GPA

[pacificwar]

I was officially notified that I had conditional acceptance, after I received my acceptance for graduate school.

In the official letter I received, from my department, was that the reason stated was because I had a GPA lower than 3.0, but this is incorrect. I even sent them my final transcript and my application transcrip had above a 3.0

Now, I did go to 2 other schools and had below a 3.0 there, but I didn't go there for very long. I wonder if they took that into consideration.

The weirdest thing is that as part of my conditional acceptance, I have to get atleast a B (3.0) in all my classes, but this is true for everyone in the master's program. And after 15 credits them remove my conditional status.

What really irks me is that I was denied a graduate assistantship because of this. I haven't spoken to my department yet and I am not sure what to do.

[saints]

Definitely give them a call and clarify. There could be some misunderstanding somewhere.

[marcelass]

The exact same thing happened to me. Because of a low GPA, I was conditionally admitted, and i will have to mantain a 3.0 gpa, just like you, for the first 15 credits. And I am concerned I may have lost the assistantship because of that. The admission criteria for the university, however, was a minimum 3.0 GPA, and mine was above 3.0. I wonder if there could have been a mistake? Even though your post was from 2 years ago, I wonder how it turned out, has anyone here had a similar situation happen?

Would anyone know if, for international students, they take into consideration the GRE score over the foreign undergraduate GPA?

[LostInTranslation]

Were you guys talking about an MA program or a PhD program? I think that in general it is a bit tough to get in to a PhD program with a GPA below 3.5. Most MA programs would not fund you unless you are a stellar applicant. Quite frankly, you should be very thankful that you got in. There are many students with very high GPAs who get rejected.

[gadhelyn]

I think that in general it is a bit tough to get in to a PhD program with a GPA below 3.5.

People need to stop putting so much damn emphasis on your GPA for PhD programs. They look at EVERYTHING. I have way less than a 3.0 due to financial and personal factors that impeded my ability to spend time studying and I got an interview at a PhD program, have a chance at getting in. Being a good undergrad does not necessarily mean you're a good academic, just that you can memorize and spit back out for exams.

[IvyHope]

Well, the GPA is in fact a reliable predictor of success in graduate school- if not, they would not consider it.

However, they pay attention to grades, as well as grade trends, difficulty of coursework, last two years of GPA, major GPA, etc. There are plenty of people who get into solid PhD programs with below 3.0 cumulative GPAs. I am an example of this- a 0.5 GPA at my first university, bombed out in fact, and then a 2.5 at a community college, and a close to 4.0 at the 4 yr I finished up in. As a first generation college student, I was able to explain why I wasn't ready for college work when I began at 18. I am performing very well in my doctoral program.

However, more programs are moving to these sort of standards to determine funding. That isn't just fellowships- but increasingly, assistantships. So if your GPA is below 3.0 cum, you might have a hard time getting funding. Kind of a bummer.

[sunshine6]

Just my two cents.

A program I applied to said that you could be accepted conditionally if you were missing courses they considered intro courses, and/or if you had a lower GPA. The only difference seemed to be funding. Once you take said courses or were able to pass classes with a 3.0 then you were eligible for assistantships or funding.

Perhaps you are missing courses but were sent the letter about GPA by mistake? I would definitely call and sort it out..

Anyways, Congrats on your acceptance!

[Tonights]

However, they pay attention to grades, as well as grade trends, difficulty of coursework, last two years of GPA, major GPA, etc. There are plenty of people who get into solid PhD programs with below 3.0 cumulative GPAs. I am an example of this- a 0.5 GPA at my first university, bombed out in fact, and then a 2.5 at a community college, and a close to 4.0 at the 4 yr I finished up in.

Thank you so much for sharing this story. I was beginning to feel terrified. I did not do well at my first college (which I only went to because it was free for me) and have been really stressing about my GPA there, which I think was just under 3. But when I transferred I improved greatly and had a 3.7 in my final two years. I will try to breathe a little easier knowing that not all is lost.

[belowthree]

But when I transferred I improved greatly and had a 3.7 in my final two years. I will try to breathe a little easier knowing that not all is lost.

Oh man if you had such an excellent GPA in your last two years I wouldn't worry so much! They do take that kind of thing into account from what I understand.

As someone who's applying without the benefit of an upward trend, I can assure you not all is lost even if you don't have this benefit.

[Tonights]

As someone who's applying without the benefit of an upward trend, I can assure you not all is lost even if you don't have this benefit.

Ha, thanks. I also have a reeeeeeaally low quantitative GRE score (the kind of score that would elicit some of the reactions you've listed in the other GPA thread) but I've been told my most of my department chairs that it's not a problem being as I'm not in a math-oriented field. So we're not all as perfect here as we seem!

[thepoorstockinger]

I was officially notified that I had conditional acceptance, after I received my acceptance for graduate school.

In the official letter I received, from my department, was that the reason stated was because I had a GPA lower than 3.0, but this is incorrect. I even sent them my final transcript and my application transcrip had above a 3.0

Now, I did go to 2 other schools and had below a 3.0 there, but I didn't go there for very long. I wonder if they took that into consideration.

