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Embarrassed about my GPA

Anonymous — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 10:35:06 -0800

Recommender (former professor) wants to see my grades for graduate school. My last year and a half was stellar, but before that I have a smattering of Cs (five). Should I say anything? I'm a recent college graduate. For the last three semesters I had straight A's, but before that things were mixed - a combination of As, Bs, and Cs, thanks to a mix of laziness, family issues, and a long-distance relationship gone-wrong that had lasting effects. My GPA ended up being a 3.35 after dipping down to 3.0, and I'm proud of that, but not very proud of my lack of focus before as well as my overall GPA.

I'm applying to architecture graduate school, and a recommender (former professor at an Ivy, young but established and accomplished) wants to see my grades. When I took classes with him I was in focus-mode, my grades were pretty great, and I came off as a sharp and focused student. (Uh, which I _was_ by then.) Now, I'm worried that showing him my grades will be more detrimental than helpful if he sees my GPA. Should I add a note explaining the situation? Should I somehow weasel out of showing him my grades? What would you do?

Thanks! (Asked anonymously because my account is linked to my real identity.)

Depression

mccarty.tim — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 09:08:17 -0800

How do I explain to my mom and my therapist that I feel like my depression has come back and that I'm wasting my time at college? For the past two years, I've been struggling with depression. What's bad is this has been pretty much my entire college career marred by this. This probably involves Asperger's syndrome to a small degree, especially since my sister is diagnosed as autistic.

I've fallen into a cycle. At the beginning of the semester, I'm somewhat healthy and able to pull of the chores I need to do around the house or the dorm (cook dinner, mow the lawn, etc) and get my work done. A few weeks later, I start to lose my sense of motivation and begin to lag behind. By the end of the semester, I'm a borderline recluse, only leaving the house/my room for classes that I'm convinced are essential, and even them I'm somewhat late. The best I can muster is Ds and low Cs, even though I was an honor roll student in high school and enrolled in the honor program at college for the first part of freshman year.

This has happened for the two years I was at a four year college (in a dorm), and it's happening now in the middle of the semester at the community college I transferred to in order to get my grades up.

My GPA is abysmal (think low 2.x), and I'm worried my life is stuck in idle. I feel like I've shredded any goodwill or credibility that my good grades from my high school career bought me.

I know the normal answer is to take a sabbatical, but my mom was against that. She said that she didn't think she could afford to have me be around the house for a semester, and that she didn't think I'd have the work ethic to hold down a job.

I've hinted to her that I am once again falling behind, and she's threatening to send me to this 6-month facility in Michigan that is for people with Aspergers and other ASD. I'm not sure I'm that far down the spectrum (I had friends in college, and I can understand social cues and empathize with people), but I am desperate for some form of structure to straighten me out. I've even considered enlisting in the Navy, as I don't want to be a fiscal burden to my family. She's also refused to acknowledge my depression as its own illness, saying that it is an outgrowth of my ASD. Thus, I've been seeing a therapist who specializes in Aspergers rather than depression, as she will not pay for any other therapist. I've been prescribed Effexor, which has helped my depression noticeably, but I'm either building a tolerance or getting more depressed because my depression is obviously back. I've been on a host of other SSRIs, Welbutrin, and amphetamines, so I don't know if I'd really need a change of meds at this point.

What's worse is that I'm worried I tend to be in denial and lie to myself and my therapists about the issues I'm facing. How can I work around this? I get really anxious when confronting the issues, so I get worried about asking my professors how I can make up missing work. It's taken me two weeks to build up the courage to email my chemistry professor about how I can make up an exam I missed.

At home, my mom is worried about choosing and paying for a college for my high functioning Autistc sister, moving away from NJ to a place with lower cost of living, upkeeping our home which is starting to face major repair issues as it ages, and her job as an administrative assistant, which pays her poorly and is very stressful as her boss pretty much forces her to do the job of an accountant. She comes home very stressed, and it is hard to talk to her. She especially gets frustrated with my tone of voice and affect, more so than people outside the family. The noise of fingers on a keyboard or the sound of a person drinking a cup of coffee can set her off, so I think she may have auditory issues. As she is very stressed, it takes very little to set her off. I don't know how I can ask her about making a major change to fix my depression rather than just sedating it.

