Undergrad GPA & GRE (After)

[London-Tokyo]

Not really sure where a subject like this would go...

But out of curiosity, how much (if at all) does your GRE Score and/or your undergraduate GPA matter once you get into your desired graduate uni./school?

Any comments appreciated <3

Edit: Matter in life, in career, future...etc.

---I'm talking about terminal master's, MBA...etc. Not PhD's.

Edited December 16, 2010 by London-Tokyo

[timuralp]

If you're going after a PhD, at least in my field, no one cares. Actually, people don't even look at the MS GPA. It's useful for scholarships, etc, but the important thing is the work you've done and what you've published. Each subfield is tiny and everyone knows everyone else, so you get judged by your work, rather than grades in classes.

[eklavya]

From what I have heard, GPA/GREs matter nothing once you start your grad program. You will be evaluated based on your research ability, teaching potential, publications, and how creative you are with your mind. Think about it - 4 years ago, we used to think that high school GPA is ALL that matters. Not anymore it doesn't. Same thing for our current GPA.

And once you start your pro life, GPA will become obsolete.

[London-Tokyo]

From what I have heard, GPA/GREs matter nothing once you start your grad program. You will be evaluated based on your research ability, teaching potential, publications, and how creative you are with your mind. Think about it - 4 years ago, we used to think that high school GPA is ALL that matters. Not anymore it doesn't. Same thing for our current GPA.

And once you start your pro life, GPA will become obsolete.

GPA will become obsolete---Love that line.

[Strangefox]

Not really sure where a subject like this would go...

But out of curiosity, how much (if at all) does your GRE Score and/or your undergraduate GPA matter once you get into your desired graduate uni./school?

Any comments appreciated <3

Edit: Matter in life, in career, future...etc.

---I'm talking about terminal master's, MBA...etc. Not PhD's.

Actually, I've heard that GRE and GPA can still be used when a graduate student applies for some fellowships. Not sure how true that is. Any thoughts?

Edited December 16, 2010 by Strangefox

[London-Tokyo]

Actually, I've heard that GRE and GPA can still be used when a graduate student applies for some fellowships. Not sure how true that is. Any thoughts?

Hmm...So if we don't care about fellowships, GRE & GPA = Hated memories of the past...If we get into grad. school yea?

[Strangefox]

Hmm...So if we don't care about fellowships, GRE & GPA = Hated memories of the past...If we get into grad. school yea?

I very much hope so!

[London-Tokyo]

I very much hope so!

lol...Why can't I just be a trust-fund baby...

[Medievalmaniac]

The only time in your life your GPA, GRE, etc. will matter is now through the end of your formal education/ post docs, if you go that far.

Once you are on the job market and/or in an active career outside of academia, no one gives a flying you-know-what what your GPA was - the conversation will go, "do you have a degree? What is your degree in? Oh, OK. Thanks." I got my first job out of college because I had a degree from William and Mary and a teaching license; no one asked me about my GPA (which SUCKED). Half the people you meet in real life don't know what the GRE is. None of them is going to care what your scores were. the question becomes "What experience do you have in this field?" An 800 on the quant section of the GRE, does not guarantee you can get the computers in the office back up and running after a complete systems failure. It just proved to adcomms you might be smart enough to go to their CS program to learn how to do that.

[eklavya]

The only time in your life your GPA, GRE, etc. will matter is now through the end of your formal education/ post docs, if you go that far.

Really, in your field? In mine, and from what my profs have told me, GPA is almost useless once you start your PhD. Of course you need to maintain a certain GPA (usually >3.0) to qualify for fellowships, but for obtaining postdocs and/or tenure/research positions, your nature of research, quality and quantity of your publications and who you network with are far more important than your academic performance at grad school.

[cherubie]

I would think it's just like how much your high school grades and the SAT mattered after you got into college....they don't. HOWEVER, with that said though, to some people, GPA and GRE still matter all throughout their graduate education. These people are usually egotistical, have nothing else to show for their life other than numbers, and think that getting a 3.8 (or above) and a 800 in 1 or more of their GRE sub-scores makes them the king of the world. My fiance has a "friend" who still goes around bragging about his 7-something GMAT score despite the fact that he's in business school already (and how he only studied 2 weeks for it). He brought it up just about every chance he got, which is about every other minute. There's a grad student at my lab who also does the same thing. Talks about how high his high school grades were, and randomly adding in "I got a 800 in quant on my GRE" when he gets a chance. Funny thing is both of these people don't have much else going on for them. Sad....

[Alyanumbers]

I would think it's just like how much your high school grades and the SAT mattered after you got into college....they don't. HOWEVER, with that said though, to some people, GPA and GRE still matter all throughout their graduate education. These people are usually egotistical, have nothing else to show for their life other than numbers, and think that getting a 3.8 (or above) and a 800 in 1 or more of their GRE sub-scores makes them the king of the world. My fiance has a "friend" who still goes around bragging about his 7-something GMAT score despite the fact that he's in business school already (and how he only studied 2 weeks for it). He brought it up just about every chance he got, which is about every other minute. There's a grad student at my lab who also does the same thing. Talks about how high his high school grades were, and randomly adding in "I got a 800 in quant on my GRE" when he gets a chance. Funny thing is both of these people don't have much else going on for them. Sad....

Heh, and 800Q is not such an impossibly high score! I'm sure there are other people in the lab who got the same.

I think we've all seen those people who bragged about their high school/SAT scores all through college...

PS: Did I mention I got 800 on the SAT verbal?

[cherubie]

Heh, and 800Q is not such an impossibly high score! I'm sure there are other people in the lab who got the same.

I think we've all seen those people who bragged about their high school/SAT scores all through college...

PS: Did I mention I got 800 on the SAT verbal?

Yea I forgot to mention that I got a 800Q also. It's not impossible, since 6% of the people who took it that day also got the same score :/

[TheOtherJake]

Yea I forgot to mention that I got a 800Q also. It's not impossible, since 6% of the people who took it that day also got the same score :/

I got one of those too! Psh, they were giving them away back then like slankets in hell.

Yeah, that simile works.