College GPA

UCLAri
Wed, 11 May 2005 14:01:05 +0000

Here’s the general rule with GPAs and grad school:

A 3.0 and above is more than enough for any job. There are jobs that require a minimum 3.0, but those are usually jobs that get a large volume of applications, such as civil service.

Anything above a 3.5 is generally enough to get into good grad schools. Yes, graduating summa cum laude is better, but a 3.6 isn’t going to necessarily keep you out of PhD programs. 3.7 and above, of course, is still the “golden range.” A 4.0 with poor letters of rec will get turned down in a heartbeat from top PhD programs. A 4.0 with a terrible statement of purpose will also get turned down. So will a 4.0 with a low GRE/GMAT score. In the end, balance beats GPA.

However, to say that a person with a 3.7 is going to get a job before the 3.5 is absurd. There are no such thing as “super elite jobs” that only take a certain GPA range. After the first job, your GPA is effectively rendered meaningless.