Do Adcoms "Penalize" Obvious GPA Booster Attemps? Forum

[jtabustos]

All very hypothetical here, but just asking for curiosity's sake!

Let's suppose you have someone with a 3.35 GPA in the final year of his undergraduate study. This person is chemistry major and computer science minor, who has had some lower grades on average throughout his academic career (like B-'s and C+'s mixed in with the typical good grades). And his typical coursework is in classes like Linear Algebra, Physical Chemistry, Statistics, Algorithms, Discrete Math, Inorganic Chem., etc. - basically all STEM work for the most part.

Then all of a sudden he takes a year or semester's worth of stereotypically "easier" classes (all outside of his major/minor and surpassing the normal Gen Ed reqs) like: the history of football, early childhood development, appreciation of carribean art, survey of world music, etc. and gets straight As, while bumping his GPA to a 3.5.

In these cases, would adcoms penalize what appear to be obvious GPA booster attempts?

[Rahviveh]

No

[WhiteyCakes]

No

/Thread

[jtabustos]

No

/Thread

lol.

[tolopo]

even at the top 8 schools in the t14? will they ask you to explain yourself during interviews?

[Rahviveh]

even at the top 8 schools in the t14? will they ask you to explain yourself during interviews?

This is assuming they even interview you - most T14's don't interview at all. And no they won't care. Do you really think they have the time to comb through hundreds of transcripts to "penalize" applicants for easy classes?

[WokeUpInACar]

I'd say almost for certain that no school outside the top 10 will care, but I think there is some evidence that HYS and *maybe* CCN do care about your undergrad institution and record.

[jtabustos]

I guess I thought for some reason that the T20-ish would at least care for the sake of "standards."

I mean what is the point of having admissions in the first place? It's to have certain standards right?

From what I understand Ph.D. programs and medical schools do look at your transcripts more closely. ...But for the record, I did shop around for classes that had easier profs. in UG sometimes. I wasn't super duper GPA conscious back then (on the TLS neurotic level), but still pretty conscious enough to have done this a little bit. But, in my case, it's not noticeable in my transcripts.

[jrsbaseball5]

I'd say almost for certain that no school outside the top 10 will care, but I think there is some evidence that HYS and *maybe* CCN do care about your undergrad institution and record.

What kind of evidence? I would think that a STEM major would be the least penalized since their course work is already harder than most.

Also, OP why 2 threads of hypotheticals instead of describing your situation?

[Rahviveh]

I guess I thought for some reason that the T20-ish would at least care for the sake of "standards."

I mean what is the point of having admissions in the first place? It's to have certain standards right?

From what I understand Ph.D. programs and medical schools do look at your transcripts more closely. ...But for the record, I did shop around for classes that had easier profs. in UG sometimes. I wasn't super duper GPA conscious back then, but still somewhat conscious to have done this a little bit. But, in my case, it's not noticeable in my transcripts.

PHD programs and med schools look at transcripts because its expected you will have done related coursework in undergrad.

There is no undergrad coursework related to law school.

[jtabustos]

I'd say almost for certain that no school outside the top 10 will care, but I think there is some evidence that HYS and *maybe* CCN do care about your undergrad institution and record.

What kind of evidence? I would think that a STEM major would be the least penalized since their course work is already harder than most.

Also, OP why 2 threads of hypotheticals instead of describing your situation?

Oh, actually I did sort of in another post, but it got no views. But that situation was slightly different too, b/c I was talking about senioritis and bad grades for my final quarter.

Yeah, I'd like to see evidence too, but I'm guessing people are referring to anecdotal and speculative cases from TLS testimonies.

But I don't think it's far-fetched to at least think that the T6 do scrutinize.

[Rahviveh]

I'd say almost for certain that no school outside the top 10 will care, but I think there is some evidence that HYS and *maybe* CCN do care about your undergrad institution and record.

What kind of evidence? I would think that a STEM major would be the least penalized since their course work is already harder than most.

