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Quick GPA question
Mim
dead.Registered User regular
dead.Registered User regular
Quick Question: When dealing with grad school or future jobs do they look more at your major GPA or your overall GPA?
my overall is a 2.5 which I'm working on raising and my major GPA is a 2.8 (which is funny cause I just started taking classes in my major so I don't know how classes that had nothing to do with it affected it), which I am also raising.
But I was curious as to which one meant more.
my overall is a 2.5 which I'm working on raising and my major GPA is a 2.8 (which is funny cause I just started taking classes in my major so I don't know how classes that had nothing to do with it affected it), which I am also raising.
But I was curious as to which one meant more.
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But that's only my experience, which is minimal. What field are you in? I imagine that pre-med might be different from English.
EDIT: Since I just read that and it looked like I was saying, "Enh, don't worry about it" -- focus on getting things onto a resume that give an indication that you can do stuff. If you're applying for a job at a semiconductor plant, noting that you got a B+ in a class about semiconductors is less useful than noting that you did a semester-long project testing semiconductor composition and performance under varying heat conditions, for example. Concrete examples that let you get a conversation going in the interview. Those help you more than a GPA that you can't change a whole lot at this point anyway.
Also, most job apps that I've turned in asked about GPA, as well as it's a good idea to have your GPA on your resume if it's above a 3.0.
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Rarely does this come up for jobs. They care that you have a receipt, not what your GPA was. Unless it's a tiebreaker, but even then. Jobs know that different universities use different weighting and grading patterns, resulting in the scores being uncomparable.
For applying to a generic grad school, your GPA is relevant in terms of the competitiveness of the field. The MBA that I'm in had, as requirements, an undergrad GPA of 3.0 or more and 3 years out in industry working a job.
Leaving undergrad with a low GPA will close a few doors, but! rarely are they shut permanently. A strong GRE score, or volunteer work, or internships can often make up the difference. You just explain why on your application, if that ends up being the case.
However, I will say that in my experience the last year of college tends to be pretty easy (unless you slack off or give up). You're done with the general classes and only have some classes in your major remaining, typically easier stuff, and you're familiar with a lot of the background already. My GPA went from a 2.9 to a 3.37 in my last 2 years of school.
American Lit 1
American Lit 2
English Lit 1
English Lit 2
Fictional Writing
Literary Criticism
Technical Writing
Fictional Writing 2
Linguistics and Grammar
Semantics
I'm leaning more towards getting a technical writing job after college because I hear it pays well. My minor is art with a strong drawing focus (as opposed to design and painting).
I'm already re-taking ONE of my D courses (and will see if I have time to take the other one over again towards the end of my undergrad years) to raise my GPA a smidgen. I'm also trying to force myself to work hard this semester to help raise my GPA (which I have motivation/procrastination issues so it hasn't been easy). I don't party, I'm just incredibly lazy.
I plan to work for a bit and these next two summers coming up I plan to do internships. I'll look into GRE testing and volunteering. I was just wondering if my GPA was still going to matter when I'm 30 and decide whether or not I want to go back.
I'm not sure on which degree yet, but I would like to be a museum curator or a librarian. If I could get an entry level job in those fields and work my way up, I'd rather do that than do grad school, but for now grad school seems to be my only option.
I'm getting my bachelor's degree in Sociology right now from UNLV (University of Nevada Las Vegas).
In high school I had a pretty shitty GPA, 2.5ish to be exact. The last two years of my high school career I took college classes and did relatively bad in those as well. In my senior year of high school, however, I took two sociology classes and fell in love. I got 98.5 in one class and 99 in the other.
I continued this success throughout my time at UNLV (two years total); I have had As in all my sociology classes thus far (96 being my lowest grade), and I have recommendations from all my professors. I plan on applying to Berkeley to get my doctorate in sociology, and I'm just wondering, have I shot myself in the foot by screwing up in high school and very early college? Will those mistakes blow my chances at getting in, or will my grades and recommendations outweigh this?
High marks in your field and recommendations trump everything else. Don't worry that you did poorly in Underwater Basket Weaving, no one is going to ask you to do that in graduate school.
