Concerned with the end of my first-year...

[Gratisfaction]

Hey guys,

 

Beyond lurking accepted threads (probably too many) and other subforums, I don't really have any experience with TheGradCafe. However, some things of  concern have come up. So here goes — if I'm posting in the wrong section, someone please give me a heads up!

 

I recently finished my first year of undergraduate studies at a medium-sized, state-supported institution in the States. The first semester went swimmingly and I found myself exceeding all expectations I put forth for myself. Good grades, meaningful involvement in stuff I care about, etc. I decided to take on a bigger challenge my second semester, enrolling in two upper-level courses, continuing a job (10 hours a week), and taking on another huge time commitment (10+ hours a week). While my academics took a knock, the constant challenge excited me more than anything, though I decided early into the semester that I will not be continuing my job next year.

 

The day before the beginning of finals, I got a call from my parents informing me that my grandfather had passed away. He was in another country so I was unable to attend the funeral. His death came with no warning (he was old but showed no signs of illness) and totally shook me up. By the time I had received the call, the Dean of Students office was closed and I had both a paper and an exam the next day. Both were for my upper-level classes. I was ultimately able to defer the paper one day, but I had no idea how to deal with the exam. It was past working hours for professors, the Dean of Students was closed and I had less than 12 hours before an exam I was in no mental state to take. Panicking, I decided to continue studying as effectively as I could and take the exam the next morning. The class was made up of three tests, counting towards 100% of the grade. Needless to say, I didn't do so well in the final exam and I ended with a B- in the class. My GPA is now a 3.4, dropped from a 3.76. I go to a tough school, so my GPA is still above the school's average but it's below the standard I hold for myself and below a competitive GPA for top grad schools.

 

The class was not in a major I plan to declare (I took it out of interest/thought I could handle the challenge) but I do plan on going to a professional graduate school (law, b-school, or gov't school) and I want to go to a good one.

 

So... how do I deal with this? I am thinking of retaking the class, but from what I understand, this is frowned upon by graduate schools. Is there some way I can talk to my advisor and have the circumstances noted? I was obviously not thinking straight at the time and dealt with the situation to the best of my ability, but I don't want this holding me down in the long run. Maybe I am crazed because I used College Confidential religiously when I was in high school, but I feel like this could sink my hopes even though much of what happened was beyond my control.

 

For now, the most I can do is look forward to killing my next three years of College (I know someone is going to offer that piece of advice) but what else can I do? Any and all advice is greatly appreciated!!

 

TL;DR: A death in the family before a final that determined 1/3 of my grade caused me to end with a B- in a class. How badly will this hurt my chances at a top graduate school and what can I do to rectify it as best as I can?

[TakeruK]

I'm sorry for your loss. I don't think this one grade will affect your grade school chances at all. In the long run, all of your other courses will balance it out so a single grade will have very little effect. You said your GPA was 3.76 before this course, so it sounds like you have a A- average. If you had an A- in this course instead of a B-, that is one single grade point difference. When you average it out over 40 courses, one single point will affect your GPA by 1/40 = 0.025 grade points. So, I don't think there is really much you can do at this point to change much.

 

A B- grade is not a bad grade. If it helps to know, I have several Bs and B-s in classes that are outside of my major as well as classes that are directly related to my proposed PhD research. I still ended up at a top graduate program despite this!

[victorydance]

You do not need perfect grades to go to grad school.

 

A B- in your first year is not a big deal at all.

[VulpesZerda]

Don't worry yourself too much. I actually got two B- in my first year and I will be finishing with a GPA between 3.85-3.89. I also have a couple of other small imperfections in there, of course. I think grad schools care a lot more about your major courses, and about your later years. They will also see that this was a challenging course for a first year. And one more thing is that there's a lot more to this than grades, so keep up everything else you're doing and you'll be fine!

[Fun_Cookie]

Good luck getting into a good school with a B-. It is going to get worse from here.

[Guest Gnome Chomsky]

Good luck getting into a good school with a B-. It is going to get worse from here.

Are you serious or just trying to be cute? And why do you up-vote all your own posts? Seems pretty loser-ish. But didn't you call me the resident loser for giving someone advice that everyone else agreed with? Now you're saying this person is doomed with a B-. You're a pretty weird pup, chap. At least I'm consistent.

[Fun_Cookie]

Reported for text abuse. You are a bitter bully.

[Guest Gnome Chomsky]

You're pretty soft. I give you a B- for the day. Good luck getting anywhere with that.

[Vene]

I'm sorry for your loss. I don't think this one grade will affect your grade school chances at all. In the long run, all of your other courses will balance it out so a single grade will have very little effect. You said your GPA was 3.76 before this course, so it sounds like you have a A- average. If you had an A- in this course instead of a B-, that is one single grade point difference. When you average it out over 40 courses, one single point will affect your GPA by 1/40 = 0.025 grade points. So, I don't think there is really much you can do at this point to change much.

 

A B- grade is not a bad grade. If it helps to know, I have several Bs and B-s in classes that are outside of my major as well as classes that are directly related to my proposed PhD research. I still ended up at a top graduate program despite this!

Absolutely everything said here is spot on. Some graduate schools will care deeply about GPA, others will just want you to surpass a minimum expectation and there is no correlation between this attitude and which programs are the best. Graduate schools look at the whole package, a single grade below your standard isn't going to reflect poorly upon you at all.

[Gratisfaction]

Thanks a lot guys! Your advice is encouraging and motivating — much appreciated. Is there any sense in trying to get this noted by an academic advisor or someone else? I don't want to make excuses and realize that the next 3 years will make up for this one shortfall, but I would like it to be somehow noted that the grade reflects a situation I couldn't really rectify.

 

Thanks again for the help!

[Vene]

Have you actually talked to anybody in the university about what happened? I imagine you have an advisor assigned to you and that would be a good place to start. It's going to depend on the school itself for how such a thing is handled and if anything could be done about the grade.

[TakeruK]

Thanks a lot guys! Your advice is encouraging and motivating — much appreciated. Is there any sense in trying to get this noted by an academic advisor or someone else? I don't want to make excuses and realize that the next 3 years will make up for this one shortfall, but I would like it to be somehow noted that the grade reflects a situation I couldn't really rectify.

 

Thanks again for the help!

 

In my opinion, no, it doesn't make much sense to get this noted. Things like this don't usually appear on transcripts (although it may depend on the school). However, it's not that rare for a person to get one or two grades that don't completely reflect their performance (for better or for worse) and this is just a fact of life/school.