Transcript seen by grad schools

[jimmianlin]

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone knew if first semester grades of senior year are seen by graduate schools. It seems as though the graduate apps for most schools are earlier than when people find out results of their grades that semester. Knowing this info would help me budget my time a little better.

[alleycat393]

It might be a good idea to make sure your transcripts reach the school before the deadline and then send them another transcript later on after the deadline that shows your first semester grades. You might wanna contact your grad school first though to see if they'd be happy for you to do this or if it's a complete waste of time!

What I did was to send off my trancripts as they were and to also send off a complete 'statement' of modules that I've take right from the start of my course to the very end but this was only possible because I've already chosen my modules upto the end of my course.

[adaptations]

I agree with the previous poster. You can/should submit transcripts before you complete this semester, which means this semester's grades will not be included. I think it is relatively common to send an updated transcript after the semester is complete.

I don't want to make too big of an assumption, but I get the sense you might be considering devoting more time to applications (or something else) and less time to your classes. I know in the short term this might seem like a good trade-off, but you should probably do whatever it takes to keep a stellar academic record going (or as good as possible). If for any reason you don't get accepted this application cycle, or even on future applications for grants and such, your undergrad GPA and transcripts will matter, and your senior year typically carries a lot of weight.

Good luck staying afloat, in what I'm sure is a very busy semester!

[DariaIRL]

Complete your application and mail off your transcript w/o the current semester grades, for sure. When you do get those semester grades, email the grad office to see if they'd like an updated transcript.

[rising_star]

I think it depends on when your current semester ends. In my MA program, the semester ended in early December so I actually did send transcripts with the fall semester's grades on them to schools with Jan 1 or later deadlines.