How much does graduate school's GPA matter?

I’m currently attending Evergreen Valley College in California, and will be transferring this fall to another 4-year college. I’m wondering how much does my grade during community college matter for PhD applications? This current semester, I’m expecting a less-than-perfect semester GPA, and I’m worried it will look unfavorably to my application in the future.

When you apply to grad school, you will send all of your transcripts. What they make of your grades is up to them. Provided you aren’t failing classes that you need to repeat, one semester of less-than-perfect grades probably will not be the reason why you don’t get admitted.

Just how bad are your grades this term anyway?

@happymomof1 It’s just 2 B’s. I’m a bit worried. One course is General Ed, and one in Physics, which fulfills the engineering requirement. My major is Biochem. I am looking at top graduate schools in my major.

The problem is, I don’t know if grad school “combines” community college grades and 4-year-college grades. If that’s the case, I’m screwed.

Graduate schools will look at both transcripts. Not sure why two B’s will be an insurmountable issue.

All I can suggest is that you do your best and apply to a group of grad schools in different ranges of selectivity.

Two B grades will not keep you out of grad school. Stop worrying about this.

PhD programs review holistically, including records of college courses and grades from all colleges. However, it is likely that lower level courses like what you take at community college are less important than upper level courses in your major, undergraduate research experience, and recommendations relating to that.

For professional schools like medical and law, all college course work and grades from all colleges are combined into a recalculated GPA (note that the calculation is slightly different for medical versus law schools).