When we’re applying to a UC from community college, certain courses that are not UC approved are not used in GPA calculation. I’m wondering whether this also applies to graduate school. If a student is applying to graduate school at UCLA for instance, are the non-transferable courses which were taken back in community college factored in? How about for private schools, such as USC or NYU? Do private schools also distinguish between transferable and non-transferable courses?
Graduate schools typically put the most weight in your final 90 quarter units/ 60 semester units. While your CC grades are looked at, grad schools are must concerned with your upper division units, and major coursework.
If you look up the grad programs you’re interested in, it often says that right online.
Shit, am I misinterpreting this? Does community college GPA transfer to UC GPA or whatever GPA graduate schools look at?
@MadKillaMan If you’re a transfer student to a UC, your UC GPA begins when you get to UC. You start out fresh with a new GPA to build. Your CCC GPA is basically something you won’t need again, unless whatever a graduate school might want.
And I don’t want to hijack anyone’s thread, but this is somewhat related and probably the same process for both a UC and a graduate school. How exactly does a UC determine if a course (not from a CCC) is transferable?
@2016Candles so is graduate school less of a numbers game than transferring from a community college, where they usually just look directly at your GPA and whether you’ve completed the prereqs for your major? What I’m getting from your response is that grad schools actually look at transcripts closely and put more weight on the more recent and more important classes, am I right?
Also, when I’m reading grad school forums people always talk about how they’re disadvantaged because it took them 5 or 6 years rather than the usual 4 to graduate. If a student has been at CC for 4-5 years before he transfers, but finishes the upper-division coursework in 2 years, will he be disadvantaged in the same way?
Grad school in general is based on many factors that transfers aren’t necessarily judged by - test scores, professional experience, letters of recommendation, statement of purpose, etc. GPA is considered of course, but they also look at your coursework, in addition the the factors I listed above. I mean there is probably a point where your gpa is so low, the rest doesn’t matter, and conversely there’s probably a point where your GPA is high enough that the other factors only help you more. So for example if you have less than 2.75 then you’re not considered regardless of your other qualifications. Or if you have above 3.75, you’re as likely to get in as a 4.0, assuming your other qualifications are strong. The numbers I use are arbitrary, but do you get my point?
Thanks for the response. I do understand now that GPA isn’t the primary factor in grad school the way it is in transfer admission. Do you know whether 4 or 5 years at a CC looks bad though? I know most people who go to university straight out of high school and take 5 or 6 years to graduate are greatly disadvantaged in grad school admission.