reporting gpa

[Monochrome Spring]

I recently posted a status about my undergraduate institution not showing certain aspects of my GPA to me on our online "unofficial transcript" site.

 

My GPA's are:

Junior college 3.95

University 3.56

Upper division university 3.68

Cumulative (JC and university) 3.73

 

My question is this: Can/Should I report my cumulative GPA when I am sending emails to professors, on my CV, and in applications where there is a place to self-report? I want to report my cumulative GPA since 1) it is higher than my university GPA and 2) courses from JC are being used as graduation requirements for my university so they should be incorporated into the GPA as such. This is opposed to using only my university GPA.

 

I am going to purchase an official transcript from my university to see how they break down my GPA. And, I know that I'll be sending transcripts from both schools, so they will see JC and uni. GPA's. In the end, I feel like my cumulative undergraduate GPA should be what I report on non-transcript items however, because I don't see a point in disregarding my JC work or listing them as separate.

 

I hope this didn't come off too vague. I just want to be certain of how I should report this.

 

[sarab]

You should definitely list your cumulative GPA.

 

I know my university breaks down the GPA as follows:

 

Institutional GPA

Transfer GPA

Cumulative GPA

[fuzzylogician]

I'm not sure I'd put my GPA in an email to a professor to begin with, but on your CV or if it comes up in an email I think it's fine to use the cumulative as long as you're clear about it. As for self-reporting in applications, you should check what appears on your transcripts and report whatever is listed there. You don't want schools to detect mismatches between self-reported numbers and official documents.

[aberrant]

I did not put my GPA on my CV but my resume. The fact that I listed schools that I attended means I have also listed GPA that I got at each school. You can also specify your UD GPA next to your overall GPA at university.

 

As for grad school application, most applications require you to list your overall GPA for each institution you attended, with a few exceptions that asked for UD GPA or cumulative GPA (such that they did not split the GPA section based on the school(s) you attended.)

 

If you are unsure about that part, always send an e-mail to the DGS. And I agreed with what fuzzylogician said, simply because they won't bother to give you a chance to explain how you get that cumulative GPA, even though it may be a simple calculation that involve credits/unit transfer.

[Monochrome Spring]

I wondered about the CV thing, because I was told that a CV is just for your shining moments. So, I was told that I don't need to list my JC courses. In that case, I would rather report my cumulative. But I think I'll stick with the university GPA, to be safe.

[fuzzylogician]

I wondered about the CV thing, because I was told that a CV is just for your shining moments. So, I was told that I don't need to list my JC courses. In that case, I would rather report my cumulative. But I think I'll stick with the university GPA, to be safe.

 

Once you graduate and start grad school you should not have any kind of GPA on your CV at all. At this point, you can get away with it because you haven't graduated yet and it's relevant (also, the standards for professionalization are set lower and as long as you don't do anything outrageous, more will be tolerated). As for listing courses, if you list any at all, I'd list all that are relevant regardless of where/when you took them. Again, this is something that you should remove once you start grad school. 

[Monochrome Spring]

Mk. That helps a lot. Thanks. : )