Vietnam grade
to South Korea
Vietnam → South Korea
Converting Vietnam grades for study in South Korea
Korean universities assess transcripts themselves and set their own requirements, and there is no national conversion for Vietnamese marks. There is one official Korean government conversion table — the one in the Global Korea Scholarship guidelines — and it is worth knowing precisely what it covers, because for most Vietnamese applicants the answer is better than it first looks.
Korea’s official table has no 10-point column
The 2026 GKS guidelines for graduate degrees, published by NIIED under the Ministry of Education, carry an appendix headed “GPA Conversion Table”. It converts between five scales: 4.0, 4.3, 4.5, 5.0 and 100 points. Vietnam’s 10-point mark is not one of them.
| 4.0 scale | 4.3 scale | 4.5 scale | 5.0 scale | 100 points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.97 – 4.0 | 4.26 – 4.3 | 4.46 – 4.5 | 4.95 – 5.00 | 100 |
| 3.92 – 3.96 | 4.22 – 4.25 | 4.41 – 4.45 | 4.90 – 4.94 | 99 |
| 3.88 – 3.91 | 4.17 – 4.21 | 4.36 – 4.40 | 4.84 – 4.89 | 98 |
| 3.84 – 3.87 | 4.12 – 4.16 | 4.31 – 4.35 | 4.79 – 4.83 | 97 |
| 3.80 – 3.83 | 4.08 – 4.11 | 4.26 – 4.30 | 4.73 – 4.78 | 96 |
| 3.75 – 3.79 | 4.03 – 4.07 | 4.21 – 4.25 | 4.68 – 4.72 | 95 |
| 3.71 – 3.74 | 3.98 – 4.02 | 4.16 – 4.20 | 4.62 – 4.67 | 94 |
| 3.67 – 3.70 | 3.93 – 3.97 | 4.11 – 4.15 | 4.57 – 4.61 | 93 |
| 3.62 – 3.66 | 3.89 – 3.92 | 4.06 – 4.10 | 4.51 – 4.56 | 92 |
| 3.58 – 3.61 | 3.84 – 3.88 | 4.01 – 4.05 | 4.45 – 4.50 | 91 |
| 3.49 – 3.57 | 3.75 – 3.83 | 3.91 – 4.00 | 4.34 – 4.44 | 90 |
| 3.41 – 3.48 | 3.65 – 3.74 | 3.81 – 3.90 | 4.23 – 4.33 | 89 |
| 3.32 – 3.40 | 3.56 – 3.64 | 3.71 – 3.80 | 4.12 – 4.22 | 88 |
| 3.24 – 3.31 | 3.46 – 3.55 | 3.61 – 3.70 | 4.01 – 4.11 | 87 |
| 3.15 – 3.23 | 3.37 – 3.45 | 3.51 – 3.60 | 3.90 – 4.00 | 86 |
| 3.07 – 3.14 | 3.27 – 3.36 | 3.41 – 3.50 | 3.79 – 3.89 | 85 |
| 2.98 – 3.06 | 3.18 – 3.26 | 3.31 – 3.40 | 3.68 – 3.78 | 84 |
| 2.90 – 2.97 | 3.09 – 3.17 | 3.21 – 3.30 | 3.57 – 3.67 | 83 |
| 2.81 – 2.89 | 2.99 – 3.08 | 3.11 – 3.20 | 3.45 – 3.56 | 82 |
| 2.72 – 2.80 | 2.90 – 2.98 | 3.01 – 3.10 | 3.34 – 3.44 | 81 |
| 2.64 – 2.71 | 2.80 – 2.89 | 2.91 – 3.00 | 3.23 – 3.33 | 80 |
Appendix A, 2026 Global Korea Scholarship Application Guidelines for Graduate Degrees (NIIED, Ministry of Education). The 80 row is the eligibility floor.
If your transcript shows a 4-point GPA, you are already in this table
This is the part nobody tells Vietnamese applicants. Under MOET Circular 08/2021, universities on the credit system calculate an official 4-point cumulative GPA and print it on your transcript. That is a 4.0 scale — the first column above. You read your figure straight off it. No conversion tool, no supplementary document, nothing to certify.