Grad school application weighting is basically in field experience and/or reccommendations from people in the field >> regular grades from your previous school >> previous education. They'll look at grades because it's important that you a) have a solid base of knowledge to build on, and b) aren't a total slacker that did poorly in things they thought weren't interesting, because sometimes you have to do stuff you don't absolutely love from time to time. Grades from 5 years ago in high school, though, no-one gives a damn about (similarly, once you get a graduate degree, no-one is going to give a crap what your bachelor's GPA was)
As to the OP - I'm less clear on creative writing - type grad programs, I think there in many cases your portfolio / grades may play a bit more of a role, though again if you have internships in the field / etc that will help very significantly
totally off topic, but my sis goes to UNLV!
Gonna second this. While I haven't gotten answers from all the schools I applied to yet(I'm an East Asian Studies major with an interest in political economy and sociology in China), I did get into one of my top choices. I seriously screwed up my grades my first 3 semesters of college but all the grades I got in courses in my major were all good and I worked my butt off junior+senior year. I was also lucky to get good recommendations from my professors, one of which literally loves me(I suspect this is probably why I got in). GRE/GMAT or whatever you end up taking counts for next to nothing (one of the schools I applied and got into actually never got my scores for some reason) in my field ( can't say this is true for other fields though).
I'd like to also say your statement of purpose and whatever other essay schools ask you to write are also pretty important, this is your opportunity to talk about whatever research/internship experiences have made you really interested and qualified to continue studying your field.
edit: And generally speaking if a grad school that is writing intensive asks for a writing sample, make sure you submit something really polished to show you don't suck at writing.
Also not to encourage slacking... any area requires a display of skill (such as writing, photography, art) noone cares how much you've studied, they care what you can do. Really just reiterating what takyris said, my experience submitting an art portfolio really has no bearing on a medical position. But generally speaking when it comes to grades: Grad School - yes. Job - no
But again you're very right that it goes back to what field you're in
If I go the grad school route, it depends on the school whether my major GPA or my overall GPA matters. If I put some considerable amount of time between undergrad and grad school my recommendations and work habits mean more than my undergrad GPA along with my GRE or GMAT (still not sure the difference on those two)?
But if I go straight for work, my GPA won't matter, what will matter is just my degree and that I should also pick up skills outside of my major (I'm getting this from the "What do you do for a living" thread). By picking up skills I can just learn HTML or programming languages on my own and put that on a resume, right? Or do I have to get certification for that too?
What got me my job was my portfolio, experience and my interview.
I could see GPA being important in certain fields or for grad school, but for most jobs it's such a minor consideration I wouldn't even worry about it.
as far as working between undergrad and grad school, it looks really good for you. i liked when a applicant had real world experience int he desired field. find some interns, volunteer etc. rea world experience will help average applications look better
Were you on the admissions committee for Berkeley?
Anyway, can you please tell me what "boards" are? I'm sorry, I'm not familiar with the lingo.
boards = GRE
so i misread your post, i thought your 2.5 was your undergrad. no one cares abut high school GPA. what is your undergrad one?
Berkeley is well known for its sociol and its human development/psych program, so you need to be ridicuolous well qualified to have a shot
that being said. if you did really well in your upper level undergrad courses (which it sounds like you did), it can only help. at least for my program you need at least a 3.0 to be considered since it looks bad for the program to take people with lower. that applicant needs to be really good to consider lower
personally i think GPA is BS, I think real world experience is a better judge of success than grade point, but not everyone thinks that, and standards must be met. don't let me discourage you, this is based off my experience in my program.
Well, I'm thinking about going for Librarian Science, so if I can't be a librarian without having my masters, how can I have experience in the field? Would I have to do an internship as an assistant?
well like i said my experience is for a physiology program, not a librarian
Darwin with that GPA you wil have a really good shot. don't worry about HS since that means absolutely dick.
In college, you start with a clean slate. A lot of people I know were valedictorians in high school, but didn't do that well in college.. I did it the other way around, and it helped me get into my #1 school of choice
Here's a GPA calculator to help you manage your goals