Most conversations with my mom end up with her yelling at me that I need to straighten up or I will end up homeless or working for a gas station, which may be true. However, it does not fix the underlying issue. She has never had issues with motivation (according to her), and she usually tells me that when she was 16, she was already employeed doing audits for the state, which gave her a free ride at college. While I'm sure she thinks the story is motivating and inspiring, it does not help me. I'm very much aware of the good things that could happen if I were motivated, the issue is that I'm not motivated, and when I'm at my most depressed, I'm not even motivated to go out of the way to do something I enjoy (IE I find it takes too much effort to start and stay with a videogame, cooking or a book, so I'll just watch TV or sleep).

Sorry for the long post. I was just wondering if I could get some advice on how best to confront my mom about these issues, and how best I can look into moving forward. I want to break this cycle that's been killing my GPA.

Been there, did that, got the degree, now what?

b33j — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 16:54:09 -0800

I've nearly finished my degree. Help me work out my future. I am nearly finished my Bachelor of Multimedia Studies. By 30 October I will have graduated with a GPA between 6.5 and 6.95 out of 7 (say, between 3.71 and 3.97 on a 4 point scale) and more likely the upper end of that range than the lower. Unfortunately, despite the name of the degree, I cannot code a decent webpage, nor work within a 3D package or do more than the simplest of animations in Flash. I’m very good with Illustrator and general graphic design, layout and formatting, mediocre with Photoshop, out of practice with Indesign. I have a DSLR, but my understanding of composition far exceeds my technical ability.

I’ve been freelancing (part-time) during much of the last 3 years, working for academics (in a different field) doing things like: creating databases (and doing the data entry for it - blargh), formatting and editing a new international journal, contacting the authors and reviewers; designing documents for print; creating presentations for international conferences; producing diagrams – that sort of thing.

I enjoy the flexibility and variety of freelancing. I haven’t had any issues with payment disputes, or difficult attitudes with this client base. This is clearly awesome and incredibly unusual. So one of my career plans is to keep doing what I’m doing, only to find more people to do it for. So here are the questions about keeping on doing it:
Q1. How do I increase my client base without outlaying a lot of money?
Q2. What percentage increase in hourly rate can I charge, given that I now have a degree that says I can do what I was already doing without pricing myself out of the market?

On the other hand, what about a real job? I’ve kept track of advertised vacancies for graphic designers (etc) within a 300 kilometre radius. Last week I saw a job advertised, “experienced web designer and coder, graphic designer and data entry operator, $20 per hour”. (I charge nearly twice that now!) Many of the advertised jobs I would qualify for offer a wage less than what I was earning as an administrative assistant. So if I didn’t keep doing what I’m currently doing…
Q3. How can I take advantage of my GPA to land a good paying job, and/or a job with prospects of a good rate of pay?
Q4. If I don’t go to work for someone else now, will the advantage of achieving good results fade, and if so, how quickly?

Australian, female, 42, located near Brisbane (state capital). Any other job / career tips gratefully received.

Should I apply for SSHRC?

Anonymous — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 07:58:58 -0800

How stringent are SSHRC's GPA requirements? Is it worth my time to apply for SSHRC? The application process is quite involved, and I could really be using that time to prepare for other aspects of my grad school applications. Also, the deadline is soon: Oct 1st. I am in my final year of undergrad, preparing applications for MA programs in philosophy. SSHRC wants, at minimum, an A- average in each of the last two years of study: I have an A+ (3.94) in my final year, and a B (3.0) in my penultimate year. I'm at U of T. In the 3.0 year, I wasn't really taking courses in philosophy, if it matters.

Sometimes it's worth it to apply for things even if you don't meet the mimimum standards, because other aspects of your application might set you apart, or the requirements are more of a wish list, or who actually gets through depends more on the competition for that year, etc. But I don't want to waste time applying for SSHRC if it's more or less certain I'm not going to get it. Any ideas?

(Anon because I'm embarrassed about that 3.0.)