The academic requirement is a CGPA “equal to or above 2.64/4.0, 2.80/4.3, 2.91/4.5 or 3.23/5.0”, all of which are the 80 row. Read against Circular 08/2021 Article 10 §5, a 4-point CGPA of 2.64 sits inside Khá (2.50–3.19). So the GKS academic floor is, in Vietnamese terms, a Khá degree — not the Giỏi that a nervous applicant might assume.
If your transcript shows only a 10-point average
Students on the year-based system (niên chế) have no 4-point GPA at all — Circular 08/2021 provides that those institutions do not convert to the 4-point scale. If that is you, or your transcript predates the credit system, you fall into NIIED’s route for scales it does not list:
“If the CGPA is not indicated in one of the acknowledged GPA scales (4.0, 4.3, 4.5, 5.0 or 100 point scale), submit a transcript converted into one of the above GPA scales as a supplementary document … A transcript converted with a conversion tool such as scholaro.com or wes.org is only acceptable when the relevant university officially confirms the document.”
Two things follow. First, the university’s confirmation is what makes the number valid, not the tool — an original document carrying your university’s authentication. Second, check what the tool gives you before you ask anyone to certify it: WES’s own published Vietnam table has no D band, so a course mark between 4.0 and 5.49 — a lawful pass under Circular 08/2021 — can come back as an F. Our guide to the conversion tables sets out which published tables get this right.
The class-rank route, which suits Vietnamese applicants unusually well
The guidelines accept either a converted score or a rank:
“If your score percentile is below 80%, you remain eligible only if you are ranked within the top 20% of your class. In this case, you must submit an official certificate or a formal letter issued by your university explicitly stating your class rank.”
Worth weighing seriously. The US Embassy in Hanoi cites Vietnam’s Research Center for Vocational, Technical and Higher Education to the effect that a student with a 7.5 average is likely in the top 10–15% of their class — because Vietnamese marking is strict at the top and a 10 is rarely awarded. A Vietnamese transcript that looks unremarkable after conversion can be top-decile in rank. If your converted figure is near the line, the rank letter may be the stronger document.
What this table is, and is not
GKS is a scholarship selection instrument. Its appendix exists so NIIED can rank applicants from different systems against each other; it is not a Korean national standard for admission, and an individual Korean university may convert differently or not at all. Treat it as the best-sourced Korean government figure available, and check the university’s own requirement as well.
For context on how much this matters in Vietnam: the 2026 round allocates 33 embassy-track places to Vietnam — level with Indonesia and ahead of India’s 26 — plus 22 more on the university track. Vietnam is one of the largest GKS sending countries.
How the South Korea system works
Korean universities assess transcripts directly and usually require Apostille-certified documents. Most use a 4.5 scale, some 4.3 or 4.0 — which is why the appendix above carries all three.
Sources
- 2026 Global Korea Scholarship — Application Guidelines for Graduate Degrees (NIIED, National Institute for International Education, Ministry of Education). Read in full. Source of Appendix A, the eligibility floor, the converted-transcript rule and the class-rank alternative. Also announced through Korean diplomatic missions — example notice.
- EducationUSA Vietnam — Basic Information on Grading in Vietnam (US Embassy Hanoi, 2025 edition). Source of the top 10–15% class-rank point.
Scholarship rules change every round. Check the current guidelines before relying on any figure here, and confirm requirements with the university you are applying to.
Is it competitive?
Most South Korea master's programmes look for the equivalent of a US 3.0+ (an upper-second / good average), with competitive and funded programmes wanting more. Convert first, then check each programme's stated minimum. For a credit-weighted multi-course result, use the WES iGPA calculator.
Which Vietnamese rules apply to your transcript depends on when you enrolled. MOET Circular 08/2021 took effect on 3 May 2021 and applies to intakes admitted after that date; earlier intakes fall under the superseded regulations. Institutions on the year-based (niên chế) system do not calculate a 4-point GPA at all. See how Vietnamese grading works before relying on any conversion — and note that a widely-circulated conversion table converts the wrong thing, giving a different grade for most marks.