<p>I was wondering if most Science and Engineering PhD programs look at the entire undergrad gpa or the Junior/Senior gpa? I am a returning student and my old gpa (from 12 years ago) is 2.04 after 63 credits. I figured out that depending on which path I take to finish my undergrad I will need to finish with an average gpa of about 3.7 or higher just to pull my overall gpa to a 3.0. Will my old gpa hurt my chances?</p>
<p>I had a similar situation, and in my experience it varies widely between departments.</p>
<p>I flunked out of my undergraduate program (1.90 GPA) and spent six years working before I decided I wanted to go back for my degree. My department readmitted me under a special program that officially restarted my GPA - thanks to this, and despite my previous grades, I graduated with high distinction a couple of years later.</p>
<p>The reaction to my grades was all over the map.</p>
<p>Two schools accepted my official GPA (which ignored the earlier years) as gospel and offered me admission. One school only looked at my junior-senior grades (or so they said) and offered me admission. Two schools called “shenanigans!” and recalculated my GPA on their own - both initially rejected me, but I was able to convince one department that my “new” GPA was correct and that the old one was meaningless, after which they extended me an offer. So I was accepted with funding to 4 out of 5 PhD programs, ranked roughly from 30th to 5th by USNWR*, all despite having flunked out.</p>
<p>So don’t panic - finish your undergrad as strong as you can. Some employers and some grad programs will refuse you based on your previous experience, most will accept that Old You is not Current You and will give you a shot.</p>
<p>*: Yes, rankings are meaningless in most regards, but they do generally provide a good measure of how hard schools are to get into.</p>