The weirdest thing is that as part of my conditional acceptance, I have to get atleast a B (3.0) in all my classes, but this is true for everyone in the master's program. And after 15 credits them remove my conditional status.

What really irks me is that I was denied a graduate assistantship because of this. I haven't spoken to my department yet and I am not sure what to do.

Is the combined GPA for all the courses you took above a 3.0? If so that this is pretty strange.

[csApplicant]

cumulative 2.80 here. i got accepted to a few top 20 schools. i am fully funded.

my last two years i maintained pretty much a 4.0 and it was at a different school.

look, this is the way i see it. the stuffy schools will dump my app in the trash because i'm not an ideal student and i didn't win any major prizes. but schools that really looked at my application noticed the other accomplishments on my application.

i KNEW i would get dumped immediately from princeton, yale, harvard, stanford, mit, penn. i felt they are looking for the cookie cutter applicant. plus, some of them lumped my grades all into one category - all my schools for one gpa instead of looking at each institution separately- so they probably only saw my 2.80 and never took the time to see my 4.0.

plus, it probably doesn't bode well for them to have 2.80-ers at their school, particularly so because they can choose whoever the hell they want. i don't find those five schools to be diverse at all. however, i knew that other schools would give me a chance and remember that i paid a LOT of money to apply to their damned schools. i really appreciate those schools that really looked at my application. those are the schools i would want to be at anyway.

just my two cents.

[LostInTranslation]

People need to stop putting so much damn emphasis on your GPA for PhD programs. They look at EVERYTHING.

As I have said in my previous post, it is a BIT TOUGH to get in to a PhD program with a GPA below 3.5. I did not say it is impossible, but it is tough. And the truth of the matter is, while most schools claim to look at everything (or at least theoretically) not all of them really do. Some would give your application an automatic reject if your grades don't meet their adcom's minimum standards (regardless of whether the schools openly admit this or not). This is particularly true for schools that have very low acceptance rates. Think about this: Do you really think it would be easy for applicants with less than a 3.0 GPA to compete for a spot at a program which receives hundreds of applications and only accepts between 2 to 3 students per year? And for those schools which are more forgiving about less impressive grades, they look for other things in your application that would compensate for them such as very high GREs, grade trends, conferences, publications, recommendation letters from established people in the applicant's field, strong personal statements that give concrete explanations for the less impressive GPAs, etc. Again, I did not say it is impossible. But it really is A BIT TOUGH!

[csApplicant]

LostInTranslation - I think you are absolutely right.

Why WOULDN'T people emphasize GPAs? It's ridiculous to say it's not emphasized.

During my interviews, I was told under a certain GPA (with considering improvement), immediately applications were dumped. GPA definitely matters.

[GreatMix]

I gotta say that I find this probable policy of some of these schools of just dumping applicants solely based on GPA offensive. I mean, if they're not going to look at an application that you've PAID them to review (ever heard of fee for SERVICE) - that's just wrong. People aren't just applying to PhD programs without some level of qualifications and they deserve, and have paid to have, their applications properly reviewed. There are LOTS of things to take into consideration and some of these schools don't even ask for enough information to properly be able to consider if you would be a great applicant.

For example, I have a 3.2 GPA from an undergrad that I had a dual major in from a top school that basically had grade deflation (there have only been 4 4.0s in this school's history, which they are proud of). Even though it's a top school, it's not that well known, particularly in my field of application. Therefore, schools looking at my GPA won't know about this school's policy of deflation and might basically chuck my application on that alone. But I can assure you, having a 3.2 from this school vs a 3.8 from a lesser school would not be a better indication of my success in a PhD program.

[belowthree]

I gotta say that I find this probable policy of some of these schools of just dumping applicants solely based on GPA offensive.

I share your feelings, but wanted to mention that a surprising number of schools I applied to did appear to consider my application. My GPA is lower than yours by about half a point and several schools loaded my additional documents from my website and/or interviewed me.

Now it certainly is very painful to actually get an acceptance with a low low GPA, but it does appear that if you have an impressive app they will still look at it. Which has been a comfort. (Although at a few in some ways it hurts to know they did actually look at it and decide to reject it anyways, but there's really no pleasant way to get a rejection letter.)

[ironjello]

so I have a question about that.

I was checking the Georgia Tech ECE page, and they say "3.25 minimum GPA."

About Me:

GPA: 3.2 (3.18 to be exact) in aerospace from Georgia Tech

experience: 3 years at NASA (aerospace), but now moving to Air Force (non-military engineering position) in signal processing. USAF tells me they do alot of business with GTRI / GT EE School and sends kids for their masters to GaTech.

How will this 3.25 gpa minimum requirement affect my application? I'd imagine...working at NASA and having the USAF pay gatech for a masters would be enough, yes?

(also, if you are an ECE or EE BS/MS grad, how difficult is it for an aero/mech BS to get an MS in EE/ECE signal processing? Since it's not analog or optics, i heard it's just alot of math.)

[belowthree]

I've been accepted several places where the GPA requirement listed on the webpage was well above my own GPA. It seems to depend entirely on the school.

I don't know about Georgia Tech specifically.