GPA Issue Forum

[Dbate]

Does anyone have any tips on how to raise the GPA? I think for starters I may take more non-science classes. I have taken chem, bio, labs, and math this year and next year I am going to take more poli sci classes for my major so I think that will help. But does anyone have advice, perhaps regarding what you, or someone you know, did in a situation like mine?

Take extra, bull shit courses over summer break. The type of class you are almost promised an A. Sometimes they even do it at a community college.

Would potential admissions offices look down on this? The university doesn't honor courses taken at community colleges and only accepts courses from certain schools. Would law schools accept those courses in spite of this fact? Also, from various people, I have heard that grad schools like to see extensive extracurricular activities and that summer is a good time to do activities to pad the resume. Would the possible reduction in quality of EC activities negate any possible benefit?

[MrKappus]

Let me get this straight. You're a freshman at Yale, and you're worried about your 3.5? Do you have any idea how ridiculous you sound?

[MrKappus]

Does anyone have any tips on how to raise the GPA? I think for starters I may take more non-science classes. I have taken chem, bio, labs, and math this year and next year I am going to take more poli sci classes for my major so I think that will help. But does anyone have advice, perhaps regarding what you, or someone you know, did in a situation like mine?

Take extra, bull shit courses over summer break. The type of class you are almost promised an A. Sometimes they even do it at a community college.

Yeah...Ivies don't quite work like this.

[Dbate]

Let me get this straight. You're a freshman at Yale, and you're worried about your 3.5? Do you have any idea how ridiculous you sound?

It is not ridiculous. I have a 3.56 and, yes I am worried, because going to Yale doesn't mean diddly squat if you make poor grades. From the GPAs of those admitted to law schools in prior years, it seems that top publics like: Michigan, Berkeley or UVA give leeway but hardly any of the other top private law schools do so. So I know my GPA is low if I want to go somewhere like Columbia. I am not trying to whine, I earned my grades, but I would like advice on how to improve, if anyone would like to offer.

[kalvano]

Study more, Interwebs less.

[09042014]

Does anyone have any tips on how to raise the GPA? I think for starters I may take more non-science classes. I have taken chem, bio, labs, and math this year and next year I am going to take more poli sci classes for my major so I think that will help. But does anyone have advice, perhaps regarding what you, or someone you know, did in a situation like mine?

Take extra, bull shit courses over summer break. The type of class you are almost promised an A. Sometimes they even do it at a community college.

Yeah...Ivies don't quite work like this.

The Ivies are some of the more grade inflated schools in the country. I'm sure he can find easy A courses.

http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRat ... tid=639755

http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRat ... tid=138954

[merichard87]

Your school doesn't have to take the courses from the CC. You're not taking them to go toward your degree. You're taking them to pad your GPA.

[Dbate]

"The Ivies are some of the more grade inflated schools in the country. I'm sure he can find easy A courses."

This is such a lie. I hate when people--who typically don't attend Ivy League schools--say that. There is NO grade inflation at the Ivies. I really don't want to sound pretentious or like an a-- hole, but some of the smartest people in the nation go to these schools. Of course our grades are going to be high, but that does not mean the work load is easy. Moreover, the sciences at the Ivies definitely do not have grade inflation, maybe more of the humanities, but the sciences definitely not.

[MrKappus]

Does anyone have any tips on how to raise the GPA? I think for starters I may take more non-science classes. I have taken chem, bio, labs, and math this year and next year I am going to take more poli sci classes for my major so I think that will help. But does anyone have advice, perhaps regarding what you, or someone you know, did in a situation like mine?

Take extra, bull shit courses over summer break. The type of class you are almost promised an A. Sometimes they even do it at a community college.

Yeah...Ivies don't quite work like this.

The Ivies are some of the more grade inflated schools in the country. I'm sure he can find easy A courses.

http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRat ... tid=639755

http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRat ... tid=138954

Silly me. I always forget how knowledgeable people who didn't go to ivies are about them. I was talking about getting community college credit, but high fives on the interwebz research.

[digitalcntrl]

Would potential admissions offices look down on this? The university doesn't honor courses taken at community colleges and only accepts courses from certain schools. Would law schools accept those courses in spite of this fact? Also, from various people, I have heard that grad schools like to see extensive extracurricular activities and that summer is a good time to do activities to pad the resume. Would the possible reduction in quality of EC activities negate any possible benefit?

Totally irrelevant. Remember law schools don't look at any official transcript. Heck they don't even want to send it to them. When you are ready to start the application process you will send every transcript of any college level course you taken to LSDAS (Law School Data Assembly Service) run by the guys that make the LSAT. When they say they want every course, they mean it (I even had to get a transcript of for a community college course I took in 8th grade). From that they will generate an LSDAS report consisting of an LSDAS GPA, your LSAT score, and a complete transcript of all the courses you have taken. This is the information that law schools will use. In other words no one gives a rip whether Yale honors the course as credit or not. The only thing that matter is that the course is before the date you get your first bachelors degree.

As to whether adcomms (admissions committees) look down on resume padding, I seriously doubt it. This isn't the case where adcomms have a few applications that they can meticulously analyze. Adcomms are overloaded with thousands of applications. Virtually all schools will look at LSAT Score and your LSDAS GPA. If the school is very highly ranked then they may also look at the prestige of the undergrad and/or your major, anything beyond that would create an insane workload.

