<p>For PhD admissions, if you already have a masters in that subject, does your undergrad GPA really matter that much? If I ever decide to pursue a PhD, my grad GPA is much, much better than my undergrad. I doubt they'd really look at undergrad since it was so long ago, b ut I dont know if anybody else has a perspective on that.</p>
<p>It will still be a factor.</p>
<p>I’m sure they look at it. How much it matters is anyone’s guess. I had the same question at the start of the app cycle and for me personally it doesn’t seem to have matter very much. I’m 3/6 on interviews, 2 of which are at UPenn and Columbia, top schools. If I had to guess what other aspects of my app helped the low undergrad GPA, it’d be my 5 years of research experience, great LORs from some prominent PIs, and fit.</p>
<p>It’s a factor, but I think really only for comparison with graduate GPA.</p>
<p>That is, if you had a so-so undergrad GPA but a great graduate GPA, you’ve shown improvement and the ability to excel in graduate work. Conversely, if you were a 4.0 student in undergrad but barely scraped through your master’s program, there’ll be questions as to your preparation for doctoral study.</p>
<p>It is a much small factor once you have a masters, even more so if there was a significant gap between completing your undergraduate and applying for PhD. In those circumstances where a single GPA is used in a calculation (like competing for fellowships) most schools seem to use the most recent meaningful GPA - the masters in your case. When they can look at all your GPA’s, then it will be considered but much less so than the grad GPA.</p>
<p>The courses you have taken matter, as does your grades in particularly relevant courses (like upper division methods and theory courses.) But MS coursework results matter more, any issues about program quality notwithstanding.</p>
<p>Isn’t everybody’s graduate GPA much higher than undergraduate?</p>
<p>Where I went to graduate school, I only heard of one person who got a grade lower than B+. They only gave 3 grades: an A was an A; an A- was really a B; a B+ was really a C. I don’t think they even counted a grade of B- toward the completion of a graduate degree.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, I think your graduate career will weigh more heavily than your undergraduate career, and I’d guess that recommendations weigh at least as heavily as GPA.</p>
<p>Yes, graduate GPA is much higher. Anything less than a 3.5, really, and there’s going to be some red flags raised.</p>
<p>My MS GPA was lower than my BS. My MS program offered only 2 grades - A, and B, no plus or minus. My first couple of semesters I struggled with the course formats and instructors (who were largely professionals teaching on the side, not professors) and got a few B’s. I had a decent GPA in the end, but not nearly as good as my undergrad GPA.</p>
<p>My PhD program only gives out B- to A grades, but GPA’s lower than 3.25 are exceptionally rare (or so I understand).</p>
<p>It depends on the school and program. I remember a Stanford EE grad student saying that the median there is a B+ (3.33).</p>
<p>Clearly, then, it does depend.</p>
<p>In contrast to my graduate school, my undergraduate school and department felt that it should make liberal use of the whole array of alphabetic grading options.</p>
<p>I did some searching before I posted the original post and it seems like grad school GPAs tend to be subject to inflation more than undergrad for whatever reason. That said, an A is an A so I dont see how schools can differentiate an A at school X from an A at school Y with grade inflation. </p>
<p>The reason I’m curious about it is that my undergrad GPA is significantly lower than my Grad GPAs. I had a 2.5 undergrad and a 3.75 in my first masters and 3.79 in my second. Obviously I can handle graduate school coursework, but I dont know how PhD admissions folks think.</p>
<p>You’re fine.</p>
<p>this is hardly a time to flirt.</p>