How much do the quality of grades really matter? Forum

[NorCalBruin]

A lot of people are trying to predict whether they'll get into this or that school based on their GPA & LSAT score, but we all know that GPA's are subjective in certain ways.

What I want to know is how much to schools really care how you got the GPA you did. In other words, to what extent is it important that:

A. You didn't have a downward trend?
B. You didn't take easy classes?
C. You went to a good undergraduate school?
D. You don't have any blemishes like a D or F?

In the end, will a communications major from Wichita State (no offense) with a 3.8 gpa really be viewed as almost equal to a chemistry major from Cornell with a 3.8? Discuss...

[Adjudicator]

I had a pretty unsatisfactory cycle last cycle (bad enough that I'm redoing the process this cycle) and one of the things that adcomms mentioned to me as a concern was the downward trend in my grades in the last couple of semesters.

Of course, they probably wouldn't care so much about that if I had ended up with a 3.6 instead of a 3.0.

[turkeysub]

What I want to know is how much to schools really care how you got the GPA you did.

No.

In the end, will a communications major from Wichita State (no offense) with a 3.8 gpa really be viewed as almost equal to a chemistry major from Cornell with a 3.8?

Yes.

[fragged]

I had this conversation with a couple reps from different schools at a forum.

They outwardly admitted that there were 'harder' majors than others, and that they consider how difficult your curriculum was. The funny thing was that when they used examples, they all used psychology as their (easy) major when comparing.

It's difficult because there is no quantitative assessment of the school you went to, or the classes you took - you're just depending on the adcomm's opinion on how easy/difficult your coursework was.

If I knew then what I know now, I probably would have opted to go to a Cal State university instead of a UC. I didn't get good grades in college because I didn't try... At least at Cal State I probably would have done better.

[Cupidity]

Doesn't matter, numbers only.

[r6_philly]

Doesn't matter, numbers only.

Tell Yale that.

[im_blue]

Doesn't matter, numbers only.

Tell Yale and Stanford that.

FTFY

[tome]

Law school are interested in your GPA for two reasons:

1. USNews ranking
2. as an indicator of you abilities and likely success at law school.

For (1), which is the primary concern, how you got them, your trend, etc. is of course not relevant. But these things are relevant to (2). Even though (2) is the secondary concern, schools care about this a lot. Schools know they have to play the USNews game to get top quality numbers, but they also want to get top quality people.

[shanemahsa]

Law school are interested in your GPA for two reasons:

1. USNews ranking
2. as an indicator of you abilities and likely success at law school.

For (1), which is the primary concern, how you got them, your trend, etc. is of course not relevant. But these things are relevant to (2). Even though (2) is the secondary concern, schools care about this a lot. Schools know they have to play the USNews game to get top quality numbers, but they also want to get top quality people.

#2 would only matter when you're numbers are identical (or nearly) to other another applicant's. Even then they prefer using qualitative factors such as softs and your personal statement to make a decision. In other words chances are very slim that #2 will ever help (or hurt) you.