Should I contact schools to give them final grades?

[NoMoreABD]

Hey all,

I thought I was all done with this forum and that from now on I'll only be posting in the "waiting it out" section...

No such luck

Here's the deal:

I applied to some PhD programs before I had final grades of my MA degree. I was only missing one grade, the most important one, my thesis grade. I knew I was about to receive it just after most of the deadlines.

I contacted these programs and was told I should go ahead and apply, and when I get the final grade just email them the updated transcripts and they'll add them to my file.

All very straight forward and simple. I did that, and the admission people were very nice/efficient about it.

However, there are 3 programs where the deadline was so early, that I didn't even ask. I just applied without that grade. (all the websites acknowledge the fact that students apply before they have final grades).

These deadlines have passed a long time ago, in the beginning of December.

The question is:

Do I bother them with my updated transcripts or is it meaningless? I hate to think that I withheld information that could have been useful in getting me in, but I also feel a bit ridiculous sending them documents this late.

I should mention that I got 93 (0-100 scale) on my thesis, which is accidentally EXACTLY the average in the transcripts I sent. So it doesn't change anything in terms of numbers. It just proves that I finished my degree with a 93 final grade and that I got a very high grade on my research.

What do you think?

Edited January 21, 2012 by Foreign Guy

[finknottle]

Well just shoot out mails. No harm in trying. If you need to mail soft copies of your updated transcripts, it isn't a lot of work. If you need to mail official copies, it might not be worth the cost or the effort. If you have spoken about your thesis/research in your SOP, the grade isn't going to give them more information since it is exactly same as your average score anyway. Besides, if one of your recommenders is also your thesis advisor, it makes even lesser sense. He/She would've already spoken about your research, and an arbitrary number won't give them any more information to evaluate you than what your SOP and LOR combined already has.