School changed my GPA after I graduated...

[Goobah]

Okay everyone, I am coming with this issue because I am for real not sure 1. How I should feel about this, and 2. What I should do about it...

I am a non-trad student with transfer hours from 5 different undergrad institution.  When I transferred to my final location, they evaluated all my schools and decided to take classes from one university, but not count them for GPA.  This was my earliest foray into college (1992-1993).  I asked an advisor about it at the time, and he said the registrar's office makes the final determination.

 

I'm going to give full disclosure here, just so you guys have all the facts.  With those classes from 1992 (like 15 hours maybe?) my GPA is 3.72.  Without those classes, my GPA is 3.97.  Not a super big difference.  Really, I am not ashamed of a 3.72.  I am not invested in it either way.  I called and spoke with my new grad program immediately because I was terrified they would think I was mis-representing myself.  They were so very gracious!! They said it wouldn't make a difference to my admission, but once my UG institution had my GPA all "figured out" to send them their final determination just for transparency reasons.  Yay, I agree

 

How I found out they re-calculated my GPA:  I downloaded a transcript on June 7 (I walked on May 6) that had my Bachelor's degree posted, and my Summa Cum Laude award posted.  I get my Diploma on Jul 15, and there is no summa cum laude on it, and another Honors is printed on the wrong line.  I contact them to tell them of the discrepancy.  The first response was we show you are supposed to have both, I send them a scanned copy of mine.  Then I get an email saying the whole thing was a mistake and "at the end of the semester your transfer credits were added in for GPA purposes."   That's it. No apology, no explanation, nothing.  I asked to speak to someone else about this, because I'm not sure how you go for 3 years at a university and someone not spot the fact that your transfer credit is being calculated incorrectly, and then, for it to be done without notification 1.5 months after I have left the university seems wrong to me.

I guess what I'm asking you guys is realistically, what should I expect as a resolution? I'm currently working with the registrar's office.  My mentor from the UG institution advised that I contact the Ombudsman's office.  I was awarded Summa Cum Laude by my UG, and they are taking it away because of the calculation this summer.  I had asked numerous advisors why they wouldn't calculate those credits in for my GPA, they all stated something to the effect of, "The registrar makes the final determination at intake.  They do whatever they want to."  I think I did my due diligence in talking to 2 separate advisors.  Mind you they were casual conversations.  AND 3 years ago.  Also, the catalog states they have the right of final determination at the time of matriculation to accept credit or not. 

My husband, friends, and family are seriously angry on my behalf.  They state I should accept nothing less than the re-instatement of my Summa Cum Laude award.  I always like to have a compromise solution, but in this case, I can't even think of one.  Any ideas?  Should I be a better advocator on my own behalf and insist on the award being re-instated or just not care because I'm in to my new program and I have official paperwork proving I'm not crazy, my UG is.

Edited July 26, 2013 by Goobah

[nugget]

I think the Ombudsman is your best bet. I admit they should have double checked everything before awarding you a diploma. My university never changes anything once you graduate. "It's a done deal," an admissions advisor once told me so they are very careful to make sure the calculations are done properly before you leave. But schools can vary. If the Ombudsman cannot work out a deal in your favour I think you should probably let it go. Many grad schools only calculate the GPA of your last 2 years so they will be recalculating it anyway and ranking the applicants based on their own interpretation of your grades.

Edited July 26, 2013 by jenste

[ZeChocMoose]

That is super bizarre, Goobah.  I have worked in transfer admissions and I had to deal with transfering of credit all the time.  Usually what happens is the university makes a determination whether the credit will transfer not the grade!  I actually never heard of a school that uses the grades of the transfered credit in calculation with the home GPA for graduation purposes.  

 

I would also reach out to the Dean of your school if you have one or the VP of Academic Affairs and explain your story.  The other factor which I would think is relevant is these courses are from 1992  I think you could argue that including 10 year old classes in the calculation of your GPA is a disservice to non-traditional students.  I am assuming that you need these transfered courses to graduate?  The other thing that I would think you could do is refuse transfer credit for them if you don't need these credits to graduate.

[MsDarjeeling]

Yikes what a pickle.  Before finishing my undergrad at a University I attended 2 community colleges and both of those grades/credits were accepted by the University and calculated into my University gpa.  That happened before I was even allowed to enroll however, so it is odd to me that your school had so many hangups.