College & Fin Aid Issues

nameinruins — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 15:41:22 -0800

College & Fin Aid Issues Here's my situation:

I'm 24 years old and unemployed. I have been attending a state university on and off since 2004. However, due to some extreme personal circumstances, my GPA was adversely affected to the point of losing financial aid and causing the university to place me on academic suspension. That was over a year ago.

--I signed up for summer courses at the university and successfully passed them with flying colors. I had hoped this would bring my GPA up to at least 2.0, but it did not. I am still ineligible for financial aid. As of now, it is at 1.905 with the cumulative completion rate of 53%. That needs to be at 67% or above also. Since I was only able to afford summer classes with the help of a few people in my family, it is doubtful I would be able to attend college this fall. So, my plan was to attend community college in the meantime and earn enough credits to raise the GPA. Unfortunately, I was told by an advisor at the state university that the credits earned at any other college, including community colleges, would not count towards the cumulative GPA and completion rate at the university. In other words, this is the "Catch-22" of financial aid for me. I cannot receive financial aid unless I raise my GPA to 2.0 or above and the completion rate to 67% or above. The only way to do that is take courses at the state university. Unfortunately, I cannot afford it without financial aid, since it is practically impossible to find a job right now.

--All of this really came to a full boil two weeks because I never had an idea about the true shape my GPA and such were in, because my advisor at the time never told me. She never sat me down and flat-out told me, "Okay, your academic transcript here is looking bad. You need to do this and that." None of that. She had my transcript up right in front of her. She did not make recommendations for what I could do, etc., other than sign up for courses.

--I worked out my issues and I did really well last summer and I have no doubt that the trend will continue into the fall and onward. All I need to do is find means of getting money so I can attend classes in the spring and finally graduate in 2011, so I can move on with my life.

--I just hate that there's such a struggle for my "second chance" when I know I will do well. And yet, people are not willing to take their chances with me, and they never fail to remind me of my own mistakes in the past. I was young. I learned my lesson the hard way. That's all I have to say about this.

--Oh, and yes, I've applied for alternative private loans. I was denied because of bad credit, and there isn't anyone creditworthy in my family I could ask to be my cosigner.

--What are my options other than keep trying to find a job and save up?

Bad permanent record. How to fix it now?

mmf — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 20:48:09 -0800

If someone has a 2002 college degree in Communications from a pretty good school, yet only achieved a 2.49 instead of the minimum of 2.5 now required to get into a teaching program, is it possible to go back and get another degree (in, say, history because the student had many courses in that subject) from the same or another school, just adding on the extra few courses and thus raising the GPA to an acceptable level? If not, is there any way to boost a low GPA now aithout spending another 4 years in college???

Resume screwup--now what?

Anonymous — Sat, 16 May 2009 07:32:32 -0800

So I recently managed to score a job interview and offer with a company that offers very nice benefits and pay better than I've seen before. The problem is this: I realized yesterday or so that my resume stated that I graduated with honors when in fact I did not. I would never exaggerate something like that when the fact is that the job doesn't even require a college degree, only a diploma/GED. My college GPA was actually 3.47 and I have transcripts handy should I need to prove it.

This is by no means a spectacular job, but it's the best I've ever had up until now and would mean a lot as far as having health coverage for the first time in years, having good vacation time, etc.

The inclusion of this information was pure (and yes, incredibly stupid) human error--I was working from multiple templates when crafting my resume, trying to make it as optimal as possible. I know that the company is doing a background check which is a condition of my hiring, and I have no idea how to, or even if I should, bring this up to the very kind HR representative who I've been working with.

I'm scared. This is the first chance I've had for a reasonable job with a company of any stature (previous employment was as an RA in college, retail after college, and some work with a nonprofit agency) and I don't know if this will be an issue or not. I didn't intentionally lie about this but to try to correct it now might bring attention to the fact that I let something so ridiculous get by me when I'm claiming to have a good attention to detail (I normally do).

The interviewer did mention the honors thing in our interview but I was so stressed and spooked about it that I let it slide at the time (this was probably a mistake, I know).

Is there any good way to resolve this? Should I even try? Have I blown it completely and is it best just to keep looking and move on? Will the background check even be that extensive or will they just confirm my graduation?

I've been tearing my hair out for what feels like forever and I won't know about the background check until at least later this week. There was also a drug test but I have no worries on that front.

