Will the committee only look at the Major GPA?

[Luptior]

Most of the people will talk about major GPA in this forum but I find most of universities won't print major GPA on the transcript. So how you guys calculated that? Simply eliminated the courses not on the degree requirement or only calculated the courses opened by this major's department?

And will committees really look at it when apply for phd? Since major GPA is calculated by ourselves and doesn't appear on transcript. 

Edited May 26, 2016 by fuzzylogician
edited title

[Luptior]

 

Sorry, actually I mean "Will the committee only look at the Major GPA? " for the title.

 

[fuzzylogician]

fixed! 

[Luptior]

My GPA is not a stellar and the general education courses continue to drag it down ( I transfer from another country to US so I don't have general education courses and need to take them during junior and senior, and I already got a bunch of Bs in these courses...) 

And another question is if the former university's transcript plays a big role in the admission? I got like 6 Cs in some courses, p.chem 1&2, general physics lab 1&2, orgo 2 and one fitness course( okay, I have no problems in health and did pretty well in sports... just don't know why). If I got such bad grades in a US institution I think I should give up the thought of applying to graduate school, but someone told me if I transfer they really don't care about the former one.

[Usmivka]

In answer to your title, no, but a poor grade in a peripheral course might not be counted against you as heavily as a poor showing in your nominal area of expertise. You can ballpark major GPA from your transcript, weighted by credits/hours. You can address perceived shortcomings in your personal statement. I'd think that if you have a strong record in your science classes after your transfer, that would be to your credit. However if I was evaluating a potential student with the record you've described, I'd want to see good performance from here on out, good research experience with published results, and a good showing at the GRE. You don't need everything to be great, but aim for two out of three of the grades/test scores/research trifecta.

Edited May 31, 2016 by Usmivka

[Luptior]

On May 31, 2016 at 5:51 PM, Usmivka said:

In answer to your title, no, but a poor grade in a peripheral course might not be counted against you as heavily as a poor showing in your nominal area of expertise. You can ballpark major GPA from your transcript, weighted by credits/hours. You can address perceived shortcomings in your personal statement. I'd think that if you have a strong record in your science classes after your transfer, that would be to your credit. However if I was evaluating a potential student with the record you've described, I'd want to see good performance from here on out, good research experience with published results, and a good showing at the GRE. You don't need everything to be great, but aim for two out of three of the grades/test scores/research trifecta.

Thanks!

I just wonder if the bad records from past can be a cutoff for the application and which really worries my a lot. I got a GPA of 3.43 from the past institution which also gives a department rank of 28/329 （roughly 9%）which seems not that bad, will the committee take that into consideration? 

Another question is that I know GRE is also an important and mandatory for application, but I was also thinking about taking one more GRE sub. I want to apply for biochem program so GRE biochem is a must. But since the grades I took in chemistry part(Orgo 2 and Pchem) were not that decent in my former institute, I'm considering about taking Chem sub at the same time. One friend told me if I did good in the test which can offset the grades a little bit, is that true?

[Usmivka]

Every committee is different. If there is something you want the committee to consider, present it to them in your application. That seems like a fine GPA if you are improving from there (see for example all the posts in this forum about sub-3.0 admissions), but performance in specific classes is probably more relevant than overall GPA.

A strong performance on a GRE subject test could help you, but a weak one will hurt--once you take the test, I think the score may be sent out every time you request your GRE be sent to a program as well (but I don't really know and you should check). So if you are not confident that you will do very well, and it isn't required, I wouldn't take any subject tests. I think the time you spend preparing for that would be better spent on research and writing. Others may disagree, and you could search the forum for posts specific to when to take subject tests.