Will my post-graduated community college courses boost my UC GPA?

[itsmeowt]

Hi everyone, 

Long story short: I was extremely ill and was put in a treatment center a couple times during my undergraduate. My UC GPA is a 2.965 :'(. After graduation, I took three science classes with lab at a community college (I got 1 A+ and two B's). I want to apply to graduate school but most of them require a 3.0 GPA.

My question:
Am I even qualified (will the cc classes boost my GPA for the school's requirement?) Will the admission board weigh in my post-undergrad community college classes?

I already have all my letter of recommendations. I was also very involved with the community and volunteering. I also worked most of my time in school (to fund for my treatment co-pay).

Thank you for your help. 

[fuzzylogician]

If you took the classes after you officially graduated, these new classes will not be factored into your undergrad GPA. That is settled and can't be changed. However, a school may choose to factor it into a cumulative GPA of their own creation or to simply weigh it more because these courses demonstrate your abilities when not impaired by illness, and that seems like an obvious better estimation of your potential to success in grad school than your undergrad grades, assuming the illness is now under control.

I assume that when you say that schools require a 3.0 to apply that doesn't mean that they won't accept your submitted application, but it may be more difficult for you to get in. Early fall would be a good time to reach out to those schools and ask your questions: will these later courses matter? will they round up your GPA (because, of course, 2.965 rounded to the nearest whole number is precisely their minimum requirement)? will an explanation in an addendum or a LOR make a difference (you should have a LOR writer explain your low grades and your improvement since, anyway!). This is one of those unusual situations where the GPA isn't really a good indication of your future potential of success, unlike in most cases where we tend to think that past behavior is a pretty good predictor of future behavior. Best you can do is point it out clearly, have LOR writers back you up on this, and hope that the schools you're applying to can see it, too. Usually official cutoffs can be waived or worked around, though in some cases hard cutoffs are just that, which is why it's worth asking so you don't waste your time. But unless that happens, more often than not, if there is just one blemish on an otherwise attractive application, there will be ways of working it out.