Any and all advice appreciated. Thanks, MeFi.

Get me into grad school, please?

Anonymous — Wed, 13 May 2009 16:20:31 -0800

Another grad-school-after-poor-undergrad-grades question. What can I do to maximize my chances of being admitted to the grad school of my choice in the year before I apply? I just graduated from a top 15 research university with bachelor degree in biochemistry and cell biology. I've mostly been doing research for the past two years, and I participated in highly selective honors and scholars programs, managed to secure my own funding, and will get stellar reviews from at least one PI, and a publication coming up this fall (hopefully).

However, my GPA is 3.03 (3.2, 3.6 GPA in fall and spring semester of senior year, respectively), and my college history is a bit sketchy (took time off after my first year voluntarily, no suspensions or probations). I don't think I have a problem with mastering the material: I typically receive good grades on exams, it's just that I don't do any homework and/or other assignments because they bore me. So, classes are clearly not my strength, but I enjoy research and would love to continue a career in this field.

I scored high on the GRE (~98th percentile on all sections) and did pretty well on GRE Biochemistry (~88th percentile) for what it's worth.

Clearly I am not ready for grad school right away, so I am taking off a year (or two) to work... Considering either a research tech/assistant job, or a year working for AmeriCorps in a public health related field.

Would it help if I took further classes during this year (I never had a chance to take microbiology, for example, and would love to), considering I try to get good grades?

Which path would make it more likely that I got into a doctoral program in the school I want to attend (I wouldn't mind applying to less prestigious schools, but I have limited geographical options due to romantic complications)? I could study in Seattle (UW, of course, would be my first choice), but also, very reluctantly, in the Bay Area, Zurich, or Sydney. I am a US and a EU citizen, white, 25-years-old, female.

I am not sure in which field I'd like to specialize (my experience is in molecular biology research, but I am more interested in less deductive fields like, for example, immunology or microbiology).

SAT score on my resume?

thebazilist — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 14:52:29 -0800

Should I put my SAT score on my resume in this situation? And if so, how? I applied for a job posted on Craigslist about a month ago.

The staffing agency has just relisted the position, and I'm going to resend my stuff. The job posting is exactly the same except now besides a good GPA they want good SAT scores. The fact that the posting was edited to include SAT scores makes me think that that's significant somehow. Should I list my (good) score? And if so, how? After my GPA? In the cover letter?

Also, my score was good in the old system, but I know they changed the scoring system recently. I'm young enough and applying to jobs at a level low enough that I might be mixed in with people who took the new SAT. Assuming I'm not overthinking this, how do I account for the difference? I've heard that the new score just includes the SAT-II Writing score -- should I add mine in?

Can my vastly improved performance in school save me from my past?

ttyn — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 09:19:46 -0800

Gradschool application question. My undergrad educational history is strange. What are my odds of getting into a really good school? I started my undergrad program in Canada and had a few classes I got an A in, A few B's, A few C's. 2 F's that I should have contested (they were in my first year and I could probably request that they be removed from my record but I didn't).

With that miraculously crappy transcript I managed to transfer to a mediocre university in the USA. I transfered 27 credits (A's, B's, C's). I can't be sure, but I think my overall GPA from that school was 2.8 or so.

The following 2 years I spent in the US university I have managed to pull off straight A's. I joined the honors program, and I am in the process of graduating with a 4.0 GPA (this university doesn't count transfer credits in the GPA calculation, they are transfered strictly as "credit received"). I will have finished 97 credits all with a 4.0 GPA in this school when I graduate.

Most of the gradschool applications I looked at require transcripts from all post-secondary institutions I attended. Can I omit the Canadian transcript with the grades if all the courses that were transferred are listed as credit-transfers (without grades) on my US transcript?

What are my odds of being accepted into Harvard, Yale, Berkley, Columbia, MIT, or something of that caliber even with my sketchy educational background?

What are my odds of receiving a merit-based scholarship to attend one of these (or another) fine institutions?

