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Half-lying about GPA and employment

L Ron HowardL Ron Howard The duckMinnesotaRegistered User regular
edited June 2010 in Help / Advice Forum
I graduated from college beginning of May, and have been trying to find a job. My school does things weird, however. The due date for grades is after the graduation ceremony. Before I graduated, I took what my instructors told me would be my final grade and calculated it out, and threw it up on my resume.
This is all fine and dandy, but I never went back to actually double check it. Lo and behold, one place that's looking at me wants a copy of my unofficial transcript. The thing is, when I checked it, my grades were a tad bit lower than what I thought I was going to get, like .2 lower, so nothing too far off. But it's still the idea that I lied, even unintentionally. I made the changes to my resume immediately, but I haven't sent in a copy of my transcript to the company. My problem is that I don't know what to do.

Do I ignore the grade on the transcript completely, and hope they never notice, though I'd imagine they would since they wouldn't be asking for it in the first place?
Or do I say something, like "yeah, I never checked my official final grades when I graduated, and calculated it wrong" or something like that?

I don't know what to do here....

L Ron Howard on

Posts

  • Eat it You Nasty Pig.Eat it You Nasty Pig. tell homeland security 'we are the bomb'Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Just send them a little note with the transcript explaining the discrepancy (or email, whatever.) Probably they won't care too much.

    Eat it You Nasty Pig. on
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  • fightinfilipinofightinfilipino Angry as Hell #BLMRegistered User regular
    edited June 2010
    they likely won't care, but it's always best to BE TRUTHFUL UP FRONT. do NOT lie.

    in this case, it's a fairly easy explanation: when you originally submitted your resume, your "official" grades were unavailable, so you based your GPA on information given to you directly by your profs. you now submit corrected information, along with an updated transcript.

    seriously, DO NOT LIE, or even allow a mistruth to go through. better to expose yourself than to have someone else expose you.

    ...i mean, in this context.

    fightinfilipino on
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  • King MultitasKing Multitas __BANNED USERS regular
    edited June 2010
    You'll be ok if you just tell them.

    More massive lies have been told before. My friend lied about huge chunks of his employment history to get free extra years of experience and he now has a job paying him in 80k a year where other people with his real experience are paid about half of that at best. Honesty would have left him unemployed

    in this economy.

    King Multitas on
  • RoyceSraphimRoyceSraphim Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Just say that the school and your professor were being a little obtuse with the grades. Everyone has been on the receiving end of the silly goose. My ex wife wound up getting her financial aid late because her prof decided to go on vacation. Just tell it as soon as it comes up and move on.

    RoyceSraphim on
  • ronyaronya Arrrrrf. the ivory tower's basementRegistered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Yeah, just attach a note saying "a minor error in the GPA calculation - should have been X instead of Y". Or something along these lines.

    ronya on
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  • mcdermottmcdermott Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Yeah, just tell them what happened. Keep it short and to the point, and you'll be fine.

    To anybody else reading this, you're probably better off putting your current GPA (according to your transcript) on resumes. Even if your instructors tell you what your grades will be, don't use those.

    mcdermott on
  • mtsmts Dr. Robot King Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    i would say just don't put GPA on your resume. there is no reason to have it

    mts on
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  • MichaelLCMichaelLC In what furnace was thy brain? ChicagoRegistered User regular
    edited June 2010
    mts wrote: »
    i would say just don't put GPA on your resume. there is no reason to have it

    I was going to say the same thing.

    Unless you got a title (Valedictorian), there's no reason to put the GPA. Just your degree (Assoc, BA, BS, Masters) and the College or area of study.

    MichaelLC on
  • Eat it You Nasty Pig.Eat it You Nasty Pig. tell homeland security 'we are the bomb'Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    If you're applying for jobs right out of undergrad I might include it, otherwise probably not.

    Eat it You Nasty Pig. on
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  • L Ron HowardL Ron Howard The duck MinnesotaRegistered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Thanks for the responses.

    I actually did just graduate, and I was told including your GPA is highly recommended when looking for your first job out of college, because not showing it indicates that you're a horrible student and are hiding it, or something.

    And it's too late to remove it now, since the company already has a copy of it with my GPA on there...

    L Ron Howard on
  • mcdermottmcdermott Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    There's nothing wrong with including it. It's common for people just coming out of school, as a way to differentiate yourself from every other college grad. Usually if it matters (my job offer was contingent on a 3.0 GPA upon graduation) they're going to ask for it anyway, so you don't need to include it. But if it's decent, it certainly doesn't hurt.

    mcdermott on
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