What's more important cumulative gpa or last 60 credits?

[Nico Corr]

I'm looking to apply to some international relations programs with a projected Fall 2017 start date. I started out at almost ten years ago, and had originally aimed to major in Psychology. After two semesters and abysmal grades in psych and anatomy classes, I decided to switch to majoring in Government. I had started out at a community college, and left there with a 2.5 gpa. I'm in my last semester of my four year university and I am currently maintaining a 3.7 gpa. I've had to put in a lot of hard working going to school and working full time, but I am happy with where I'm at right now. My question is, what do grad school admissions care about more, my cumulative gpa or my last 60 credits? Since transferring, I have gotten a full time job assisting foreign, diplomat, military and business families register their kids for a public school system, have done an internship at a public policy think tank in D.C and have taken numerous courses in foreign policy, getting all A's. I am a little worried my past failures will keep me from being competitive in the admissions process. Anyone go through this or know someone who's gone through this that can give me insight?

[SDtoMPP]

Honestly, there's no formula for what matters more. Every school is different and even then every applicant at each school is considered different based on their whole profile.

what would be really effective for you is to submit an optional essay to the schools you apply to explaining the circumstances of the low gpa. Don't make excuses that don't really exist or try to blame it on things, but maybe just talk about what changed about YOU when you changed majors and schools. Describe that journey of transformation. It's clear that with a 3.7 GPA you are capable of top programs, but they need to understand how you got to that point.