Does prestige matter? University of Illinois vs. Northern Illinois University

capitalist.pig — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 16:51:03 -0800

Does prestige matter? University of Illinois vs. Northern Illinois University I've applied and been accepted to both schools (Northern Illinois University & the University of Illinois-Urbana/Champaign). I'd like to pursue a undergraduate degree in Atmospheric Science or a closely related field. I have friends that attend both schools, and some have warned me that it would be harder to achieve better grades at U of I. I have since discovered that it also would be more difficult to obtain a higher GPA at U of I, given their hypomodal grading system (ie, A+ = 4.0, A = 3.8, A- = 3.7; versus NIU's A = 4.0, B = 3.0, etc.). I am a very good student, and have so far maintained a 4.0 GPA at my community college (and this is including several calculus courses).

So I guess my question is this: While I believe I would probably do better, and get better grades at NIU, would I still be better served to go to U of I, given the school's higher prestige as a research institution?

Should I stay or should I go? (Education remix)

abkadefgee — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 13:16:43 -0800

Should I try something new and transfer to a new school for a year, or should I stick around the same old school and raise my GPA enough to graduate? I've spent far too long at a state school in the city where I've lived most of my life and received grades that range from A+ in difficult classes to F in a simple class where I just didn't complete my work. In the process, I've banked a lot of credits and the only obstacle to my graduation is raising my GPA a few points and finishing two last required courses.

Despite arriving as a National Merit Scholar, enrolled in the honors program, I've had too many semesters where I utterly lacked motivation due to factors such as depression, major life traumas, projects which distracted me from schoolwork, and a simple failure to manage my time effectively. These have dragged my GPA way, way down.

In a few weeks, I'll finish an important project and I'll need to make a new decision about school.

I've considered transferring to another school which might inspire me more than the one I've attended, shaking up my world, living in a new place, and enjoying the prospect of a fresh start on my GPA, but I'm not sure where I should go or what the chances are that I would be admitted.

So, if any of you have any experience in admissions or in going through this decision making process for yourself...

Does it seem reasonable or possible that I could finish up as a transfer student at a decent school, in just one year, with a fresh GPA?

Or is the best path to just stay where I'm at, perform excellently in my classes, and finish where I started?

Will maintain high GPA for $ for college

icarus — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 18:07:53 -0800

I'm a permanent resident in the U.S., not citizen, looking to find some scholarship money to help with financing my degree. This is my second year in college so entrance scholarships are out of the question. I'm a Canadian citizen, independent (married), live and work and go to college in the U.S.

I have an exceptional GPA and the problem I keep running into with most small, local scholarships is they want to know what US high school I attended as well as my scores for SAT etc (I never had to take SAT or any entrance tests, I transferred straight from a Canadian university)

Any suggestions on where I can find merit-based scholarships for US students who aren't citizens?

Fastweb and equivalently spammy websites aren't helping too much :(

High GPA Versus Low GRE

Delfena — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 15:51:46 -0800

Does a high GPA make up for a low GRE score for grad school admissions? Should I send my scores to schools if they are "recommended" but not required? I'm scheduled to take the GRE in two weeks. I took a Princeton Review study course over the summer, but didn't improve as much as I would have liked. My practice test score is around 1160, but I did receive a 5 (out of 6) on both writing sections. I'm applying to 4 grad schools, and only one of them requires GRE scores. My question is, should I send my scores to the schools that only "recommend" but not require them? If I do, and they end up being low (around my practice score), will my 3.98 GPA and good letters of rec make up for it? Would it look bad if I didn't send in my scores at all? Oh, my field of study is Urban Planning, and the schools I'm applying to are Portland State, NYU, UC Irvine, and the University of British Columbia. (UCI is the one that requires the GRE) Thanks!

ayes and seas or all bees?

Anonymous — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 05:50:03 -0800

Here's a question: What would you rather see on a grade report: a collection of A/A-s and the occasional C, or consistent B/B+s? If there were two students, and their GPAs were the same, and you were the director of admissions of some academic program, who would you pick? I'm in college. My grades have been scattershot, but have been steadily rising, and I've been on the Dean's list last semester, with one of my professors mentioning that I was 'miles and miles ahead of [my] peers'.

I'm concerned about my study priorities, as when I'm short on time, I'll decide to focus my energy on one or two courses, sometimes leaving the others to suffer. More often than not, I'll do fine, but I've had semesters full of As, Bs, and Cs.

