Question about junior college transcript

[Pizza Fox]

I transferred from a junior college to a 4-year university during my junior year. I was wondering--what, if anything, should I say about this in my application? I mean, I'm obviously not going to be talking about it in my SOP, but do I also need to include my JC transcripts? Or are those courses automatically carried over and included on my BA transcript?

Thanks!

[TakeruK]

In most application forms I filled out, the Education section asked for details on all institutions attended and transcripts from these. (Sometimes, they will only ask for institutions from which you received a degree, instead of "all" but the majority asked for "all"). So, this will be the correct place to enter details from your junior college and it is likely you will need to request a transcript from them too. 

During my Masters, there was a course I took that was officially listed at another neighbouring school (but taught jointly by faculty at my school and the other school). Through the Ontario Visiting Grad Student program though, students from my school were able to take this other course for credit. But because I did that, I needed transcripts from the other school as well when I applied to PhD programs! The credit appeared on my "home" school's transcript, but it just says "Transferred Credit" or something like that, no course details. So the other school's transcript was required to show what the course was and what the letter grade was.

If you are worried about this, most schools should have their PhD applications open by now. You can log in to / create accounts for all these schools and see what requirements they are asking. If you need official transcripts, make sure you are easily able to access your old school's transcript request service. In my case, the "transfer" school decided that they will only take transcript requests that are snail-mailed on legal sized paper, which added an extra couple of weeks in the processing, so I was glad I had plenty of time to sort it out

[Vene]

You include the transcript. Some of my credits were done at a community college and I absolutely was required to include those. In fact, my degree granting institution just listed it as generic "x credits at Y college" on the official transcript (I was given a copy that I opened upon graduating) so those grades may well be essential.

[Pizza Fox]

GREAT info, thank you so very much!  Exactly what I was looking to hear.

[Pizza Fox]

You include the transcript. Some of my credits were done at a community college and I absolutely was required to include those. In fact, my degree granting institution just listed it as generic "x credits at Y college" on the official transcript (I was given a copy that I opened upon graduating) so those grades may well be essential.

To be honest, I never really considered that my GPA at the JC would be considered along with my GPA from the university. Ruh roh. Do you know if they look at each GPA separately or average the two? My GPA at the JC was not the greatest (3.61 plus some withdrawals, had a rough freshman year) but my GPA at my university was 3.98. I had always looked at the university as a kind of fresh start, GPA wise.  Oh dear!

[TakeruK]

To be honest, I never really considered that my GPA at the JC would be considered along with my GPA from the university. Ruh roh. Do you know if they look at each GPA separately or average the two? My GPA at the JC was not the greatest (3.61 plus some withdrawals, had a rough freshman year) but my GPA at my university was 3.98. I had always looked at the university as a kind of fresh start, GPA wise.  Oh dear!

I think everything that is required to be submitted will be evaluated. But your University GPA (which probably contains the majority, if not all, of your upper level courses) will certainly be more relevant, thus it makes sense to assume that the committee will put a higher weight on it. Also, your old GPA isn't bad at all, and the committees will also consider trends in GPA, especially the improvement since junior college. Finally, it's worth noting that although many schools will ask for an overall, cumulative GPA from each school, many programs will identify several "key courses" and give a larger weight grades to these courses. For example, many programs in my field will care the most about certain physics classes and upper level astronomy classes.

[Pizza Fox]

I think everything that is required to be submitted will be evaluated. But your University GPA (which probably contains the majority, if not all, of your upper level courses) will certainly be more relevant, thus it makes sense to assume that the committee will put a higher weight on it. Also, your old GPA isn't bad at all, and the committees will also consider trends in GPA, especially the improvement since junior college. Finally, it's worth noting that although many schools will ask for an overall, cumulative GPA from each school, many programs will identify several "key courses" and give a larger weight grades to these courses. For example, many programs in my field will care the most about certain physics classes and upper level astronomy classes.

Thank you so very much, you've been a great help.  I also took my first courses at the JC in 2006, nearly ten years ago (dear god lol) so I'm hoping they'll see how much time has passed since I began this long weird journey (got my BA in 2014.) Thanks again!

Edited August 25, 2015 by Pizza Fox

[Vene]

To be honest, I never really considered that my GPA at the JC would be considered along with my GPA from the university. Ruh roh. Do you know if they look at each GPA separately or average the two? My GPA at the JC was not the greatest (3.61 plus some withdrawals, had a rough freshman year) but my GPA at my university was 3.98. I had always looked at the university as a kind of fresh start, GPA wise.  Oh dear!

To add to what TakeuK said, your 3.61 "bad" GPA is actually higher than my cumulative GPA. You'll be fine.