Crash and Burning Last Semester

[puffin444]

So...

I accepted an offer to a Ph.D program that's #1 in my field. I am currently finishing up my undergraduate

degrees (triple major). For my last semester, I am taking 3 graduate courses and 1 undergraduate course.

The three graduate courses are not required to graduate, but they are related to my future degree. I have taken

tons of graduate courses in the past, so they are definitely not my first experience with them.

Because of the high stress of admission decisions, visiting campuses, and a unlucky bunch of truly awful

teaching professors, I'm expecting my performance to tank this last semester. This is not due to laziness. The admissions

offer did not formally offer any GPA requirements, but I will be sending my eventual transcript to the graduate

coordinator in the department once I am done. I guess they will look at the transcripts subjectively. Especially because

I don't come from the most prestigious undergrad compared to the others, I will feel a little embarrassed.

1. In the worst case scenario, this could be 2 B+'s and 2 C+'s.

I've had a 3.88 average so far, so it's definitely a noticeable drop

in performance. (Never had a C before). It would drop to around a 3.77

Should I be worried about my offer being rescinded? What does it take for that to happen?

Edited April 27, 2012 by puffin444

[mrcrzister]

I am on the same boat as you are. But I will only tank one graduate course, either B or C. I don't think it matters to me now. However, I thought differently a couple weeks ago.

A couple weeks ago, I did not get two out of three fellowships that I applied (these two are less competitive than the third waiting one, but the first two themselves are crazily competitive). So i thought I had no chance of getting the third one. Then I was thinking of what if I apply next year and my grade looks bad with B or C in graduate courses. I was sweating.

Luckily more than a week ago, I found out that I won the third fellowship that I applied for (most prestige and most money out of the three so fuk YEAH!). So now I don't mind of getting bad grades as long as I don't fail it. If I do fail, I wouldn't matter much I think. I am all set for graduate school now!

So the moral of my story is that if you are going to use your undergraduate transcripts for future applications then try to get your grades up as much as possible.

My little 2 cents.

Edited April 28, 2012 by mrcrzister

[ANDS!]

So...

I accepted an offer to a Ph.D program that's #1 in my field. I am currently finishing up my undergraduate

degrees (triple major). For my last semester, I am taking 3 graduate courses and 1 undergraduate course.

The three graduate courses are not required to graduate, but they are related to my future degree. I have taken

tons of graduate courses in the past, so they are definitely not my first experience with them.

Because of the high stress of admission decisions, visiting campuses, and a unlucky bunch of truly awful

teaching professors, I'm expecting my performance to tank this last semester. This is not due to laziness. The admissions

offer did not formally offer any GPA requirements, but I will be sending my eventual transcript to the graduate

coordinator in the department once I am done. I guess they will look at the transcripts subjectively. Especially because

I don't come from the most prestigious undergrad compared to the others, I will feel a little embarrassed.

1. In the worst case scenario, this could be 2 B+'s and 2 C+'s.

I've had a 3.88 average so far, so it's definitely a noticeable drop

in performance. (Never had a C before). It would drop to around a 3.77

Should I be worried about my offer being rescinded? What does it take for that to happen?

Kick back and have a shot of Jack Daniels. I am in the same boat (though I don't expect to get such a grade), and am not really sweating the grades. About the only negative would be if you wanted to apply for certain Scholarships/Fellowships that are based on past academics. If this isn't a concern, put your feet up and relax; you'll still graduate with honors and I imagine you'll get a cock-eyed "Skipped to the finish line huh. . ." from your future Overlords in your PhD program.

TLDR; take a load off. You've earned it.

[puffin444]

If I shouldn't worry about this, I'm just curious: what kind of grades get your offer rescinded from a

top program?

"About the only negative would be if you wanted to apply for certain Scholarships/Fellowships that are based on past academics"

1. This does concern me. I can definitely say though that these classes will probably not be related to my research.

[CarlieE]

I'm finishing up my BA now too and it's been hard getting through this semester. I'm taking 3 grad level courses and 1 other UG course and I just need to get through it, and like you try to finish up with good grades. I've kept a perfect GPA almost all the way through and it would be great to end on that high note... but wow, the senioritis has been tough to beat. (I'm in the last week now!!!)

One of my profs said that it would be ideal to end on a high GPA since the transcript does keep following us all the way through, and if we stay in academics, all through our careers (though the value of the UG transcript decreases as other things get added to our CV)... Good Luck everyone!

My 2 cents about getting an offer rescinded... I don't think they can unless you out-and-out flunk your last semester or have falsified your grades/CV/application.

[Airwalker]

Your not applying to undergrad. They arn't going to ask for a full updated grade report. The only thing they may need is a completion of degree certification. They probably won't even know you got those grades. Relax and go outside.

[SapphireSeaLion]

Let's just make one thing clear: a B is not "tanking" a class. I would assume that unless your grades are significantly different than what you've gotten throughout your undergraduate career (i.e. went from straight A's to straight C's in your last semester), you won't have to worry about an offer being rescinded.

[emmm]

Can you still change any of the classes to P/F -- just to take some of the stress off yourself?