College GPA

sac
Wed, 11 May 2005 15:32:39 +0000

Good summary, UCLAri. I’d add that some professional schools (law, medicine, for example) do use overall GPA in admissions, but many graduate programs are more interested in a student’s performance in the particular field. For example, someone who got departmental honors in economics and did a senior honors thesis under a professor who writes a great recommendation, and who was involved in some summer research or other relevant internship, would probably have a better shot at a PhD program in econ than someone who graduated with honors overall but did nothing distinguishing in economics other than grades. Another example: a journalism program might forgive a gpa brought down by a false start in engineering, as long as the writing samples, internships, and recommendations are excellent.