How best to state GPA

[virion]

Hi! First time posting, but I've learned quite a bit on these forums over the last few weeks. I've taken the general GRE and subject (Bio) test now, so I've moved on to freaking myself out about non-GRE issues.

So, I'm wondering how best to state a GPA in one's CV or statement of purpose. Obviously, I don't want to be dishonest. The lowest value of my "ways of stating" my GPA is, as expected, my grand sum of college/community college (goofed off first year, etc). My overall from the institution I graduated from (well over 90% of my credits) is a little higher, major is higher than that. The "last two years" values look most impressive, but I'm worried that they'd be conceived as dishonest. I don't know that people would actually list "GPA last two years" on a CV, or if that's just something they expect the committee to see via transcripts.

So here is my list I'm choosing from:

Total main university: 3.53

Total university: 3.50

Total with CC: 3.47

Major: 3.68

Last two years: 3.77

Last year: 3.92

My main concern is that "total with CC" is naturally the most honest version. It has to be stated, as I see it. So I'm left with a need to be slightly more impressive, but I feel like listing more than one other one could seem desperate and draw more attention to the low GPA. Does this make sense?

Other information, because people will undoubtedly remind me that there are many factors besides GPA which are important (I know, but thanks! I am continually reminding myself this ). Undergrad from a pretty much unknown state school. I have about 3 years research experience in the form of undergrad/honors thesis project and a great research job since graduation in my exact field of interest (contract for another year). No publications, at best could change to submitted 2nd author by time of apps. Letters of rec should be great, previous coworkers got into Yale, Stanford, etc. GRE 730Q/640V/?A, bio subject 86th percentile, 96th cell/molecular subscore.

So I've got some good, some not so good aspects here, but I'd like to focus on the weakest link which is the GPA! Am I right in feeling that they aren't quite low enough that I should spend any time whatsoever on them aside from stating the values?

[lyonessrampant]

I don't know if this is true in your field, but a lot of the applications I filled out asked for the cumulative GPA, major GPA, and GPA for the last two years. Maybe check the app for the programs you're interested in and see if that is true for you. As for addressing it in your SOP, I didn't talk about grades at all, though I've heard that if you feel like you need to you should, though briefly. Maybe when talking about your interests you can just add a sentence saying something like "my academic performance improved substantially once I found my interests in X, Y, Z. While I regret my lack of discipline (or something. . .maybe wrong word) the first two years of college, I don't think the resulting grades at that time accurately reflect my abilities or work ethic, as do the much higher performances later once taking courses relevant to my work such as microbio, cell bio (or whatever)." Good luck!

[Eigen]

I'm assuming "GPA with CC" is combining the GPA from when you were at community college with your current institution?

I've never seen anyone combine/average GPAs from two different institutions. Most apps I've done would have required you to give the cumulative/major GPAs from each of the institutions you attended, not average them together.

[virion]

I'm assuming "GPA with CC" is combining the GPA from when you were at community college with your current institution?

I've never seen anyone combine/average GPAs from two different institutions. Most apps I've done would have required you to give the cumulative/major GPAs from each of the institutions you attended, not average them together.

Oops, I copied those averages from a word file I keep, forgot to change CC to community college.

Thanks for the feedback about the apps. I haven't actually filled any out, and I suppose it has been a while since I have looked at any (most require registration, etc... but it's getting to be about the time to do that).

Perhaps I got the idea of averaging from the fact that the automated unofficial transcripts I've seen from a few institutions do compute this average.

So I guess the answer is to look at the apps. Still curious for the sake of the SOP and contacting potential advisors in advance, though (if this is indeed a detail that should even be mentioned).

[singlecell]

I'd say list the same GPA on your CV that will be listed on your transcript as cumulative GPA. It will look best if these match. But definitely talk about how your GPA got better and better in the last 2 years in the SOP.

Congrats on your awesome GRE scores! Very very impressive.

[virion]

I'd say list the same GPA on your CV that will be listed on your transcript as cumulative GPA. It will look best if these match. But definitely talk about how your GPA got better and better in the last 2 years in the SOP.

Congrats on your awesome GRE scores! Very very impressive.

Thanks for the response. This is pretty much what I'm thinking for the CV. Cumulative followed by a very quick reassurance that I've learned to take my education much more seriously, but nothing more than that to avoid dwelling and to get on to more relevant matters.

And thanks about the GRE as well. I spent a few hours after the test looking on here and on grad program FAQs trying to determine if I should retake. I think I lucked out on the set of verbal questions, as most averages stated are a little lower. As for quantitative, I'm a bit over for some programs, while some of the top programs state averages closer to 750. Either way, I feel secure enough with it to stick. Even if I got 10 or 20 better on Q (who knows, could stay the same or even drop?), I'd be worried about a drop in V. Of course, I don't even have the writing score yet. I feel okay about it, though.

[icykirin]

I have graudated in top 10 university in China, the average GPA of the top student in my class (40 memebers) is about 82/100, switch to the other word, he will be evaluated as B, a normal student in US. Most member of our class got score under 80/100, B. However, I do not think it is fair to judge those guys by GPA.

[Eigen]

I have graudated in top 10 university in China, the average GPA of the top student in my class (40 memebers) is about 82/100, switch to the other word, he will be evaluated as B, a normal student in US. Most member of our class got score under 80/100, B. However, I do not think it is fair to judge those guys by GPA.

I'm not sure how this applies to the discussion at hand... The original post was discussing GPAs given on the 4.0 scale, in the US.

Your post seems to mostly concern the differences in grading scales between countries, which has been discussed here many times in the past.

Would you mind elaborating on your post?