 

I agree that you should go to the Ombudsman, but don't be surprised if they can't do much for you.  If all of your advisors told you 3 years ago that its the registrars call and you have nothing in writing "guaranteeing" that your 3.97/summa cum laude was final and couldn't be changed then it is likely you'll have to accept the retraction.  Like you said a 3.72 is nothing to frown about and it is great that it won't affect your intended graduate program.

[ANDS!]

This isn't really all that difficult of a situation. . .due to the error of the university, your GPA wasn't calculated correctly (or had a delay in processing for whatever reason) - now it is.  You can complain, but what are they going to do: "Sorry we didn't do our job years ago. . .sure we'll give you back the incorrect GPA which doesn't reflect your academic work."

 

At the end of the day, if you really feel a Summa Cum Laude notation on your transcripts is going to be the difference maker in your future, push the issue (which again, isn't really an issue that could/should result in you getting the honors).

[Goobah]

Every university does it differently, but yeah, I've seen a number of stories online where it is pretty common to not use transfer credit to calc GPA.   I think  I need  one off the 5 classes to graduate (i'll have to double check) -- Comm 1.   I'll take the lower GPA rather than have to have my bachelor's rescinded hahaha.

 

I guess I just really feel cheated.  Swindled and pimped, tricked by a business... (ha!)   When I spoke with a person from my grad program, they were genuinely puzzled and said that had never happened before.  She asked why it took so long after semester close for them to review my GPA, and why wasn't it done before graduation.  Yeah, I guess that's the puzzle isn't it. 

The worst part of it is, that I was warned 80,000 times by upper classmen to document, document, document.  So I did.  Even with my documentation -- I know the name of the advisor I spoke to, and I know the names of the 2 other advisors I spoke to.   All of them basically said, (paraphrased -- and with such confidence that they didn't even review my transfer credit) "The registrar's office is notorious for not being consistent in loading transfer credit.  We've tried to fight the good fight and every time they tell us they have the final determination.  If that's the determination, I 'd stick with it."  I do have documentation that an advisor looked at my transcript and they moved transfer credit from one category to another to satisfy some course requirements.    I have really tried to avoid throwing every advisor I asked about this under the bus, because I would hope that the registrar's office sees the mistake was theirs to begin with.  If they are the ones that erroneously posted transfer credit 3 years ago, then  maybe they should man up to that.   I cannot see in anyway that I'm supposed to be responsible for fighting something as nebulous as "transfer credit determination" especially when all documentation is worded that "We are the final authority, we can choose to make any determination we wish AT TIME OF INTAKE."  I get that I have responsibility to make sure my own records are correct, but dang how much?

They had 6 months to review my transcript before I graduated. I guess I'm just really annoyed because I feel like they had multiple points at which to catch this error themselves.  Intake, speaking to advisors -- ALSO, I had to apply for re-instatement because I left the university for over a year!!  So they had another opportunity upon re-instatement to review my records.  Then during graduation review, and again, someone separate had to review my records for the Summa Cum Laude award.  Soooooooooo why would this be my fault at this point? 

 

Ugh, it's just an error of stupidity... 

 

That is super bizarre, Goobah.  I have worked in transfer admissions and I had to deal with transfering of credit all the time.  Usually what happens is the university makes a determination whether the credit will transfer not the grade!  I actually never heard of a school that uses the grades of the transfered credit in calculation with the home GPA for graduation purposes.  

 

I would also reach out to the Dean of your school if you have one or the VP of Academic Affairs and explain your story.  The other factor which I would think is relevant is these courses are from 1992  I think you could argue that including 10 year old classes in the calculation of your GPA is a disservice to non-traditional students.  I am assuming that you need these transfered courses to graduate?  The other thing that I would think you could do is refuse transfer credit for them if you don't need these credits to graduate.

[Goobah]

No it's not difficult, I just wanted to know if someone had a more creative solution than the binary yes/no (award/no award)

I don't feel like the Summa award would actually make a difference, to be extremely honest, I feel like I kept telling someone they had screwed up it -- that I wasn't actually qualified for the award, but the university awarded it to me, so I put it on all my applications -- the misery of feeling like I mis-represented myself.   Again, I have paperwork to show I didn't purposefully misrepresent myself, and that it wasn't my final semester grades that caused the change.

