Hello,
I am an undergraduate hoping to apply to grad school in CS for the upcoming fall. I came to college with a great deal of advanced placement and I would say 50% of my course program consisted of graduate courses from six or seven different departments. I learned a lot from these courses, and I think I have a very concrete idea of what I would want to research for a Ph.d. They have also given a very strong background for interdisciplinary work. However, this experience came at a price. It seems that, compared to undergrad classes, the grading in grad classes where I am from is quite arbitrary. Either the professors gave out A’s like candy or they graded on very fine distinctions. The result has been a lower gpa relative to a “typical” undergrad program, a 3.87 compared to what would probably be a 3.97, and some of the grad classes in subjects that I am interested in researching for my Ph.D. (Machine Learning, Neural Networks) have been A-/B+ instead of A’s. Again, this is not due to lack of intelligence or hard work, but do to the fact that some of these grad classes were graded on ultra-fine distinctions (missing one question on a test leads to a drop in the entire class grade).
1. Did this hurt me? Do the most competitive grad schools/fellowships make distinctions based on a tenth of a GPA no matter the course program? Keep in mind I come from a decent, but not elite, college (top 50 or so in CS).
2. Did this actually make me look good? Did taking these grad classes make me look like I have a strong work ethic and initiative?
3. Will this be taken into consideration? From what I know grad students are more interested in getting a 3.0 or above than getting straight A’s in each class.
4. Does this even matter? Will competitive grad schools/fellowships be more interested in my research experience? (I have substantial experience as well as publications)