How to Convert the Italian Grading System (110-Point Scale) to a US GPA (2026)

An Italian transcript looks confusing before you even get to the GPA question, because it runs two separate scales at once. Individual exams are graded 18 to 30. Your overall degree result, the number everyone actually asks about, the voto di laurea, is a completely different figure on a 66-to-110 scale. Treating that final number like a raw percentage and running it through a generic online calculator is the single most common mistake, because the 110-point score was never a percentage to begin with.

Two scales, not one: exams on 18-30, the degree on 66-110

Every exam you sit during an Italian degree, each course, each oral or written test, is graded on an 18-to-30 scale. Eighteen is the minimum passing mark, thirty is the top, and "30 e lode" (30 with honors) is the ceiling for a single exam. None of that 18-30 scale appears on your final degree certificate directly. What appears there is the voto di laurea, a separate score built on a 66-to-110 scale, where 66 is the minimum needed to graduate and 110 is the maximum, with "110 e lode" as the honors ceiling above it.

The jump from one scale to the other is where most conversion confusion starts. The voto di laurea isn't another exam grade, it's a computed final result, and understanding how it's computed matters more for an honest GPA conversion than any lookup table does.

How the 110-point score actually gets calculated

Several Italian university graduation regulations, checked for this guide, describe broadly the same three-step process, though the exact weighting differs by institution:

First, your university computes a credit-weighted average of every exam grade you earned, each grade multiplied by the credit value (CFU, Italy's version of ECTS) of that course, summed, and divided by your total credits. Second, that average, which sits on the 18-30 scale, is rescaled onto the 110-point range, typically by multiplying by 110 and dividing by 30. Third, and this is the step a generic converter always misses, the graduation committee adds points on top for your thesis and final defense, an amount and formula that varies by university and department, sometimes a flat bonus, sometimes a weighted formula that blends your rescaled average with a separate thesis score. "110 e lode" on top of that generally requires a unanimous vote from the examining committee, it isn't automatically awarded just for reaching 110.

That sequence is why a voto di laurea can't be read the way you'd read a plain percentage score. A 100/110 already reflects your university's specific rounding conventions and its specific thesis-bonus formula, not a universal 73rd-percentile result. A credible public figure found during research for this guide put roughly one in four Italian graduates at a full 110 with honors, with a further meaningful share landing in the 106-110 band, which argues against assuming the top of the scale is rare the way some other countries' grading cultures work. Don't import an assumption from a different country's scale onto Italy's.

Why there's no single official answer

Italy's own Fulbright Commission publishes a recommended Italy-to-US conversion table for exactly this purpose, and its own documentation is explicit that the table is a recommendation, not a binding standard, because no bilateral agreement between Italy and the US fixes grade equivalencies the way some countries' credential systems do. AACRAO EDGE and WES each run their own internal evaluation methodology, and neither publishes its exact Italy table for free, which means the "official" answer genuinely depends on which evaluator, or which university admissions office, is doing the reading.

That shows up as real disagreement when you compare public conversion tables side by side. One commonly cited table maps 30 to a 4.0 (A), 28-29 to roughly 3.7 (A-), and 26-27 to roughly 3.3 (B+). A different table maps 27 to a 3.0 (B), 26 to 2.7 (B-), and 25 to 2.3 (C+), noticeably lower for the same raw exam grades. A plain proportional formula, (voto/110) times 4.0, gives a 100/110 a GPA of roughly 3.64, which several sources flag as understating how that score is actually read, because it ignores the credit-weighting and thesis-bonus structure described above. None of these three methods is wrong exactly, they're answering the question differently, which is precisely why you shouldn't treat any single online calculator's number as definitive.

Degree length: triennale and magistrale map cleanly, grading doesn't

One part of this is genuinely uncomplicated. A laurea triennale, Italy's three-year first-cycle degree, built on roughly 180 CFU, is generally recognized as equivalent to a US bachelor's degree. A laurea magistrale, the two-year second-cycle degree built on roughly 120 CFU, is generally recognized as equivalent to a US master's. Both run on the Bologna Process framework that most US, UK, and Canadian admissions offices already know how to read, so the degree-length question rarely needs explaining in a cold email or application the way the grading question does.

The dottorato doesn't use the 110 scale at all

If you're applying on the strength of an Italian doctorate rather than a laurea or laurea magistrale, the 110-point scale generally stops being relevant to you. Italian PhD programs commonly evaluate the final thesis defense qualitatively, typically as "idoneo" (approved) from the examining committee, rather than assigning a numeric score on the 110-point scale used for undergraduate and master's degrees. Exactly how a given university or faculty documents this on your final paperwork can vary, so if you're citing a doctoral result in a cold email or application, describe the outcome in plain terms, your thesis was approved, your field, your university, rather than trying to force it into a GPA-style number the degree was never actually scored on.

What to actually do with your number

If a program's instructions ask for a self-reported GPA and give you room to show your work, show it: state your voto di laurea, the scale it's on, and briefly explain that Italian final grades combine a credit-weighted exam average with added thesis points, so the reader doesn't assume it's a raw percentage. If the program requires a formal credential evaluation, use a NACES-member evaluator, WES, ECE, or another recognized service, since no single public table is authoritative enough to substitute for one. Our WES vs. ECE vs. IQAS guide walks through which evaluator actually fits which destination country and application type, since they aren't interchangeable.

If you're emailing a potential supervisor directly rather than going through a formal admissions portal, the stakes are different and lower. A professor reading a cold email isn't running your transcript through an evaluator, they're forming a quick impression. Stating your result plainly, "I graduated with 105/110 from [university]", and letting your research fit and your actual coursework do the convincing, works better than opening with a self-converted GPA figure that a careful reader might reasonably question.

Confirm specifics before you rely on them

The two-scale structure (18-30 for exams, 66-110 for the final degree result) and the three-step computation (credit-weighted average, rescaled to 110, plus a thesis bonus) are consistently described across the Italian university regulations checked for this guide. The exact thesis-bonus formula, rounding convention, and honors threshold vary by university and sometimes by department, so if a specific number genuinely matters to an application outcome, confirm it against your own university's published graduation regulation rather than a generic online table, including the ones referenced above.

Finding a funded path once your transcript is sorted

A strong voto di laurea answers one question in an application; it doesn't answer the funding question on its own. Our guide to finding a PhD supervisor in Italy covers how Italian PhD admission actually works, through a public concorso rather than a single professor's yes, and what that means if you're coming from abroad. Outside Italy, the professor-funded route still matters most: GradScoutFunding searches professors by field and country, confirms they're actively publishing, and drafts a personalized first email grounded in their real recent paper for you to review and send yourself, it never sends anything automatically. The free tier gives you 2 credits with no card required, and paid credit packs are one-time purchases that never expire.

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