Do Grad Schools Look at Senior Class Grades?

[vnatch]

Hello, 

I'm currently a junior, and I'm trying to organize my grad school list (i'm trying to get into a decent PhD program) and the coursework I need to complete before graduating. My main question is: since I'll be turning in all of my applications during the fall of my senior year, do grad schools somehow check on my grades for these last two semesters? I'm not sure how they would do this, unless they ask for copies of my transcript after fall semester is over. The reason why I'm asking is that I'm basically done with my biology major, and I'm now thinking about picking up a second major in Statistics. It would only require 5 additional classes, which I could definitely knock out during my fourth year. My concern is that, while I do enjoy stats, I'm inherently much better at bio than stat. I'm not saying my grades will be awful, but they might drop my GPA a bit. I like stat, but if my worse grades in those classes could compromise my chances of getting into a good PhD program then I'd rather not risk it. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

[RCtheSS]

If accepted, graduate schools will ask for a copy of your official transcripts before you can register for classes in the semester you were admitted. They want to verify that you completed the coursework to complete a bachelor's degree.

Edited March 5, 2016 by RCtheSS

[EpiGirl2016]

I second what was said above, in addition, it also depends on the school/program I think. Some schools (Harvard and Yale are ones that I am aware of) allow you to enter your Fall classes in the the application and then you can go back and add the grades once they come in, after you have submitted the rest of your application. Though I believe it was optional. I had a school that required the submission of an unofficial transcript that included my senior Fall grades as soon as they were available. Though I don't know if that was a school wide policy or specific to the department that I applied to.

[Eigen]

Your GPA isn't important enough to not take classes (and gain a new skill set) just because you might drop your GPA "a bit".

[dinny]

I got into good grad programs with a disastrous senior year. I should say that I had extraneous factors that were well explained in my LOR. My senior year looked like B/B-/B/B/IP and spring W/B/A-/B+/IP for an otherwise A student....

[levodopa]

I feel like graduate programs would appreciate it more if you take the time during senior year to pick up new things/skills through class or otherwise. I didn't have a great senior fall (last semester) but schools that later received those grades didn't reject me. The mostly just needed it to formally give me an acceptance.

Edited March 12, 2016 by levodopa
grammar

[rhymespit]

If you're applying to graduate schools during your senior year, then programs definitely will not care about your Spring grades and very, very few (Harvard and MIT were the only ones for me) that even allowed you to enter your Fall Semester grades once you received them.

With that said, I got an interview invite to Harvard before I had even submitted my Fall semester grades, so they probably didn't make too much of an impact in my admission.

You do have to pass your classes and get your degree in order to accept any offers that you get for the following year but I wouldn't stress out too much about getting straight A's.

Also important to note that most deadlines occur by mid-December...before most peoples semester's have ended (plus a time lag to request transcript with updated grades on it)

 

Go for the Stats classes!