Also, OP why 2 threads of hypotheticals instead of describing your situation?

Oh, actually I did sort of in another post, but it got no views. But that situation was slightly different too, b/c I was talking about senioritis and bad grades for my final quarter.

Yeah, I'd like to see evidence too, but I'm guessing people are referring to anecdotal and speculative cases from TLS testimonies.

Ask Mike Spivey if you want an adcom's perspective. There are no statistics on this question, just anecdotes and theories.

[WokeUpInACar]

I've just seen a few posters this cycle with HYS numbers relatively underperform their numbers, and all of them happened to attend poor undergrad schools.

[jtabustos]

I've just seen a few posters this cycle with HYS numbers relatively underperform their numbers, and all of them happened to attend poor undergrad schools.

Even more interesting, b/c I thought this cycle was the easiest in years?

[jrsbaseball5]

I'd say almost for certain that no school outside the top 10 will care, but I think there is some evidence that HYS and *maybe* CCN do care about your undergrad institution and record.

What kind of evidence? I would think that a STEM major would be the least penalized since their course work is already harder than most.

Also, OP why 2 threads of hypotheticals instead of describing your situation?

Oh, actually I did sort of in another post, but it got no views. But that situation was slightly different too, b/c I was talking about senioritis and bad grades for my final quarter.

Yeah, I'd like to see evidence too, but I'm guessing people are referring to anecdotal and speculative cases from TLS testimonies.

But I don't think it's far-fetched to at least think that the T6 do scrutinize.

Ah ok, my bad. Must have confused you with someone else. Proceed

[Tiago Splitter]

I know a guy with a much worse transcript than the one you suggested in the OP and got two of CCN.

[IAFG]

I suspect most schools would be happy to take your LSAT and look the other way, assuming you're a splitter.

[tolopo]

I know a guy with a much worse transcript than the one you suggested in the OP and got two of CCN.

did this person have anything to offset the GPA? LSAT, work experience, URM, diversity?

[Tiago Splitter]

I know a guy with a much worse transcript than the one you suggested in the OP and got two of CCN.

did this person have anything to offset the GPA? LSAT, work experience, URM, diversity?

Good LSAT plus some work experience. The real point is that if you get a high enough LSAT they won't care.

[NoWorries]

I've just seen a few posters this cycle with HYS numbers relatively underperform their numbers, and all of them happened to attend poor undergrad schools.

By poor undergrad schools are you talking about your average State U such as Florida/tOSU/Iowa or are we looking at glorified community colleges of the Boise State realm?

[WokeUpInACar]

I've just seen a few posters this cycle with HYS numbers relatively underperform their numbers, and all of them happened to attend poor undergrad schools.

By poor undergrad schools are you talking about your average State U such as Florida/tOSU/Iowa or are we looking at glorified community colleges of the Boise State realm?

The latter.

[TheBiggerMediocre]

I have done the same thing except my classes look impressive but aren't stem. Like history of western philosophy and accounting 101, plus I take around 20 creds a semester

[jwinaz]

I actually used Ratemyprofessor.com back when it was less popular and more in its infancy.

I didn't avoid tough classes per se, but I avoided ridiculously tough graders (I still know their names from my UG). I knew that I wanted to keep my options open for graduate school and that it didn't make sense to take a class with a guy if he was like a known super tough and unreasonable grader. There was one guy like that who was famous at the school, who told studdetns flat out the first day of class, "I don't give A's." But his Ratemyprofessor.com rating is still relatively high, because students said he was an amazing teacher and the value of what you learned often offset the lower grade you might receive.

I guess I don't consider that a GPA boosting thing, but more like a GPA "preserving" technique maybe? But also, these things don't show on a transcript.

[tolopo]

But also, these things don't show on a transcript.

can you elaborate?

[SteelPenguin]

But also, these things don't show on a transcript.

can you elaborate?

I'm guessing he means that the school won't see that you chose not to take a professor because of their grading policy.