Explaining low undergraduate grades from 20+ years ago

[Expateacher]

How best to explain low undergraduate grades from more than 20 years ago when my recent graduate degree has fairly good grades?

[Kilos]

Great question with no perfect answer. Some schools/applications actually have sections laid out specifically for this. They'll ask you to "explain any extenuating circumstances" or something of that nature; in these cases it's easy to type up a 1000 character response explaining why. In scenarios where this opportunity isn't provided, you'll need to make a call as to whether or not your grades were terrifying enough to justify a mention/explanation in your SoP or Personal Statement.

Personally? I'm no expert, but I think it's pretty clear that old grades are eclipsed by new grades. Committees will almost certainly notice that a transcript is from 20 years ago, and they'll also note the marked improvement in more recent endeavors. I'd say there are caveats to this, like if you completed 3/4 of a degree at a 2.5 GPA before transferring and finishing up with a clean(er) slate, or something similar. 

In your situation (low undergrad/high graduate) I'd say you probably shouldn't worry about it too much. People change, circumstances change, and motivations change. An ancient undergraduate transcript might say something about your 20-year-old self, but your better graduate transcript shows that you're a changed, focused, more driven person who is capable of taking on graduate-level work.

I suppose at the end of the day the only person who can answer "how best to explain" your grades... is you. Were there good reasons or were you just dicking about? If you were lazy, my advice would be to dodge the old transcripts as craftily as you can, because your more recent education demonstrates your aptitude. If you had a really good reason for your sub-par work (health, family issues, financial constraints), I'd consider addressing it briefly but directly, explaining the situation while taking responsibility for the poor performance.

My $0.02. 

 

Best of luck!

[TakeruK]

My opinion is that the Statement of Purpose (and your application as a whole) should focus on the positives and only discuss the negatives when they are absolutely necessary. In your case, undergraduate grades from 20 years ago are almost meaningless, so I wouldn't even mention them at all. Grad schools want to see undergraduate transcripts for most applicants because most applicants finished their schooling a few years ago (or are applying from undergrad) so they use undergrad transcripts to gauge a student's readiness for graduate work/courses in their field. Since your degree was 20 years ago, it doesn't really matter how well or not well you did back then. They'll care more about your recent graduate degree as an indicator of your current ability to do well in their graduate program. So, in your application, I would just focus on this and other things that shows your academic preparation, e.g. did you have relevant work experience in the past 20 years? etc.

[Expateacher]

Thanks TakeruK and Kilos,

Actually, I participated in an online information session for the university and they said they are open to hearing about medical issues for low grades and don't hold that against applicants. But I read online that this was not true. So, for the application question that asks " Do you believe your grades are a true measure of your academic ability?" I will just leave that empty and not use it to explain my low undergraduate grades from long ago. Is the advice from both of  you?

[fuzzylogician]

19 minutes ago, Expateacher said:

So, for the application question that asks " Do you believe your grades are a true measure of your academic ability?" I will just leave that empty and not use it to explain my low undergraduate grades from long ago. Is the advice from both of  you?

You might simply reply "I believe that the grades from my recent graduate degree in X from school Y are a true reflection of my academic ability" or some such. Again, not saying anything explicit about the lower undergraduate grades but concentrating on the recent and relevant ones. You'd be implying that the other grades aren't a good reflection of your abilities without providing any explanations or excuses. As others have said above, those grades from 20 years ago aren't going to be nearly as important as your recent graduate degree. 

On the more general point, many people might not hold medical (or other) issues against you, but you never know who is reading the application and what they are thinking. If you don't need to provide explanations, don't. If you think you do, keep them short and concentrate on the positive.

[Expateacher]

1 hour ago, fuzzylogician said:

You might simply reply "I believe that the grades from my recent graduate degree in X from school Y are a true reflection of my academic ability" or some such. Again, not saying anything explicit about the lower undergraduate grades but concentrating on the recent and relevant ones. You'd be implying that the other grades aren't a good reflection of your abilities without providing any explanations or excuses. As others have said above, those grades from 20 years ago aren't going to be nearly as important as your recent graduate degree. 

This sounds good. That might be even better than just leaving that question blank. Thanks.

[Expateacher]

7 hours ago, fuzzylogician said:

You might simply reply "I believe that the grades from my recent graduate degree in X from school Y are a true reflection of my academic ability" or some such. Again, not saying anything explicit about the lower undergraduate grades but concentrating on the recent and relevant ones. You'd be implying that the other grades aren't a good reflection of your abilities without providing any explanations or excuses. As others have said above, those grades from 20 years ago aren't going to be nearly as important as your recent graduate degree. 

On the more general point, many people might not hold medical (or other) issues against you, but you never know who is reading the application and what they are thinking. If you don't need to provide explanations, don't. If you think you do, keep them short and concentrate on the positive.

I'm also asked if there were any interruptions in my course of study. In the early 1990s I took a year off during my undergraduate degree to travel Europe. When I returned to university I started to work at the university and went from part to full time for a while and maybe for a term did not study at all. I was in university from 1989 to 1998 to get a 3 and 4 year degree. How should I tacked answering this? If I choose 'no' for stopping in studying then the explanation text box closes. Maybe I should just not comment on it at all? It was so long ago. 19 years ago pretty much since I finished my undergraduate degrees.

[fuzzylogician]

I'd probably go for something like "Between the years X-Y I attended school Z to study W, but took several breaks during the course of my studies to travel and work. I graduated with a degree in A in year B. I then [did something else for almost two decades; keep this down to one sentence if you can], and then decided to return to school to earn a graduate education in [blah]. I subsequently completed a Masters degree in X at School Y in Years Z-W". Assuming the graduate degree was completed without interruption, that should do it. You shouldn't ignore the question since it's relevant and presumably they can see from your transcripts that your undergrad education was interrupted. On the other hand, you don't need to give a long story with too many details, because none of that matters for present purposes. All they will care about is who you are now, not what you did 20 years ago.