I’ve gone through many admissions results on GradCafe for Masters in Computer Science at several universities (Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, JHU, Duke, UMich, Berkeley, Ivy Leagues for examples), and I found two baffling observations that make me question the purpose of a GPA in a grad application:
For applicants with a certain GPA, some of them have been accepted while others have been rejected.
Some applicants with low/average GPAs (in this case, around 3.2-3.6) have reported “accepted”. whereas some applicants with high GPAs (3.7+) have reported “rejected”.
I’m currently an undergrad, and although I still have 5 semesters left, I keep bothering about my GPA, worrying whether I’ll be accepted into my desired graduate program or not. I want to get into a T25 masters in Computer Science, especially one in the East Coast, I just hope that my GPA doesn’t hinder my chances of getting into any such program.
My doctorate is in the humanities, not STEM, so perhaps others will have more insight than I do. However, just like with college admissions, grad school admissions is not all about grades and scores (some areas, like medicine and law, do emphasize the stats more than others). Grades are part of the picture, the strength of your undergrad program can also be part of the picture. If some programs have reputations for discouraging grade inflation, that could be why people with lower GPAs get in above people with higher GPAs from other schools. There are other factors in your control – for example, what research or internships have your pursued in your area of interest, how well do your professional interests fit the graduate program’s strengths, and how well do you express your goals in your personal statement? Some factors will not be in your control – especially for doctoral programs (so maybe it won’t apply to you), is there a professor in the department whose research dovetails well with yours, and is that person able to take on more grad students at this time? Are there jobs in your specific field of interest, and is the market growing or shrinking?
One area where grades and scores definitely help: fellowships and other funding. Usually, those stats will decide funding levels for admitted students.
So I wouldn’t say that grad admissions is holistic like it is in many undergrad programs, but there are more factors at play than just grades and scores. You can only control what you can control: so keep your grades up, prepare for the GRE, pursue internship and research opportunities, and get to know professors who can advise you on grad applications and write great letters of recommendation. Have someone who knows the field review some drafts of your personal statement when the time comes. And apply to a range of programs, just like you did (I imagine) with colleges. Don’t worry about what you can’t control.
Some terminal master’s degree programs are not that selective, compared to funded PhD programs.
Also overall GPA may not be as relevant as GPA in upper level courses relevant to the graduate major, undergraduate research, and faculty recommendations.
My daughter is in a competitive masters program and while they do look at gpa and science grades, that is only part of the picture (but still an important part). They also look at research, your personal statement, interview, letters of recommendation, work experiences etc. If you have a 4.0 but just an “ok” personal statement or minimal related experiences, you might not get an interview. If you have a lower gpa but an exceptional PS and letters of recommendation etc, you could get an interview. They also want students from a variety of backgrounds (experiences).
Grad Cafe doesn’t present the whole picture- it only shows gpa and test scores (if required). There is a lot more to it for some degrees. That might be what you are seeing, but I am not familiar with CS.
By the time a student is applying to a grad program, experience is going to be important, depending on the program of course. This was certainly true for my D’s competitive Master’s program.
The good news is with 5 semesters to go, you should have time to get some good experience under your belt. Obviously a good GPA helps, but it isn’t the be all and end all. Do your best to keep your grades as high as you can, and seek good experiences.
Like all things “grad school” how much weight in the total application package that is placed on GPA is going to be program dependent.
For a course-based master’s where there’s not much more to the application package it’s probably going to be the primary determiner for evaluating applicants but how high it needs to be depends on how competitive the program is for admission.
For a thesis-based/research master’s that provides funding or a PhD, how much weight it holds among the rest of the application package will be variable. At a minimum many programs, especially competitive ones, use it as an initial screener where a specific GPA cut off has been established (frequently a 3.0 though it can be as high as 3.5) to have the rest of the application considered. For some programs that will be the sole extent of it’s consideration and beyond that the rest of the application is more important. For the most competitive programs however simply meeting the cutoff is unlikely to be sufficient to getting admitted baring the remainder of the application package being otherwise extraordinary or there being compelling mitigating circumstances. There’s always that 1 applicant that gets admitted despite a low GPA but typically there’s something else in their package mitigating it. Once you get beyond a certain level however (maybe a 3.7) it probably doesn’t matter much and all applicants with a GPA beyond that will be evaluated equally on the remaining aspects of their package.
There’s also going to be variability in what constitutes your “GPA”. Some programs will consider your entire cGPA but for others it could be just the average of your last 2 years, or just the average of all courses in your major, or just senior level courses in the major.
The best rule of thumb is the more competitive the program you’re applying to is for admission the more important your GPA will be.
Another factor could be whether admitted directly from college, or whether a year or two was spent working/researching in the field - substituting letter grades with tangible experience.