here applying to colleges and universities in the United States. he Vietnamese system is based on a !"!#. point scale, along the same lines as the US !.#"$.#. Usually when an American institution as%s for a &'A calculated on the the $ poin pointt scal scale, e, the the stud studen entt will will be e(pe e(pect cted ed to do a dire direct ct math mathem emat atic ical al conversion, so !# becomes $.#, ).* becomes +.#, etc. his ma%es sense from a practical standpoint. In reality, however, it is completely inaccurate. In the Vietnamese system a ten is near impossible it is the un"attainable asymptote that all students strive for, but is never handed out by professors with any regularity. In contrast, a $.# in a US classroom is fairly commonplace, and even someone with a $.# &'A overall. A student with a !# &'A in Vietnam is e(tremely rare. According to the -esearch enter for Vocational, echnical and /igher 0ducation under the Vietnamese 1inistry of education, someone with a ).* &'A will probably be in the top 23 of their class. I advise American olleges and Universities to pay more attention to class ran% and other s%ills reflected in the application process. 'lease be advised also that the practice of most Vietnamese institutions is not to provide official transcripts to other universities on behalf of their students. Students must re4uest signed and stamped transcripts from the institution, and then have them translated and certified correct at a government office. office.
5est -egards,
Hoa P. Tran
0ducational Advisor Institute of International International 0ducation /anoi, Vietnam 0mail6 advisor7iievn.org
