<p>Sakky, </p>
<p>This is one of the few times I’ve had some doubts about one of your posts, if you are also talking about engineering PhDs. I agree 100 percent that research potential is very important, but you also need the grades. PHD programs heavily consider grades and courses “up to a point”. First of all, you need a 3.2 to even apply to some mid-tier programs, which as you seem know is not something you can take for granted in Berkeley engineering.</p>
<p>If you have applied to graduate school, you would know that the technical courses you take are listed on your application, right down to the instructor and textbook used! Its well known that graduate schools will see if you’ve taken any courses in your prospective research area or fluff humanities courses.</p>
<p>Now when I said “up to a point” I mean that once you get above a certain threshold, your grades become less relevant and its all about research potential. That threshold is heavily dependent on the school. At Berkeley it seems to be around a 3.5 for top PhD programs, but at State School XYZ, you probably need to be close to a department topper to elicit consideration. </p>
<p>So you’ll see people from Berkeley consistently getting in to top graduate schools with GPA’s around (and under in my case) 3.5. This is more of a function of application committees correcting for grade deflated schools and strong engineering programs as well as focusing on your major and technical gpa. This does not mean that PhD programs are less about grades! An off the radar state school graduate in a weak/new department may not get this kind of GPA correction. </p>
<p>I think you erroneously view it as GPA leniency, its GPA correction! So for graduate school, the “game” as it will really favors those who go to strong programs because:</p>
<p>a) its slightly easier to get a decent GPA at a top school than a stellar GPA at a lower ranked school. This is not so much of difficulty, but say, if you’re sick for a semester/quarter and bomb some finals, you wouldn’t be out of the game if you were at Berkeley.</p>
<p>b) Much much easier to demonstrate research potential at a research institution.</p>