Bad BSc GPA vs straight A's in MA and PhD coursework

[ak71]

Hey all,

I'm currently a PhD student and going to re-apply to some top programs in the US and UK, this season. My BSc was in math and I have so many awful grades (more like a pattern than rare incidents) but my MA and PhD grades are all A (and they constitute so many courses together). I think it's fair to expect the Bachelor's GPA to strike against my case, so I won't ask if they do. (Do they, though?!) What I want to know is where and how to address this stain in my case, if at all? Should I address them in my SOP? Should I just straight up take responsibility for the bad grades, or should I tell stories about those years?

PS 1: I took some advanced graduate courses in my BSc and got A's in all of them! Maybe mentioning that helps?

PS 2: if it's relevant, my recommendation letter writers are all established philosophers from top schools and I know they will write great stuff about my MA years and/or my sample of writing, etc.

PS 3: Given that all of the departments that I'm applying to have dropped the GRE requirement, I'm not planning to take the test.

I appreciate your help!

Edited October 22, 2020 by ak71

[PolPhil]

If you have a really good excuse for your poor undergraduate grades, then spend some time explaining that. Otherwise, don't focus on your undergraduate grades. Emphasize your upward trajectory and sustained recent success in graduate school. Like everyone else applying to PhD programs, your writing sample and letters are going to be most important. It sounds like you'll have great letters (and they'll be expecting that from you, since you're already a grad student). I'm assuming that you have a good candidate for a writing sample too?

[Olórin]

Uhh, how did you get in the first time? Just do that again.

[ak71]

1 hour ago, PolPhil said:

If you have a really good excuse for your poor undergraduate grades, then spend some time explaining that. Otherwise, don't focus on your undergraduate grades. Emphasize your upward trajectory and sustained recent success in graduate school. Like everyone else applying to PhD programs, your writing sample and letters are going to be most important. It sounds like you'll have great letters (and they'll be expecting that from you, since you're already a grad student). I'm assuming that you have a good candidate for a writing sample too?

No, I'm afraid there's no really good excuse for that! As for the sample of writing, I assume it's good: it's on a very new, emerging trend, and all of my letter writers seem to have loved it, one of them being a prof from my top-choice school who is a main figure working on that stuff, and who happens to be my top-choice person on the planet to work with.

Edited October 22, 2020 by ak71

[ak71]

1 hour ago, Olórin said:

Uhh, how did you get in the first time? Just do that again.

Well, that's the thing: I'm afraid one of the main reasons I didn't get into a top school was this one -- my MA classmates with objectively less presentable research resume as well MA results, but with good BA grades, all ended up in much much better schools (we also shared almost the exact same letter writers). Or maybe it wasn't among the reasons, but this time I'd rather make sure I'm doing every bit of this right!

(Caution: I'm not doing this to prove that I'm better than them or anything -- that's just an observation that later on made me think my BSc GPA did contribute to that.)

[Olórin]

19 minutes ago, ak71 said:

Well, that's the thing: I'm afraid one of the main reasons I didn't get into a top school was this one -- my MA classmates with objectively less presentable research resume as well MA results, but with good BA grades, all ended up in much much better schools (we also shared almost the exact same letter writers). Or maybe it wasn't among the reasons, but this time I'd rather make sure I'm doing every bit of this right!

(Caution: I'm not doing this to prove that I'm better than them or anything -- that's just an observation that later on made me think my BSc GPA did contribute to that.)

I suspect you'll know better than most of the people on here tbh, since most haven't gone through the process yet. It's hard for me to think I'd have insights that you don't already have yourself. To me, undergraduate grades are only important if there are no other reliable indicators of your ability to succeed academically in graduate school. But given the sustained evidence that you have of success in graduate school, I think even a 4.0 undergrad GPA would be irrelevant to many admissions committee's decisions.

Anyway, I hope things work out

[ak71]

1 hour ago, Olórin said:

I suspect you'll know better than most of the people on here tbh, since most haven't gone through the process yet. It's hard for me to think I'd have insights that you don't already have yourself. To me, undergraduate grades are only important if there are no other reliable indicators of your ability to succeed academically in graduate school. But given the sustained evidence that you have of success in graduate school, I think even a 4.0 undergrad GPA would be irrelevant to many admissions committee's decisions.

Anyway, I hope things work out

Thank you -- I hope they think like you, and I also hope that it all works out!