Transcript

[egooririexruinam]

I studied Engineering for only 3 semesters. I didn't pursue because of financial difficulty as I had to work. Fast forward to 10 years, I went back to college and was able to earn my bachelor's degree in Biology.

When I was applying for PhD program (in the US), a relative/professor at a university in Texas (we're both Asians) said that I only need to submit my Biology transcript even if the instruction states  "submit transcript from all institutions attended." My problem is that, my grades from Engineering went downhill because of the financial struggle I had. Despite that, I still included my Engineering transcript because there were around 24 credit units that were transferred to my Biology course. 

My question is: if the admissions team convert my GPA to 4.0 scale, will they include the credits I earned from Engineering which are irrelevant to Biology?

[Noegenesis]

14 hours ago, egooririexruinam said:

I studied Engineering for only 3 semesters. I didn't pursue because of financial difficulty as I had to work. Fast forward to 10 years, I went back to college and was able to earn my bachelor's degree in Biology.

When I was applying for PhD program (in the US), a relative/professor at a university in Texas (we're both Asians) said that I only need to submit my Biology transcript even if the instruction states  "submit transcript from all institutions attended." My problem is that, my grades from Engineering went downhill because of the financial struggle I had. Despite that, I still included my Engineering transcript because there were around 24 credit units that were transferred to my Biology course.  

My question is: if the admissions team convert my GPA to 4.0 scale, will they include the credits I earned from Engineering which are irrelevant to Biology?

It depends. Some institutions will calculate GPA using information from all of your transcripts; others may keep them separate.

[PsyDuck90]

I second what Neogenesis said. I also wanted to add that if you are that concerned, you can include something about your journey in your SOP if you haven't submitted apps yet. Otherwise, the admissions committee will also clearly see a time gap and can probably make logical conclusions that you stopped school and took a break for a reason and then came back to better grades. You are not the first person to do this, nor are you the last. It usually shows a positive quality to return to school and do great. I know application season is a stressful time, but you have to just remind yourself that there isn't anything you can do now. You can't change your past. And you were right to include both transcripts, especially since 24 transferred to your second program. 

[egooririexruinam]

thank you Noegenesis and Hk328. I already submitted my application and didn't include the reason about the time gap. I felt like the committee might think I was trying to solicit pity from my background story and i don't like that. Besides, the number of words in SOP are limited so I removed that part. 

Edited January 14, 2019 by egooririexruinam