<p>Most people apply before their 1st semester senior year grades are in right? So how does the senior year affect graduation. I understand they can revoke your admittance if you bombed your senior year, but what influence does the most important year have on admittance?</p>
<p>For some schools I hear admittance depends on upper undergrad course work then they put in parenthesis (junior, senior yr) or something like that. How would that work if they don't even see anything about your senior year on apps?</p>
<p>The short answer is that they look at whatever you have up until you apply, often applying heavier weight towards your later years. If you have good grades up to that point, they are going to assume that you will get good grades to finish off the year. They will look at your course selections as well, since individual professors want to know how prepared you will be to do research in their labs.</p>
<p>So, if you applying after graduation, then they look at and consider your senior year, whereas if you apply during your senior year it, by necessity, be largely ignored.</p>
<p>Isn’t it a little silly to annoy the most important year tho? I understand you have to for those applying during senior year but why can’t they make decision in like beginning of summer or something.</p>
Largely because each iteration of admissions (comprising notifying students and then waiting for replies) takes weeks or even months, and the farther they push back application deadlines and admission notifications the harder it is to fill all their spots. I am not saying this is 100% true, especially with schools like MIT that usually only have one round of admissions or schools like Ohio State that somehow DO run everything months behind everyone else without catastrophe, but I think it is the perception.</p>
<p>Also, perhaps that senior year is not as important as we think it is, taken from the perspective of the professors…</p>
<p>oh well coming from an engineering perspective, I think everyone has senior design their senior year which is arguably the most important class in there major.</p>
<p>Almost all of the schools I applied to requested you have your transcript sent off after the end of the fall term of senior year. Your transcript office (or whatever it’s called) should have an option where you pay now and they’ll send it within a fairly short time frame after the end of the term.</p>
<p>Also, most schools don’t start looking at applications for a few weeks after the deadline because stuff always manages to go wrong (transcripts get lost in the mail, professors consistently forget to submit recommendations, can’t get everyone on the committee in the same room for two days straight, etc).</p>
<p>Most programs won’t rescind your acceptance even if your grades drop significantly. Once you’re accepted, all you have to do is prove that you graduated. </p>
<p>The general feeling is that if a student is applying to attend graduate school directly after his/her undergraduate education, then the transcript and preparation should reflect high-level work BEFORE senior year. Applications generally ask you to list your courses currently in progress and those you expect to take in the spring semester. They assume that your grades will be comparable to the rest of your transcript, one reason why a student who had shaky grades for the first two years should wait until after graduation to apply.</p>
<p>Also remember that GPA is not as important as research and letters of recommendation.</p>
<p>Yeah, but with research don’t you acquire another year of research (assuming you’re researching) your senior year which would look even better on your transcript? What do you do about that, do you say you’re still at this/that lab?</p>
<p>Yes, you would write that you are currently in a research lab. Most places will assume that you plan to finish out the year at the lab, as it would make no sense for you to drop out of it the minute you hit the submit button.</p>
<p>If you are really concerned about your senior year grades and research experience not enhancing your application, wait a year and apply the fall after you graduate.</p>
<p>But let’s say a grad school admission committee is looking at 2 applications with similar stats except one is applying their senior year and the other is applying the fall after graduation. The one applying their senior year lacks the senior year things (extra research thing, etc…), things that time can build. Which one would they favor? I’m not sure if I phrased that question right.</p>
<p>They would favor the one who has actually done stuff, presumably the person who graduated already. There’s no extra credit granted for applying earlier than someone else.</p>
<p>This is of course assuming that all other factors are equal, and that the (slightly) younger student doesn’t show more potential, etc…</p>
<p>I agree with the poster above - if your application will be much stronger post-graduation, why not wait and apply then?</p>
<p>I’m not sure I’m still only a sophomore. But I like doing things continuously like going to grad school straight after my undergrad instead of getting a job or something to do for a year</p>
<p>They don’t mind a little bit of a drop in your spring semester grades since it’s likely if you were a strong candidate you’ll have a handful of grad school visits to do, and that can really eat away at time you’d be using for school work or research.</p>