Will the fact that I am repeating a course affect my graduation application?

[espresso68]

Hello!

I am nearing the end of my undergraduate program so I'm pretty much taking a variety of elective courses to fulfill my university credit requirement. One of the courses I am currently taking is a course that I took three years ago. I am not retaking the class because I failed it or did terribly bad in (I got an A-), but because I want to see a different interpretation/perspective of the information, as well as gain new knowledge of the material since it is being taught from a different professor from an entirely different professional background. I loved this class so much when I first took it that I immediately jumped at the chance to take it again, but now I am wondering if it may draw red flags in my application. For example, the graduate admission committees might make conclusions that I retook this course for an easy A, or that I took the seat of another student and that I am taking up the time and efforts of the professor. I know i'm probably over-analyzing the situation, but I just want to make sure my application is at its best. Any feedback is welcome

Thank you! 

[cannedheat]

I can't speak to your question specifically but at my undergraduate university, you could not repeat courses for credit unless you had failed it previously. I'm not sure how that would look on your transcripts.

[jmk]

Unless your university has some really lenient retake rules, the grade (and units?) you receive this time around may not be factored into your GPA. I would check with an advisor at your university how this class will show up on your transcript. 

I am not applying this year, but recall from reading CSDCAS that they do have a repeat policy. I would read up on the FAQ for CSDCAS, and potentially email them. If you are very concerned, I would also email schools you are applying to and ask them how retakes are calculated into your GPA. Some may take the highest grade, others may combine the two grades, but since this is a retake for a class you passed before, they might not even factor in your second class or units. This is a unique situation since you did not fail the class the first time. 

I personally do not think it will look negatively on your transcript at all. Though not quite the same situation, people take electives like Ceramics or Yoga multiple times, I don't see how one elective course would be any different. 

[jpiccolo]

You could always audit the class. It wouldn't be for credit buy you can still go and learn. 

[mr479]

The energy you are putting into worrying about this is a waste of time. I doubt anyone will even notice such a minor detail.

[Crimson Wife]

I repeated Organic Chemistry 1. This was the course my 1st alma mater used as "weed-out" for pre-meds and they set the median grade to a C+ (ouch!)  So pretty much everyone who continued on as a science major and/or pre-med wound up repeating the course. My transcript lists the 1st grade as RP with 0 credits and then the 2nd grade I kept with the credits earned. I had to flag it in CSDCAS as a repeated course and I don't believe that it factors into their calculations. I can't imagine that a SLP program is going to base their acceptance/rejection of me on the fact that almost 20 years ago I had to take orgo twice, KWIM?

[esopha]

I withdrew from a historical linguistics class my senior year, which was a class for my minor. I ended up taking a class about the evolutionary foundations for language instead. Potentially a turn-off for an ad comm, I guess, but I'm not too concerned.

No one's transcript is perfect, so don't worry about it. :)

[haltheincandescent]

I can't imagine that it would be a problem. It might be a different situation for you, but a lot of courses in my undergrad department were coded with the same number, but because there would be completely different topics each semester, you could retake it a few times. So, the course might have been "20th c. American Lit." but you could take it once as Science Fiction, and once as Literary Postmodernism, etc. I did this once, and, on my transcript, both just show up as "ENG400." So, even if your course isn't explicitly a topics course, this seems to be a pretty common thing, to have retake-able courses, and with that, I don't think anyone will look twice at a twice-listed course number on your transcript, especially since you got an A- in the first one.

Edited November 10, 2015 by haltheincandescent