GRADUATE STUDENTS OF NT

[a blinkin]

My first semester was an eye opener. Thought I could take the same lackadaisical approach I took in undergrad. Ended up with a B and a C at the end of the semester and a 2.5 gpa

Had to take two summer classes. Got on the ball and Made an A and B. Bumped the gpa up to a 3.0. Keeping my head in the game after that rude encounter with my first semester.

For anyone that is getting ready for grad school, make sure you get your mind right first. I took a semester off before starting my program. Definitely got lazy over the course of 6 months.

 

[thegrandpuba26]

My first semester was an eye opener. Thought I could take the same lackadaisical approach I took in undergrad. Ended up with a B and a C at the end of the semester and a 2.5 gpa

Had to take two summer classes. Got on the ball and Made an A and B. Bumped the gpa up to a 3.0. Keeping my head in the game after that rude encounter with my first semester.

For anyone that is getting ready for grad school, make sure you get your mind right first. I took a semester off before starting my program. Definitely got lazy over the course of 6 months.

What about grad school makes it more difficult to Slack? I'm going into school psychology for the fall, plus I'm working two jobs. It seems like someting's gotta give.

 

[biggie62]

What about grad school makes it more difficult to Slack? I'm going into school psychology for the fall, plus I'm working two jobs. It seems like someting's gotta give.

I can't speak for liberal arts masters program, but I can give you my take in going for a MBA. The pace that topics are taught are the main difference. General course work to fill in the requirements is done slowly as they know that many people have never taken a marketing or a quantitative statistics class. The difference are the classes for your major. You cover twice the amount of material in one class. So if a class was split into two semesters in undergrad, it'll be one semester in grad school.

They expect people that go into these programs to have a serious mindset so slacking is not tolerated. And I'm not sure about other programs, but if you fall below a 3.0 gpa you get tossed out of the program.

 

[frank 7he t4nk]

Less geaux

Congrats!

finished school in 09 with a BA in MIS.

been dealing with streaming media since 2010 for the most part

gpa was horrible but i graduated

want to get an MBA but not sure where to start

i have to do amazing on my GMAT though i think

not sure what ima do though

might have to use real word experience

wanna get the degree before i get washed though

@H TOWN HUSTLER

My GPA wasn't the best either, but I was able to get into a decent program.

You should focus on other facets of your paplication:

• Emphasize promotions if you have any.
• Take courses at your local CC to show that you've grown/changed from undergrad, (Get A's obviously)
• Destroy the GMAT. If you're GPA is below the median for a particular school, try to get 20+ points above the median fon the GMAT.
• Get awesome recs. If you can draft one that your manager can sign off on or give him/her an outline that works even better.
• Nail your essay prompts. Do your research online and see what schools are looking for.

I hope that helps! Trust me when I say, GPA is not everything.

 

[paidnfull23]

Congrats!
@H TOWN HUSTLER

My GPA wasn't the best either, but I was able to get into a decent program.

You should focus on other facets of your paplication:

• Emphasize promotions if you have any.
• Take courses at your local CC to show that you've grown/changed from undergrad, (Get A's obviously)
• Destroy the GMAT. If you're GPA is below the median for a particular school, try to get 20+ points above the median fon the GMAT.
• Get awesome recs. If you can draft one that your manager can sign off on or give him/her an outline that works even better.
• Nail your essay prompts. Do your research online and see what schools are looking for.

I hope that helps! Trust me when I say, GPA is not everything.

Good advice. But Frank, stop being so humble, Johnson is alot more than a decent program

Congrats man. Check your PM.

 

[am1x90xnike]

Elaborate

Much rather drop a class than have GPA dwindle

It's the idea of modern college. It's not about learning the material, it's more about getting the grade. If you were concerned about actually learning, you bust *** and try to figure it out, and if you fail, you can see that, it sits there as a signpost of your failure, to me it's motivation.

