<p>Hello everyone,
I have read many of you discussing about grad school in other threads and I have a few questions that you might be able to answer.
- I've read that gpa is what matters most. Which gpa would they be most interested in? Community college, UC upper division, or all together?
- if opting for gradschool at any of the UC campuses will they use only the transferable classes + classes taken at their campuses to calculate GPA?
- when Do people normally apply to gradschool (month)?
- the prestige of the grad programs is usually compatible with the prestige each school has for undergraduate degrees?</p>
<p>in equal parts: GPA and test scores (LSAT, GRE, MCAT, etc). together they’ll count for ~ 95% of your case. the other ~5% is everything else you have going for you (job, extra curriculars, volunteer work, how good your undergrad institution was). it’s said that some weight is given to upper div work. exceptions: 1) there’s a notable preference for kids who come out of the ivy league, though this is likely due in part to old money donations going to schools letting these kids in; 2) if you’ve got some sort of exceptional story (e.g., you cured cancer), that can considerably act in your favor and help adcoms look past GPA / test scores that don’t meet par. </p>
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<p>weirdly phrased question, but if you’re asking what i think you’re asking, the answer is this: when factoring your GPA, grad schools take into account every uc-level/transferable class that you’ve ever attempted credit for, anywhere, ever… that means that if you got an F in one class, and retook it for an A, you’ve essentially got a C on your record. W’s don’t seem to hurt much. + there’s plenty of room to write addendums in explanation of insufficient or inconsistent performance. </p>
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<p>of course, it depends… lot’s of people apply during their senior year so that they’ll be able to matriculate into a grad program immediately after undergrad, during the following year. others take a few years off to work, which can look good on applications for certain schools (e.g., northwestwern law) and then apply. personally, i’m gearing toward law school… average entering age at most places is about 24 / 25. </p>
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<p>again, not quite sure what this means… if it’s at all relevant, a school’s ‘overall prestige’ is usually based on the quality / ‘prestige’ of its graduate programs combined. i.e., a school with lots of highly regarded grad departments will boast a high overall ranking (i.e., harvard).</p>
For the second question what I wanted to know was: do lower division requirements Completed at a community college factor in your GPA for those admitted to UCs as transfer students? (I am asking this because I have read that once we transfer, our Gpa starts from 0 again). Also I am wondering if the classes that were considered non-transferable by any UC for my undergrad, will impact my GPA when applying for grad school.
for the last question: UCLA and cal seems to be the most prestigious UCs for undergrad. Is this true for grad school as well?</p>
<p>Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my questions!</p>
<p>A lot of the information about graduate school depends on what you are going to grad school for. Law school and Med school are, by some definitions, graduate school but and they are extremely competitive with a large emphasis based both on your GPA and the entrance examinations. Graduate school in humanities focuses heavily on your GPA and writing abilities. Graduate school in a STEM field only factors your GPA in as a cutoff (3.0-3.5 for most places), your real key here is undergraduate research and the GRE tests.</p>
<p>As for prestige, if your goal is law or a humanity, this becomes much more significant since your reputation is going to be defined by this school. In medical and the sciences, it might open up more doors but these fields are much more performance based, this is especially true in the sciences where your reputation is based off of your publications.</p>
<p>Are these accurate? The GPA averages seem pretty low. Yes I understand that they take work experience into account (heavily), but they still seem low imo.</p>