Grades in senior year, how important are they?

[XDzard]

How much do grades matter in senior year? I'm submitting all my applications at the end of November. I have a 3.64 right now. I've only gotten 1 C before, that was first quarter of college in remedial writing. Since then, my lowest grade has been a couple of Bs. How bad would it be if I got a C or 2 this year (senior year) in classes like Advanced Molecular Biology or Cell Biology (I'm a genetics major). It would barely drop my grade (I would still have 3.6+). Would it not matter since the rest of my grades are pretty good, or might I get my offer of admission or fellowship rescinded? And if I choose to take it pass/fail, would the situation be any different?

Edited November 4, 2014 by XDzard

[TakeruK]

It is unlikely you will get an admission offer rescinded based on one or two bad (but passing) grade that they didn't see at time of application. 

 

However, it can still affect future fellowship opportunities. Many people apply to a variety of fellowships in their first year of grad school, and these organizations will see your senior grades.

 

In addition, some grad schools make fellowship decisions after all of the senior grades are in. For example, one of my schools made me an admission offer and a minimum financial aid offer of $X and said that I would be eligible for further fellowships that might increase my funding. But these fellowships would not be decided until the summer (after final grades are in). And some schools might still consider you for fellowships using your final senior grades which might not affect your funding, but it would be a shame to throw away a chance of getting a prestigious named fellowship if you can control your senior grades.

 

Finally, in some cases, TAships might be awarded competitively based on undergrad performance (although admittedly this is rare).

 

Overall, I would say that you don't have to worry about significant bad things happening (e.g. revoked offer) if you get a couple of Cs in senior year. However, they still can matter so if you are phrasing this in terms of "should I slack off in my senior year?", I'd say no, don't do it. I mean no offense by this -- I had the same thought in my senior year (i.e. wait a minute, if they don't see these grades ever, do they even matter?). I also apologize in advance if this is completely not the case and it is a matter of priorities (i.e. spend time to keep grades up or do something else that is also very important). If this is the case, then I hope my explanation of how your senior grades might influence grad school helps you determine where you need to spend your time and effort

[XDzard]

Thanks for your response! It's partially a matter of priorities (class vs work/lab) and partially me wanting to slacking off. Seems like I should keep working at it...... <1 year left!