But, college isn't necessarily about learning anymore, it's a step, so the idea is to get the best GPA you can. However, for certain grad schools, dropping classes look worse than getting a bad grad. For law school, they told me they wanted to know why I dropped the classes I did, when I told them I took the D instead of dropping a few courses, they said that was a better move, they hate quitters. Also, for law school, they factor in all those drops as dead credits, which means you still have the credit, but they count it as you getting an F anyway, at least the school I went to. Thought I was diddy boppin in with a 3.1 GPA, but they factoring in all the courses I retook and it dropped me down to a 2.9...and I still got in (rocked the LSAT...well did well enough on the LSAT) and had bonkers extras...and went to a major D1 university for undergrad and graduated with two degrees in undergrad, getting 3.5/3.7 respectfully in my major classes...I slacked on all those BIO 101 and Creative writting 203 classes...honestly, Idk why they let me in, haha.

It's all about who you are, I have/never will drop a class (hopefully I only have about fifteen classes left...forever) but, it's not a bad idea.

 

[suberzat1]

I want to say over the past years lurking in this thread I realized GPA is not everything. Scoring high on the GRE and good letter of recommendation can go a long way. At least with certain grad programs. 

I still need to make sure I set myself up for when I do decide to attend Grad school.

 

[am1x90xnike]

I'm not at Columbia or something lol I'm at a mid to lower tier lawschool in the midwest. If I stay here, going where I went is better than going to one of the ivy-league schools (there's a stigma against those schools here), but if I go anywhere else (eastcoast) then I'm competing with those kids, so I'm trying to gain experience...plus I'm black, so that'll help alot ..not to many colored attorneys. . You do need a great GPA to get into Michigan and Harvard and when they look at your transcript they take into account every "W" ...and count it as a "F." It's the same with your criminal record, if you are going to law school, you might as well never get anything expunged, you have to disclose it and you they will find it, even the most mundane thing. IDK about other master programs, but I can tell you, if you're going to law school, take the D, one point is better than zero points.

 

[fontaine]

I'm not at Columbia or something lol I'm at a mid to lower tier lawschool in the midwest. If I stay here, going where I went is better than going to one of the ivy-league schools (there's a stigma against those schools here), but if I go anywhere else (eastcoast) then I'm competing with those kids, so I'm trying to gain experience...plus I'm black, so that'll help alot ..not to many colored attorneys. . You do need a great GPA to get into Michigan and Harvard and when they look at your transcript they take into account every "W" ...and count it as a "F." It's the same with your criminal record, if you are going to law school, you might as well never get anything expunged, you have to disclose it and you they will find it, even the most mundane thing. IDK about other master programs, but I can tell you, if you're going to law school, take the D, one point is better than zero points.

I'm sorry famb... But you're wrong on a lot of levels.

Ws aren't looked at as Fs... They're looked at as Ws... It could be a multitude of reasons why you withdrew.

Also, if you retake that same class at the same university and be more prepared... It literally REPLACES the W on your transcript.

Fs and D's are a symbol of not caring because damn near every university allows you to withdraw within a few weeks of the end of the semester.

@ taking the failing grade over withdrawing.

I've been in college for a combined 7 years... Have an AA, BBA, and will receive an MS next month.

I've never in my entire career heard someone say "take the D or F instead of withdraw"



And @ you being better off at amid tier school over Harvard or Yale or Stanford.

You're just lying to yourself now.

 

[fontaine]

Good advice. But Frank, stop being so humble, Johnson is alot more than a decent program

Congrats man. Check your PM.

yeah... Dude is too humble.

He's at a top 20 college.

 

[am1x90xnike]

Ok...well...seeing as though I went through the application/acceptance process of law school two years ago and currently interning in the recruitment department( emissary) and am in the process of my bar application, which requires resubmitting of every school transcript I've had after hs...I have no idea what I'm talking about...

Idk about regular grad school, or med school...I know about law school. It's a rigorous application process full of disappointment.