Law schools generally consider ECs to be useful only in tipping the balance in your favor when you are close to being accepted, unless you did something extraordinary. Focus on the LSAT first and foremost, that more than anything will decide your fate. Then focus on your GPA. Shamelessly pad your GPA and exploit the law school application system to your favor, because guess what, everyone else is doing it.

[digitalcntrl]

Let me get this straight. You're a freshman at Yale, and you're worried about your 3.5? Do you have any idea how ridiculous you sound?

It is not ridiculous. I have a 3.56 and, yes I am worried, because going to Yale doesn't mean diddly squat if you make poor grades. From the GPAs of those admitted to law schools in prior years, it seems that top publics like: Michigan, Berkeley or UVA give leeway but hardly any of the other top private law schools do so. So I know my GPA is low if I want to go somewhere like Columbia. I am not trying to whine, I earned my grades, but I would like advice on how to improve, if anyone would like to offer.

As I and others have said before, take BS courses to boost your GPA. Quite honestly you are obsessing over a tenth in your GPA. What you should really be worried about is your LSAT score. This more than anything else will determine where you will end up. Having a 4.0 with a sub 170 score will do you no favors.

[Bildungsroman]

"The Ivies are some of the more grade inflated schools in the country. I'm sure he can find easy A courses."

This is such a lie. I hate when people--who typically don't attend Ivy League schools--say that. There is NO grade inflation at the Ivies. I really don't want to sound pretentious or like an a-- hole, but some of the smartest people in the nation go to these schools. Of course our grades are going to be high, but that does not mean the work load is easy. Moreover, the sciences at the Ivies definitely do not have grade inflation, maybe more of the humanities, but the sciences definitely not.

Yes. Yes, there is. The average GPA at Yale is a 3.5 (and some evidence suggests it is even higher), meaning your GPA is unimpressive. Now, you may be one of the "smartest people in the nation" but I still think I'd take the overwhelming evidence that grade inflation is rampant in the Ivies over your "if I say it self-righteously enough it must be true" argument.

Of course, it could just be true that people at Yale are so smart that they naturally get excellent grades. That would suggest that the difficulty of the classes at Yale is not designed to challenge "the smartest people in the nation" and instead are in line with the difficulty of classes offered by lower-ranked institutions with much lower grade inflation, which makes a 3.5 from Yale even less impressive.

[d34d9823]

.

[09042014]

"The Ivies are some of the more grade inflated schools in the country. I'm sure he can find easy A courses."

This is such a lie. I hate when people--who typically don't attend Ivy League schools--say that. There is NO grade inflation at the Ivies. I really don't want to sound pretentious or like an a-- hole, but some of the smartest people in the nation go to these schools. Of course our grades are going to be high, but that does not mean the work load is easy. Moreover, the sciences at the Ivies definitely do not have grade inflation, maybe more of the humanities, but the sciences definitely not.

http://www.gradeinflation.com/yale.html

Whether or not is justified I don't care, but when the average grade given out is a A-/B+, I'm sure you can find easy classes. I didn't say your science classes are easy, I told you specifically to find easy courses.

[redsox]

Admittedly anecdotal evidence: I have a friend from high school who is a junior at Yale, and he says that it's easy to get A's. He attributes it to grade inflation, but it might just be because he's pretty smart.

[09042014]

Admittedly anecdotal evidence: I have a friend from high school who is a junior at Yale, and he says that it's easy to get A's. He attributes it to grade inflation, but it might just be because he's pretty smart.

I'm sure the science courses are harder.

[Dbate]

Admittedly anecdotal evidence: I have a friend from high school who is a junior at Yale, and he says that it's easy to get A's. He attributes it to grade inflation, but it might just be because he's pretty smart.

I'm sure the science courses are harder.

Yeah there is a HUGE disparity in the grades. The vast majority of Yalies major in the social sciences, which--to be perfectly honest--give out a large number of As. But the science classes do not do this. I took mostly science and math classes (out of 9 of my credits this year, 6 were in science or math), so the my GPA doesn't benefit from grade inflation.

I am going to take everyone's advice and take some more non-science class though, hopefully that will boost my GPA. Thanks!

[Dbate]

Bump.

I have another question, but I don't want to create clutter by creating a new thread. My school offers two types of chemical engineering degrees: 1)ABET Chemical engineering and 2) Chemical Engineering sciences. The second is not ABET accredited, involves a fewer number of courses, and is intended for those who would like to study engineering and pursue a double major. If I chose to be a chemical engineering major and obtained the second type of degree, would employers care? And if they do care and discount my degree to a certain extent, do you think the Chemical engineering sciences major is better than a pure chemistry major?

Thanks in advance.

[d34d9823]

.

[Dbate]

So do you want to go to law school or work as an engineer?

I have no intention of working as a professional engineer. I am contemplating an engineering degree because I like sciences and there are relatively few paths to pursue that pay well in the sciences with out an advanced degree.

[d34d9823]

So do you want to go to law school or work as an engineer?

I have no intention of working as a professional engineer. I am contemplating an engineering degree because I like sciences and there are relatively few paths to pursue that pay well in the sciences with out an advanced degree.

I hate to break it to you, but good pay in engineering is contingent on working as a professional engineer.

Lol, seriously, if you only care about LS, major in whatever you want, just keep that GPA up.

[09042014]

IP isn't really science.

Rock the rest of school, go into PhD program in what field you like, become a professor. The pay is fairly good, in something you like.

Or go into law and forget IP.

[Dbate]

Thanks everyone, all of this has been really helpful!