UK Class ↔ GPA
Estimate the US 4.0 GPA range that matches a UK degree classification.
Upper second (2:1) (60–69%) maps to roughly a 3.3–3.7 US GPA on the 4.0 scale. Approximate — credential evaluators and the receiving institution decide the official figure.
Approximate, not official. A 2:1 is often treated as ~3.3–3.7 but it varies — verify with the receiving institution or a credential evaluator such as WES.
A UK degree classification has no single official US GPA, but a common approximation maps an Upper Second (2:1), the 60–69% band, to roughly a 3.3–3.7 on the 4.0 scale. A First (70–100%) sits near 3.7–4.0, a 2:2 (50–59%) near 2.7–3.0, and a Third (40–49%) near 2.0–2.3. Treat these as estimates.
What UK degree classifications mean
UK undergraduate degrees are awarded as a single honours classification rather than a running GPA. The class is based on your weighted average mark across the degree, where marks run on a different scale to the US — in the UK a 70 is exceptional, not a C. The four passing bands are the First-class (1st), Upper Second (2:1), Lower Second (2:2), and Third-class (3rd), with anything below the pass threshold recorded as a fail.
Because the UK reports a class and the US reports a 4.0 GPA, there is no exact arithmetic between them. The mapping here is a widely used approximation: it lines each UK band up against the GPA range that admissions offices most often associate with it. The boundaries are not universal, so a borderline mark can land differently depending on who evaluates it.
Worked example
Estimating the GPA for a 2:1 awarded at 65%.
- 1 Identify the classification. A 65% overall mark falls in the 60–69% band, which is an Upper Second (2:1).
- 2 Map the band to the 4.0 scale. A 2:1 is commonly treated as roughly a 3.3–3.7 US GPA.
- 3 Report a range, not a single number. Quote it as “≈ 3.3–3.7,” and note that the official figure comes from the receiving institution or a credential evaluator.
UK classification → approximate US GPA
A common approximation. The exact GPA depends on the institution and the credential evaluator.
| UK classification | UK % | Approx US GPA |
|---|---|---|
| First-class (1st) | 70–100 | 3.7–4.0 |
| Upper second (2:1) | 60–69 | 3.3–3.7 |
| Lower second (2:2) | 50–59 | 2.7–3.0 |
| Third-class (3rd) | 40–49 | 2.0–2.3 |
| Fail | 0–39 | 0.0 |
Why this is only an estimate
There is no official UK-to-GPA formula. Two things drive the real number: the credential evaluator you use (services such as WES translate your transcript onto a US scale using their own tables) and the receiving institution (which may apply its own conversion or read the British transcript directly). A 2:1 is frequently treated as around 3.3–3.7, but one school might place it nearer 3.5 and another nearer 3.3.
Use this estimator to set expectations before an official evaluation, then confirm the figure that actually counts with the programme you are applying to. To work between other grading scales, see the GPA scale converter.