Love nt, cats says 'I live in Egypt, I'm Egyptian, Egyptians are x' another cat comes in 'nah, you wrong, I've never been to Egypt, but I know you're wrong'

Law school is a out getting jobs, the cat from Harvard that come here with no connections is not going to get a job before the cat that went to school here, interned in the office and has been a regular in the legal community for the last three years. Harvard gets looks, but connections get jobs. Trust me, or don't, don't make me no nevermind I'm here doing what people dream of doing and trying to throw a latter down to everyone behind me, but slap it away, I ain't coming back down there.

 

[heliumclinton]

Love nt, cats says 'I live in Egypt, I'm Egyptian, Egyptians are x' another cat comes in 'nah, you wrong, I've never been to Egypt, but I know you're wrong'

Bro all we are saying is you shouldn't be recommending people to stick out a class they know they're going to bad in instead of dropping. That is horrible advice and just because it didn't stop you from getting into law school, it would stop plenty of people.

 

[am1x90xnike]

Think about it like this

You are admission officer to a grad program

Three kids applications walk in...idk if you've seen official transcripts, but it does show a "W" on your transcripts and the ones law school accepts show all the classes you've taken, dropped or not, it's called an "adjusted gpa."

You're looking, one kid has a 3.4, but a transcript full of Ws

another kid has a 2.9 but no Ws

W means you quit, it got hard so you quit, whether that was because of life or because of academic performance, both students should be assumed to have equal reasoning for dropping a class, one student didn't but the other student did ( we really don't need to go into how terrible life was for me in undergrad, yet I still stuck it out with all my classes).

So, all things being equal, after the last couple of years of students consistently dropping courses, thus inflating their GPAs becasue they just drop all the bad grades as they went along. This means, their GPA is a false representation of their academic performance, so when looking at applications, GPA isn't going to be as highly considered as it once was.

Taking the D means you are a man of higher character (on paper), one that faces ones mistakes instead of hiding them, which, at least on paper, character is a factor in admissions. There is no way to predict what a student would do when they are in school, or, the ultimate goal of schools, when they are an alumni in the world, but, if you are consistently quitting on things in undergrad, for whatever reason, then it doesn't reflect positively on your application.

If you have a bad gpa, or know you will have one, get a great LSAT/GRE score, get some work experience in a similar field and get the best recommendations from the highest authority you can find.

Like I said, I only know law school and what rationale they use in their admission programs, other programs may be different, but law schools don't look to kindly on Ws, despite what all of you PEERS say.

I'm trying to help, as always, dropping a class is not always the best look, in 2014, when everyone has a degree and students can drop their way to a better GPA, schools consider other factors, one of them being character, the ability to handle adversity.

Long story short, drop whatever classes you want, don't make me no nevermind. I'm only here to give advice on the journey I've went through and the experience I've gained, I'm going to be good, this is more for anyone else out there tripping because they have a bad GPA.

 

[fontaine]

Well since you're only referring to law schools you might be right..

But for medical, business, educational, logistics, and biology programs... Ws won't hold you back.

And please stop with the extremes...

"full of WS" =\= dropping 3 classes over the course of your 4 career..

There's a limit for anyone that entered into college after 2007 so I don't see how you can amass a bunch of Ws ..

And again... If you withdraw... Then come back and take the same class at the same university... It takes the place of the W...

Again.. TAKES THE PLACE OF THE W

 

[am1x90xnike]

Check your schools policy on that. A retaken class is always on your transcript, just factors differently.

Just letting you know, transcripts show both grades...at least mine did. It showed the avg it between the two, I got a d in public speaking freshmen year and an A senior year, it showed a c on my lawschool transcript...yea I was hot, I was told 'it'll replace the grade' but, when it mattered, it did not.



http://www.mypatraining.com/retaking-classes

http://www.las.illinois.edu/students/courses/repeating/

https://registrar.unm.edu/forms/Grade_Replacement.pdf

I guess, it's not just law school.

 

[usabasketball08]

Drop limit is 6.

And yeah W's show up on a transcript regardless, however schools do have grade replacement policies

But there's no way I'm taking an F over a W.

 

[usabasketball08]

Yeah it's 6 in the state of Texas I think. That's a lot of drops

 

[heliumclinton]

Ws do show on transcript they just don't factor into your GPA

 

[am1x90xnike]

6? It takes roughly 40 classes to graduate, that's like 15% of your classes. That's an entire semester+.

