I am about to finish a bachelors degree at my current school. I want to pursue a masters degree at another college. I have spent a lot of time trying to figure out the qualifications for admission. The degree I am looking into only requires a 2.5 cumulative gpa for admission. I have intentionally picked this degree because of the lower gpa requirements, and no GRE tests, or letters of recommendation needed.
My problem is I have a lot of F grades from community college decades ago. These grades have followed me around, and I can’t shake them.
I am looking at my current college transcript at the university I am about to graduate from. My cumulative is above a 2.5.
My overall is below a 2.0 which includes the F grades transferred in. My last 30+ hours are above a 3.0, and I need about 21 more hours to finish.
I have also read that many colleges will only look at the last 60 hours of course work to make a decision about graduate school. If that is the case then I should be in the clear. I guess I need to call the college I am going to transfer to and start asking them questions. It seems like I have done that before in the past, and didn’t really get anywhere other than send us your transcripts.
I could of course stay at my current college, and would be accepted into a masters program there. I have already talked to them about it. But I really want to transfer somewhere else.
I am not trying to get into a hard college for a masters program by any means. How do most colleges look at this overall in general?
As you have noted, there is no one way that colleges look at GPA. Some look at the last 60 hours/credits, some look at everything. You will need to submit all your transcripts so you cannot hide your difficulties. However, some colleges will be willing to ignore your old grades if you can show them that they are no longer indicative of your current performance - about a decade ago I was able to get a university to discount my old grades and accept only my new, better grades, turning a rejection into an acceptance.
However.
You have clearly still been struggling. You have recent bad grades even if your most recent are better. This leads to two questions:
First, why do you want to go to grad school? The courses are harder and the expectations are higher. You seem to be a risky choice at best, and going into a job seems like the safer, wiser choice.
Second, what school is admitting with a 2.5 GPA, and what will that really do for your career? Most schools will not accept much below a 3.0, I am concerned that you are trying to get into a program that will not be respected when you go looking for a job.
Grad schools rarely have one hard and fast rule for how they look at applications. They tend to look at everything: the entire college career, the last 60 credits, the cumulative GPA, the major GPA, the grades in individual classes, etc. Sometimes, the fact that the Fs were a long time ago at a different college and the fact that you’ve been doing significantly better more recently will mitigate the lower grades. But if those Fs were in foundational courses for your field (e.g., if you wanted an MA in psychology and the Fs were in intro and stats), they may count more.
Also, just because a program has a minimum doesn’t mean students with grades near the minimum will be, or are, routinely accepted. Often, the competition is enough that students need to be substantially higher than that minimum to be accepted.
I wouldn’t call any schools/programs with these questions, because the best they will likely tell you is to send in your application and they will evaluate it then. That’s really what the admissions process is for.
Also, as a note, if you are about to graduate, you wouldn’t be ‘transferring’ to a master’s program. You would just apply as a graduate student.