Does overall GPA matter to Grad Schools, or just major GPA?

Student Lounge College Life
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<p>When applying to grad schools, does your overall GPA matter, or just your major GPA? I'm a bio sci major (evolution and ecology to be specific) if that helps. I'm wondering because I'm deciding between two GE classes; one is basically a guaranteed A but it doesn't really interest me, the other is definitely a difficult A but interests me much more. Neither of them are remotely related to my major. Is it smart to pick easy GEs for the GPA boost, or does it not make a difference? Another factor is that the easy GE doesn't require writing, whereas the hard GE is relatively writing intensive; if I'm focusing on writing throughout the quarter, I may not be able to study for my chem and calc classes. Also, I could take the hard GE pass/no pass, but I've heard grad schools look down upon that.</p>

<p>Thanks for the input!</p>

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<p>You should post this in the grad school forum to get more feedback.</p>

<p>They may consider how rigorous your classes were when looking at your GPA, but generally you’d want both GPAs to be as high as you can get them, and also to do very well on the GREs to compliment them. An upward trend from freshman to senior year is good if you had a rough start. Good graduate programs are very competitive, so you always want to keep every aspect of your application as strong as you can.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the response. I’ll post this in the grad school forum also.</p>