I've been reconsidering -- is this a bad idea? Should I try to divide my work, so I get consistently half-decent grades rather than very good grades on the majority of my classes and very bad grades in another? What do you think?

Do you need to know my GPA?

sweetkid — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 17:50:25 -0800

8 years out of school, does my GPA need to be on my resume? My college GPA was decent (cum laude), but I wonder if I should take it off my resume now that I'm more intermediate-level in my field (project management). Does this help, or make me look more juvenile, or is it irrelevant? TIA.

I ended up with a 4.0 GPA. Now what?

icarus — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 06:52:14 -0800

I ended up with a 4.0 GPA. Now what? Are there any real advantages? Are there any decent US or Canadian scholarships I could apply for? Any programs/internships I could look into? After being a college dropout for close to 3 years I decided to go back last spring. To my surprise I received an A in every single course and now have a 4.0 GPA.

I switched from my normal program to honors shortly thereafter because supposedly I'm more likely to receive scholarships if I'm in honors.

I'm afraid I'm letting this opportunity slide, mostly, since I'm not sure what kind of options are out there. The advising office in my college is useless, by the way.

Are the numbers enough?

paradoxflow — Wed, 28 May 2008 18:10:17 -0800

Help me realistically assess/improve my (Canadian) law school prospects. First, the basics: I graduated from a Canadian university with a Bachelor of Arts in English in 2007, finishing with a 3.5 GPA. I wrote the LSAT in the summer of 2006 and scored a 169, which placed me in the 97th percentile. I don't really have any extra-curricular or volunteer work to speak of, most of my education related off-time was dedicated to fiction/poetry writing. I remain (mostly) unpublished, more due to my own laziness in researching and sending out finished material rather than a lack of ability, but I did get a creative writing concentration for whatever that might be worth (not much, I'm guessing). I could also obtain a few glowing letters of recommendation from professors if that would be a factor, though I would feel weird asking for them so long after having been in their classes.

I had planned to apply to law school in 2007, but didn't for what I'm now realizing is quite a stupid reason. Having found some sample personal statements online, I was pretty intimidated by the range of clubs, volunteer work, and general resume padding experience people were writing about. I felt like I had nothing of that caliber to write of in my personal statement, nothing really to distinguish me from the crowd of other people applying to law schools other than my writing, which as I mentioned, remains mostly unproven. That and I wasn't sure whether I really wanted to do law, or whether I had just been telling people that is what I wanted to do so long that I had convinced myself. I'm resolved now though.

So now I am 24, and will be turning 25 in less than a month. I have spent the last year working at a bakery/coffee shop, saving money, and if I'm being honest, generally slacking off having graduated. My intention is send out law school applications in September/October so that I can start attending law school fall 2009, when I will be 26. I only mention my age incase it might be a factor in assessing my application.

My first question is this: what are the best Canadian law schools that I would be likely to be granted admission to based on my gpa/lsat/lack-of-much-else? I'm becoming more and more aware how important the rank/prestige of the law school I'll be attending will be for finding a job afterward, and I want to get into the best school possible. American law school suggestions would be appreciated too, provided there is a reason I should consider them over a Canadian equivalent. I plan on practicing in Canada once I'm done, though mostly out of convenience, and I have a vague inclination towards intellectual property law in particular.

Second: How concerned should I be about my lack of extra-curriculars, and how should I be thinking about my personal statement? Is there anything I can do between now and when I send out my applications to improve my prospects?

dealing with a low GPA on grad applications?

slow graffiti — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 07:51:42 -0800

Ways to mitigate a low undergrad GPA for grad school applications? I finished my undergrad degree with only a 3.1 overall, but more like a 3.8 in my major. Unrelated/silly classes that I shouldn't have taken for a grade are mostly the things bringing my GPA down, and it's up to the committees to decide how big a deal that is, but there is one low grade that is of major concern; I did not do that well in stats. I know I need stats to do research and I'll have to take much harder stats to get my PhD, and if I don't do something about that grade, my application will go straight to the trash. I'm confident that I can handle stats, but how do I demonstrate that? If I take stats again from a community college at night to get an A, will that be dismissed because the CC course will be seen as easier? Are there any other options for demonstrating that I'm capable of the work and not as prone to goofing off now?

