How much can I slack off now? (physics grad school)

[Minalee]

I got accepted to a grad school I wanted. The problem is that I lost motivations and I already missed a couple of assignments. 

Will the school care if I get really bad grades this semester? 

[reinhard]

Good luck with applying for scholarships in the future.

[Minalee]

Do they look at undergraduate grades for grad school scholarships?

[PhDerp]

I got accepted to a grad school I wanted. The problem is that I lost motivations and I already missed a couple of assignments. 

Will the school care if I get really bad grades this semester? 

 

I also want to know the answer to this question... I have mostly A's in my majors. Would a semester of B's be critical to my future success? Or even C's?

I'm switching one class to Pass/Fail, because there's just... No reason not to. It's just for a minor, and I'm allowed to do it. So in the end, this will only be relevant to 3 classes for me anyway.

[astaroth27]

Depends how bad and depends on the school. I would think that if you straight failed a required course they would withdraw their offer because you wouldn't be graduating on time. I am with you on how tedious this semester seems now though. I am just ready to move on.

[geographyrocks]

I got accepted to a grad school I wanted. The problem is that I lost motivations and I already missed a couple of assignments. 

Will the school care if I get really bad grades this semester? 

I'm gonna say that most people lose motivation after they have been accepted to grad school.  You know that a new chapter in your life will start soon, and undergrad seems almost meaningless.  Of course, you aren't officially accepted yet.  I believe they have to have your final transcripts before they can officially accept you because you have to prove that you earned a Bachelors.  So if you fail your classes, your grad school might have a few questions.  I don't know that anyone has been rejected, but why tempt fate?  Suck it up like the rest of us do and try to muddle through the best you can WITHOUT failing classes. 

[bsharpe269]

I think the problem is that the knowledge that you are gaining now is probably important for graduate school so you may want to really focus in to get ready. You should be reading extra papers in your field right now so that you can get working right away and not waste time catching up knowedlge wise.

 

I think that in general, this is why time off is recommended. If you are feeling burnt our already than are you up for 6 more years?

[Monochrome Spring]

Of course you can't fail your classes because you still need to graduate. But you can get a few lower grades like B's and C's. Note, however, that your acceptance and any funding offers may be contingent upon a certain GPA. Also, fellowship opportunities for the first few years of graduate school may require undergraduate transcripts, and a low GPA because of a poor last semester will only hurt you. It's your choice in the end, but be sure to weigh the consequences before you slack off too hard.

[TakeruK]

Do they look at undergraduate grades for grad school scholarships?

 

Yes! They totally do. Grad school grades are pretty much meaningless because most programs want you to spend most of your time doing research. In Physics programs, the department mostly care about your academic knowledge through your performance in qualifying and comprehensive exams.

 

Don't slack off that last year. When you apply for fellowships/scholarships in the first year or two of grad school, you will have very few grad school grades (in first year) and only 1 year of grad school grades vs. many years of undergrad grades in your second year. Also, you probably took 5 courses per semester during undergrad but only 2-3 during grad school. Your undergrad courses will be dominating your GPA for future scholarship applications.

[Boba felt]

I know for Yale they told me I had to send in my official transcript before starting classes and they expected me to have roughly the same GPA upon graduation as what I submitted as part of my application.  They told me there was no official cut-off but if my GPA fell by roughly 0.5 pts or more (3.8 to 3.3 for example) that could affect my admission offer.  Keep up the grades!

[PhDerp]

OK, I have my game plan:

 

-Take one class pass/fail,

-Get at least an A in the easy class,

-Get at least a B in the elective class,

-And get at least a C in the class I'm only taking to finish up a math degree. (This would be my first C.)

 

My average for the semester will be at least a B, which is a 3.0, and can't bring my GPA down too much since it's only 9 graded credits.

 

 

...I swear I'm normally not this lazy!! I'm just kind of sick of the class I'm planning on getting a C in, and it's not relevant to my research!!

[astaroth27]

I think the problem is that the knowledge that you are gaining now is probably important for graduate school so you may want to really focus in to get ready. You should be reading extra papers in your field right now so that you can get working right away and not waste time catching up knowedlge wise.

 

I think that in general, this is why time off is recommended. If you are feeling burnt our already than are you up for 6 more years?

 

That is kind of a false equivalency though. Just because you are sick of being an undergrad does not mean you are too burned out for grad school. Graduate school is NOTHING like undergraduate study. I definately agree with catching up on the latest research in your field to prep though.