Brazilian transcripts report grades on a 0–10 scale at most universities and 0–100 at many secondary schools. US application forms ask for a number between 0.0 and 4.0. That translation is the first practical hurdle for Brazilian applicants — and the step where estimates most often go wrong, usually in the applicant's disfavor.
Start with the most important caveat: there is no official conversion table between the Brazilian system and the 4.0 scale. Neither Brazil's Ministry of Education nor the US Department of Education publishes one. What exists are credential evaluator methodologies, and each evaluator has its own.
Who converts your grades officially
For a real application, the conversion that counts is not yours. Most US universities require — or accept only — an evaluation from an accredited credential evaluation service such as WES (World Education Services), ECE (Educational Credential Evaluators), SpanTran, or Josef Silny. You send your transcript and diploma; they issue a report stating the US equivalent of your degree and, when requested, a calculated GPA.
A few practical notes:
- The service costs money (a few hundred dollars depending on report type) and takes weeks.
- Each university specifies which evaluators it accepts. Check before paying.
- Many institutions do their own in-house evaluation and require no external report at all. Ask the international admissions office first.
- Two evaluators can produce different GPAs from the same transcript. That is normal.
So why estimate? Because you need the number before deciding where to apply. A reasonable estimate tells you whether your profile fits the schools on your list, and it prevents the most common failure mode: underestimating yourself and never applying to the good programs.
Conversion table: Brazilian grade to 4.0 GPA
This is the band table used by the ToolNotch GPA Calculator. It follows the most common mapping between the Brazilian decimal scale and US letter grades:
| Grade (0–10) | Grade (0–100) | US letter | GPA | |---|---|---|---| | 9.5 – 10.0 | 95 – 100 | A | 4.0 | | 8.5 – 9.4 | 85 – 94 | A− | 3.7 | | 7.5 – 8.4 | 75 – 84 | B+ | 3.3 | | 6.5 – 7.4 | 65 – 74 | B | 3.0 | | 6.0 – 6.4 | 60 – 64 | B− | 2.7 | | 5.5 – 5.9 | 55 – 59 | C+ | 2.3 | | 5.0 – 5.4 | 50 – 54 | C | 2.0 | | below 5.0 | below 50 | F | 0.0 |
This table is a widely used estimate, not an official conversion. Use it to plan; use a credential evaluator's report to apply.
One consequence surprises most applicants. A 7.0 in Brazil is a comfortable pass at essentially every Brazilian university — and it converts to a B (3.0), which reads as average, not good. A 6.0, still a passing grade in most programs, lands at B− (2.7), below the 3.0 minimum many graduate programs require. Brazilian institutions are simply stingier with high marks than US ones, so Brazilian GPAs tend to understate relative performance.
A worked example
A typical engineering semester:
| Course | Grade (0–10) | Credits | GPA | GPA × Credits | |---|---|---|---|---| | Calculus II | 7.2 | 6 | 3.0 | 18.0 | | Physics II | 6.3 | 4 | 2.7 | 10.8 | | Linear Algebra | 8.7 | 4 | 3.7 | 14.8 | | Programming | 9.6 | 4 | 4.0 | 16.0 | | Research Methods | 8.0 | 2 | 3.3 | 6.6 |
- Total weighted points: 18.0 + 10.8 + 14.8 + 16.0 + 6.6 = 66.2
- Total credits: 6 + 4 + 4 + 4 + 2 = 20
- GPA = 66.2 ÷ 20 = 3.31
A student whose Brazilian transcript averages 7.96 — solid but unremarkable at home — converts to a 3.31 GPA, competitive at a large share of US public universities. The conversion is not linear, which is exactly why it is worth calculating instead of guessing.
If you would rather not build the spreadsheet, the ToolNotch GPA Calculator takes 0–10 grades directly and handles the credit weighting for you.
Cases the table does not cover
Programs that use letter concepts. Several Brazilian universities record conceitos (A, B, C, D) rather than numbers. The usual direct mapping is A → 4.0, B → 3.0, C → 2.0, D/R → 0.0. If your institution publishes the numeric range behind each concept, use the range with the table above instead — it is more faithful.
Secondary school on 0–100. Use the 0–100 column. If your school used weighted term averages, compute the final course average first and convert only that result.
Missing credits. Some transcripts list contact hours (carga horária) instead of credits. The common rule of thumb is to divide total course hours by 15, but the exact ratio varies by institution. What matters is applying the same ratio to every course, since GPA depends only on relative weight.
Withdrawn or transferred courses. Withdrawals normally do not count. Transferred courses often carry credits without a grade — check how your transcript records them.
After you convert
Having the number is half the job; knowing what it means for your target schools is the other half. We cover typical GPA ranges by institution type, and what to do if yours comes out lower than you hoped, in What GPA Do You Need to Study in the US.
If you are still unsure about the credit-weighted math itself, start with How to Calculate Your GPA (US 4.0 Scale).