<p>I am a recent college graduate hoping to attend graduate school for engineering in Fall 2014. I do, however, have one question about my GPA. My freshman year, I attended NC State and earned a 3.95 GPA. Then, I transferred to UPenn for my final three years and earned a 3.25 GPA. </p>
<p>So my question is: do you believe the board of admissions will concentrate solely on my 3.25 GPA? I will obviously be required to submit both transcripts. My composite GPA is roughly a 3.45, which isn't terrible when applying for a master's in engineering (however, I know it's not great). </p>
<p>Basically, do you think the board of admissions will see my 3.25 and throw it out? Or do you think they'll realize that my GPA isn't that bad once my freshman year is factored in?</p>
<p>Side note: I've already taken the GRE (157V, 167Q).</p>
<p>There’s no way to tell, especially since you didn’t specify where you are applying, to what kinds of programs (PhD or MS) and since we don’t know what the rest of your application looks like. You could have three publications in Science, in which case I doubt they will throw out your application.</p>
<p>Generally speaking, though, programs don’t “throw out” applications as frequently as students seem to think they do on the basis of a single indicator. Graduate admissions are holistic, and they take into account your entire application as a whole. Maybe they know that Penn engineering is grueling and so a 3.25 there is actually pretty good as opposed to bad. Maybe one of your recommenders is friends with someone on the committee, and that member calls them up and hears amazing things about you and so they want to keep you in the pool.</p>
<p>Or perhaps you’re applying to MS programs, at which a 3.25 isn’t even that low.</p>
<p>They’ll look at both, but I think no matter whether you transfer or not, they’re going to look more heavily at your upper-level GPA. This is a better indicator of how you do in advanced material in your discipline than introductory-level classes.</p>
<p>I think they will look at both GPA’s, but if anything they will weigh the more recent 3.25 much more highly than the freshman year 3.95. In your case, the trajectory over those last three years may be very important - was it upward, downward, flat?</p>
<p>Regardless, how much it matters depends a LOT on the actual schools to which you are applying. You should still be able to get into a decent program (assuming everything else in your application is at least on par with that 3.25) but “top” PhD programs are almost certainly out of reach - unless of course you have some other areas that are really impressive.</p>
<p>Thank you all very much! My intentions weren’t for this to become a “what are my chances” thread, which is why I didn’t include research, LORs, etc. I was just curious how my GPA would be approached. </p>
<p>Also, cosmicfish, there was definitely an upward trend. In my last three semesters, I averaged a 3.8 or so. And I’m applying for a master’s, not PhD. So hopefully that helps!</p>
<p>Anyways, thank you all for the information!</p>