Looking to connect with any experienced Adcoms

[rgwen]

I'll be sending out a few grad applications at the end of the month (to non-US schools). My undergrad experience started more than 10 years ago and at the time I was the first student in a decade to complete concurrent Bachelors degrees - one awarded in 2009 and one in 2010. Sounds great just saying that, but doing this (and a few other factors) also took a toll on my engineering grades. Additionally, there wasn't really a system in place to illustrate any separation of grades on the transcript and the overall way it's displayed is odd. To combat this, I've written an explanation of the grades and I am concerned that it may read deceitful which is not my intention.

My intention is to best market myself for admission to the program. Essentially, on the transcript it just reads '2009 - degree awarded, GPA' and then further down '2010 - degree awarded - GPA.' Because there is only a year between the two, the GPAs are nearly the same - something like 2.98 and 2.95 (annoying, I know). What I am trying to do in my explanation is state that the above tells one side of the story and that another way to look at it is by separating the two degrees (General requirements + BA and then General Requirements + BS). This results in a BA in English at like a 3.4 and a BS in EE at like a 2.7. I'm trying to show a more reasonable story of success within English and lower grades within the much more difficult engineering program. I also state that the best way to look at my transcripts are probably to just examine the individual coursework. 

I'm hoping someone with experience reading and seeing transcripts can look at my explanation and help assess whether it is a fair explanation or if it sounds fishy. I want to set myself up for success rather than stop myself right at the door. 

Any help over the next couple weeks would be huge so feel free to PM me or respond here. 

Thanks

[TakeruK]

I'm not on admissions committees. However, I think it's perfectly reasonable in this case to just state your English BA GPA is 3.4 and your EE BS GPA is 2.7. You can even add this to your CV under your degree information if you would like. From my conversations with professors on admissions committee, they ask for the transcript not just because they want "proof" of your GPA, but actually because they want to see what you earned in each individual class. So, if you are applying to English programs, you can already expect faculty to inspect your transcript for courses relevant to your degree. I'm not sure what you're actually planning to write, but from your description here, it sounds like you are going to say too much and waste too much space that you can use for positive things!

My advice would to keep it to 1 or 2 sentences. You just need to say that you did a dual degree program and state your GPAs for each of your degree programs (you could even just state your English GPA since your EE GPA is not relevant). Don't make excuses about "harder" EE classes and no need to advise faculty members to look at each course individually---they know how to do their job.

[rgwen]

TakeruK,

Thanks for your prompt reply. I actually did not even reference my GPA in my personal statement other than a small comment along the lines of 'for better or worse my grades reflect this' in reference to completing both degrees. Different schools of course have different leeway when it comes to additional information and my upcoming application allows for additional materials to be submitted 'within reason.' What I have done is write a half-page explanation of my transcripts. I then took all my transcripts (I also have an MBA) and strung everything together into one PDF which I plan to upload as one document. I'll either do this as my transcript upload or as an additional material submission. I'm with you in that I feel it's fair to describe the GPAs this way, but I think it does require the explanation because if they look at the transcript it does have a GPA next to each degree...it's just that these are essentially created by time, not by coursework if that makes sense.  

"Don't make excuses about "harder" EE classes and no need to advise faculty members to look at each course individually---they know how to do their job."

Also, probably good points here - I may need to take another look to make sure I'm not doing either of the above too strongly/overtly. 

Edited October 7, 2015 by rgwen