And as for the personal statement- do I mention that grade in particular? What do I say? I think the best response would be to say "I did lab work and published later in school, which taught me much more about applied statistics than that huge undergrad GE course."
Is there anything else I can do besides highlighting my research and acing the GRE to make up for a really inconsistent transcript?

How can I get my college prof to admit he is wrong, and give me the marks I deserve?

Tachoh — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 06:52:15 -0800

College prof keeps marking my math tests incorrectly. What do I do? Heya Metafilter,

I am in community college now, planning on going to something a little more serious when I graduate this year.

I am getting a 99% in my math course, doing really well. Recently, however, my mark has taken a hit due to the fact that my math prof marked 2 questions that were correct as incorrect due to the fact that he does not fully understand the answer.

I tried explaining the answer to the question to him in class, but he does not like to be told he is wrong and went around the question. It was clear in his explaination to the class that he did not know how I arrived at the answer I did and said "well, what I do know is that you got it wrong"

Short of actually sitting this guy down and teaching him how to do these problems, how can I get the marks I deserve?

Has anyone else ever had this issue? Should I go to the dean? I really don't want to cause a scene or harm this prof in any way.

Please advise.

3.7 vs. 3.8?

maxreax — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 13:30:24 -0800

Does the difference between a GPA of 3.7 and 3.8 matter? Sounds like a stupid question on the face of it, I know. I am a second-semester senior currently thinking of dropping two classes and being a part-time student, mostly for monetary reasons. The two classes I would drop aren't particularly interesting, and cover material that I have read before, so I'm not sad at the prospect of losing them.

The thing that's holding me back is this: taking these two extra classes and getting a 4.0 this semester would bump my GPA up to a 3.8 and (if I pass my comprehensive exam with distinction) earn me a degree cum magna laude. Not taking these two classes means my GPA will stay at 3.7 (if I get two As, which seems fairly likely), and my degree (again, if I pass my comps exam with distinction) will be "just" cum laude. The difference would come down to a hundredth of a grade point (3.74 rounds down; 3.75 rounds up).

My problem with this comes on two fronts: one, is this likely to negatively affect my applying to graduate school (for English or Comp Lit)? (My advisors say not really, and I believe them, but if you disagree I'd like to hear why). And two, will I regret not going for the magna cum laude five years down the line? Right now, it doesn't mean all that much to me, but I'm sort of worried that I'll look back and wish I had just done it. I am definitely going to spend my free time doing productive things, so it won't be a "wasted semester" (in which case I'm sure I'd regret it). How much do your latin honors mean to you? Is this the kind of thing I'll feel bad about, or do you usually just forget about it later (if it means anything, I don't even know what my GPA was in high school anymore, and I only remember half of my SAT score).

Hosed.

j-urb — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 18:17:09 -0800

The LSDAS has my transcripts assembled and it's rather depressing. How much is this going to hurt me? My GPA is a 3.37; however, without the 26 hours of Spanish that I was required to take my freshman and sophomore years my GPA would have been a 3.72.

There are a number of factors why I failed so miserably in Spanish. (1) I had a very poor Spanish teacher in high school (because it was an unruly class we never got much past learning basic vocabulary). (2) The teachers I encountered in college seemed to lack the proper training in teaching a foreign language. It was expected that the class have had foreign language in high school. (3) I took these Spanish classes in my Freshman and Sophomore years when I was less prepared to deal with such a challenge.

I was supposed to take only 16 hours of Spanish (two 5 hour classes, and two 3 hour classes); however it became 26 when I failed the first two introductory level classes (101 and 102). My grades in Spanish looked something like this:

Semester 1: Spanish 101 - F
Semester 2: Spanish 101 - B-
Semester 3: Spanish 102 - F
Semester 4: Spanish 102 - C+
Semester 5: Spanish 210 - A- (combined the final two courses).

LSDAS gives me a 1.80 GPA for these classes which really hurts my overall GPA as you can imagine. In fact, the 26 hours of Spanish accounts for a little less than 20% of my total hours and in many cases would be enough for a major in many disciplines. This is really a nightmare for me. My percentile rank is down at 36% (I had a 3.62 with the 10 hours erased due to retakes) which doesn't make me a very attractive candidate.

