Retaking Undergrad Classes or Taking Graduate Classes

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HappyQuark
Posts: 762
Joined: Thu Apr 16, 2009 2:08 am

Retaking Undergrad Classes or Taking Graduate Classes

Post by HappyQuark » Sun May 23, 2010 10:30 pm

The company I'm currently working for offers tuition reimbursement and I'm considering retaking 2 courses which I feel are a blight on my transcript (1 C and 1 C+ in two of my physics courses). I figured I could retake these two courses for free, improve my GPA and get a bit of a refresher course on the two topics. Alternatively, I realized that I could also (or rather, instead) take a couple of graduate level courses at a nearby large state university (Not particularly known for physics but probably a better reputation than my liberal arts college in physics). Assuming that I could do very well in either scenario, which would benefit me more and be a better use of my time, improving my undergraduate profile or demonstrating that I'm capable of doing graduate coursework?

Bean
Posts: 20
Joined: Thu Jul 29, 2010 7:35 pm

Re: Retaking Undergrad Classes or Taking Graduate Classes

Post by Bean » Sat Jul 31, 2010 6:50 pm

Would someone please answer this question, because I've got a similar issue and chose to retake CM but not EM (only 2 lower than B). As such I would like to know if I made the right choice.

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grae313
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Joined: Tue May 29, 2007 8:46 pm

Re: Retaking Undergrad Classes or Taking Graduate Classes

Post by grae313 » Sun Aug 01, 2010 11:10 am

It's kind of a tossup in my opinion. Are two Cs the only problem on your transcript? If your GPA is already good where it stands (3.7 or higher) I think I would definitely take the grad classes. If your GPA were 3.5 or lower I'd want to boost it by retaking the undergrad classes. In between is a fuzzy gray area for me. This is just how I would approach it if I were in this situation. If you feel confident enough in the subject to take a grad course and know you'll do well in it, then the graduate courses are definitely a better use of your time. Whichever one you do, you have to make sure you get an A though. Graduate courses are graded differently than undergraduate courses and a B in one does not look good.



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