I don't feel like I have to have the award re-instated, but I don't like feeling taken advantage of .. i.e. the school can do whatever the hell it wants to, and the student has to suck it up.  That seems a very patriarchal view to me.   I just want some culpability -- like an official letter they can write and I can put on file with my grad school stating they incorrectly calculated it and when, and that it was their mistake they missed it, not mine. Not because I'm so broken hearted over losing the award, it's because I feel like it caused me to mis-represent myself.   It's more about the principle rather than just the re-instatement of the award.  Also, fixing the process for future students would be nice.   That's why I originally asked for input on other "solutions" rather than just the re-instatement.   

As any transfer student will tell you, GPA isn't a simple matter.   Every school has different rules and dealing with the tons of rules makes life fun.  I wish GPA were strictly a matter of reflecting academic work, but it's not.   I wanted mine to reflect my actual work -- so again, I'm happy with the 3.7 hahaha.  That's the irony.  Just was honestly looking for some more creative solutions. 

 

**edited to take out the phrase, "apology letter" because it's not really an apology, I just want a letter proving they screwed it up, despite my due dilligence.

 

This isn't really all that difficult of a situation. . .due to the error of the university, your GPA wasn't calculated correctly (or had a delay in processing for whatever reason) - now it is.  You can complain, but what are they going to do: "Sorry we didn't do our job years ago. . .sure we'll give you back the incorrect GPA which doesn't reflect your academic work."

 

At the end of the day, if you really feel a Summa Cum Laude notation on your transcripts is going to be the difference maker in your future, push the issue (which again, isn't really an issue that could/should result in you getting the honors).

 

Edited July 28, 2013 by Goobah

[Tuck]

I have nothing to add except that I sympathize with what a hassle it is to wrangle transfer credits!

 

I have undergraduate credits from five different schools; I'm starting grad school this month, so that will be school #6. If I ever apply to PhD programs in the future, I'll likely end up paying more in transcript fees than in application fees. Ha.

[danieleWrites]

I sympathize, and totally get it. It's bureaucracy. I don't think there is anything you can do about it. You earned the lower GPA. While you went for years believing it didn't count because someone made an error and people kept compounding the error, I don't think you can really do anything to change it. I've spent half of my life either in the military or married to it (we were not in at the same time), so I have a very clear understanding of how bureaucracy works and how it really puts it to you. Your original adviser didn't care about your grades, it wasn't his problem, and he told you who was responsible: the registrar's office. At that point, you should have gone to the registrar's office and had them clear it up specifically, and once they did, had whoever made the determination put it in writing for you, with a signature. Since that did not happen, you were led to believe, for years, that you had a higher GPA and had earned Summa Cum Laude. Without documentation from the registrar, I don't think you have a way of getting your preferable GPA re-instated, creatively or otherwise.

 

We had a friend who was overpaid three months in a row back when the army and the rest of the government was transitioning from paper pay checks to direct deposit. They always lost our paychecks. Anyway, they kept the money in a saving account for a year or so, in case the government wanted it back, and then spent it. Three years later, the guy didn't get paid for two and a half months because they took it back and didn't bother to ever tell him why. He was totally hosed and had to take out a couple of expensive loans to cover it, and crawling up the chain of command didn't get him anywhere, just some sympathetic, sorry, can't help you.

 

You've got the same problem. The registrar made the error in your favor; but, when the bureaucracy eventually caught onto the error, they fixed it. Unless you have documentation from the registrar stating that they were not accepting the grades from your transfer credits, you're stuck. Your only option is to return to the registrars office and ask them to change it, followed by taking your frustrations to the ombudsman for what amounts to an official apology from the university. If you put yourself out there with the better GPA, an official apology from the university, on paper, will do wonders for covering you from any fallout. You may never need that letter, but in academia, where integrity is everything, you don't want the registrar's mistake to come back and bite you. So even if you decide to not fight for the summa cum laude, you should get that letter from the university that explains who made the mistake and keep it on file. It's not satisfaction, but it is the university backing up your integrity, which they owe you.