I'm really quite devastated by this because I had worked so hard to put this behind me. It wasn't that I was messing around in my Spanish classes, but that I had never been exposed to learning a foreign language before and had a very difficult time with the order of the language. The last teacher I had was actually studying linguistics and he was able to finally explain things to me. It was too late though.

I made the Dean's list the last five semester of my college years. I had almost all A's my last two years had it not been for a Shakespeare class. I got an A and an A+ in capstone courses for both my majors. Seeing this number is such a shock to me because I had what I thought was a 3.62 GPA, and now I'm afraid colleges that evaluate me aren't going to see past the cumulative GPA which is really misleading. I don't think that knowing Spanish correlates to being successful in law school, at least not in the United States.

Is there anything I can do other than write about this in my personal statement and hope for the best? How bad do you think this situation will hurt me? I just feel really really disheartened right now.

What's really funny is that my university allowed for students who had taken four years of foreign language in high school to be exempt from this requirement. So if I had four years of foreign language classes in high school, I wouldn't have had to take the 16 hours to begin with, let alone the 26. I went to a small rural school; however, and all they offered was the worthless two.

valedictorian GPA issues

jmd82 — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 12:43:58 -0800

Valedictorian/Saluditorian/Class rank GPA issues. My school is having issues similar to the Blair Hornstine saga with a bit of a twist.
We're on the 4.0 GPA scale with APs weighted an extra point (A=5, B=4, etc). In the senior class, we have 3 students who've had all As and taken all 5 AP courses we offer. Problem is that the student with the fewest credits technically ends up valedictorian because the weighted AP classes have a greater effect on their GPA- hence where the Blair Hornstine example comes into place. However, in this case, the credit differences are due to study halls (0 credits) and independent study courses.

I'm curious if anyone has similar experiences at their schools and how have they dealt with it. Make all three students co-valedictorian? Just do away with class rank and create high honors? Some secret formula to determine class rank? Am I overthinking this? Any ideas are welcome.

How do I get over my academic past?

Asherah — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 14:49:30 -0800

Is is a good idea to be blunt about academic missteps during my undergrad? I'm applying to several BSN/MSN combination programs for Nursing and my undergrad GPA counts significantly. Many schools only consider your last 60/90 units and for me, that means we're looking at below a 3.0. Since then I've taken over 45 semester units of Bio, Chem, Epidemiology, Pharmacology, Pathophysiology etc. In addition to the undergrad GPA, they look at your science GPA (I have a 4.0), clinical experience and leadership experience (I feel I am covered in those areas as well).

Regaring my personal statement(s), how blunt should I be about how my undergrad GPA came to be so low? I really wasn't focused during that time academically and wasn't feeling at all motivated to do well. I honestly didn't think I'd be going back to college for quite a while for further education. Should I simply state that and elaborate why this time its a whole new ball of wax and I have a clear idea of my path and why I want it? Is it really that simple?

Note: I do not want to lie and make up some personal emergency/situation that distracted me, as that was not the case and although it might help me get my foot in the door I just wouldn't feel good about it.

Rock Bottom

Anonymous — Mon, 21 May 2007 11:00:28 -0800

How can I feel better about grades when they're said and done? This semester was a rough one, with relationships, too many credits, and lots of other responsibilities. The result is basically a B/B- average when I usually maintain a 3.5 - so my overall GPA is dropping 0.1 or more. I know, things could be worse, I guess. But it is still a massive hit to go from a 3.51 to a 3.3 something in one semester (halfway through college). It kills me, really. I can't get the semester dropped or anything, because I wasn't clinically depressed - basically, I had some relationship foibles (well, a relationship ended) around midterms, leaving me with some Cs and Ds which destroyed my chances of a great semester. I did what I could to make things better and I might avoid Cs in end of semester grades.

I'm already thinking about taking fewer classes next semester and getting a 3.8+ or something. But it's the summer, so I can't see myself making any progress for a while. Is there anything I can/should do? Also, how much impact does GPA have on life, you think? Having a 3.0 or lower GPA for one semester? I'm rather scared by things with permanent impact, and this seems to be one of them.