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A bad grade

Posted: Wed May 30, 2007 4:15 pm
by Maud Dib
Okay, here's my story: I have a 3.1 over-all GPA and a 2.94 GPA for my upper division physics course work. I have a C in one lower division physics class and a D in upper division first semester quantum. Otherwise, my upper division physics grades are B's, B minuses, and three A's.

I could choose to go ahead and graduate this semester or I could choose to retake quantum in the fall and get an actual acceptable grade.

I do not yet know what I want to do with my degree once I get it, but my guess is I will eventually go to graduate school either to pursue more physics or engineering. What I want to know is whether this D, given everything else, is going to make going to grad school (or even getting a job in my field) impossible. If so, then I should definitely stick around another six months and try to correct that mistake. Otherwise, I would really like to be done with the undergrad part of physics.

Can anyone give me any input on this?

Posted: Wed May 30, 2007 7:28 pm
by grae313
As far as I know, most jobs for ppl with Bachelor's just look at the gpa, not the actual transcripts, but I could definitely be wrong on that one. Most say top 50 or top 100 university graduate schools require a minimum 3.0 GPA, so if you could bump yourself above 3.0 by retaking that class, it could be worth it but it really just depends on where you want to go. If you are looking at local state universities without the GPA minimum I don't think one grade would matter that much.

The best thing to do would be to check out some grad schools you might be interested in and talk to someone from the department and see what they think. I know one of my friends is going to grad school in physics at a CA state school with a lower GPA than yours so it all depends on where you apply. Same for jobs, find a few places you might be interested in working and talk to people there. If you do go to grad school, no employer will care what grades you got as an undergrad, only what you did in grad school.

Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2007 4:23 pm
by tnoviell
Don't worry about it. I know people going to graduate school now with more than one D on their undergraduate record, and even more with jobs. And no, I didn't go to a school worth mentioning, either. These people got jobs from working at an oil rig to working for NASA and various other aerospace companies.

Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2007 12:31 pm
by quizivex
As far as I know, most jobs for ppl with Bachelor's just look at the gpa, not the actual transcripts, but I could definitely be wrong on that one.
Whatttt??? Has anyone else heard of that happening? I won't bother explaining all the reasons why it's unfair not to look at the actual transcripts unless people really think that's how things work for graduate admissions...

Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2007 5:50 pm
by jwc914
i think the statement from grae313 is regarding 'getting a job'....not 'graduate admission'
i could be wrong too but i don't think my friends had to submit their transcripts when they got employed. they just submitted resume, had interviews and got the jobs.

Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2007 8:26 pm
by tnoviell
You do need to submit transcripts for some jobs. Industries definitely don't judge you based solely upon academic credentials, it seems more like ability to learn. Most jobs a monkey could do, the only thing that separates you and a monkey is that you'll take a shorter time to learn how to use the equipment, hopefully :)