It's all about your goals.


Can we please stop saying Ws don't factor in, it depends on the school/depends on the situation. They def don't look good.

Quote:

Any grade notation that signifies failure (such as No Credit, No Credit/Fail, Not Passing, Incomplete/Fail, Withdraw/Fail, Unsatisfactory, Fail, etc.) is converted to zero on the 4.0 scale and is included in the calculation of the GPA, even if the issuing school considers the grade to be nonpunitive. Failure is defined as credit attempted but not earned. If a transcript is not clear about credit attempted, LSAC staff will contact the registrar at the issuing school to confirm whether course credit was attempted. Incomplete and Withdraw grades considered punitive by the issuing school will be included in the conversion. The only exception to this policy is for No Credit, Withdraw/Fail, repeated courses, and incomplete grades specifically explained in Grades Excluded From Conversion.

http://www.lsac.org/aboutlsac/policies/transcript-summarization

It's the same for other grad schools as I'm reading. I would drop the issue, but cats in here giving false/unsupported information and I don't want someone following that to their detriment.

Ws on transcripts are risky, I mean it's as bad as an F no matter, it just may not count against your gpa given the right conditions, but it says something different, dependent on the school. A D is almost always preferred....not coming from me but school admission officers and websites.

 

[WhatisLove]

Just wanted to cosign on am1x90xnike has said (although I never had any W's to worry about).

You are encouraged to submit an addendum for poor grades and/or reasons why you withdrew in pretty much every application that I have seen. It's definitely not a good look.

Not going to necessarily take a side on which is worse (taking the low grade or withdrawing)... but they both could have poor consequences. It is fair to put that out there.

 

[Mark Antony]

I'm not at Columbia or something lol I'm at a mid to lower tier lawschool in the midwest. If I stay here, going where I went is better than going to one of the ivy-league schools (there's a stigma against those schools here), but if I go anywhere else (eastcoast) then I'm competing with those kids, so I'm trying to gain experience...plus I'm black, so that'll help alot ..not to many colored attorneys. . You do need a great GPA to get into Michigan and Harvard and when they look at your transcript they take into account every "W" ...and count it as a "F." It's the same with your criminal record, if you are going to law school, you might as well never get anything expunged, you have to disclose it and you they will find it, even the most mundane thing. IDK about other master programs, but I can tell you, if you're going to law school, take the D, one point is better than zero points.

I'm sorry famb... But you're wrong on a lot of levels.

Ws aren't looked at as Fs... They're looked at as Ws... It could be a multitude of reasons why you withdrew.

Also, if you retake that same class at the same university and be more prepared... It literally REPLACES the W on your transcript.

Fs and D's are a symbol of not caring because damn near every university allows you to withdraw within a few weeks of the end of the semester.

@ taking the failing grade over withdrawing.

I've been in college for a combined 7 years... Have an AA, BBA, and will receive an MS next month.

I've never in my entire career heard someone say "take the D or F instead of withdraw"



And @ you being better off at amid tier school over Harvard or Yale or Stanford.

You're just lying to yourself now.

Word, you know the havoc a 0 or 1.0 do to your gpa?

 

[elderwatsondiggs]

I've been in college for a combined 7 years... Have an AA, BBA, and will receive an MS next month.

[COLOR=#red]The Trifecta...very impressive my dude!![/COLOR]

 

[getyashinebox]

^"the trifecta" should include an engineering degree & MBA

 

[am1x90xnike]

I think engineering degrees are probably the toughest to get and the most needed. I mean, I think they are the most practical of almost any degree. I feel like there is more need for engineers than doctors...and selfish...than lawyers.

 

[frank 7he t4nk]

Good advice. But Frank, stop being so humble, Johnson is alot more than a decent program

Congrats man. Check your PM.

yeah... Dude is too humble.

He's at a top 20 college.

lol thanks guys. I appreciate the kind words.

It's great seeing everyone work hard to try to improve themselves and also help each other out. We're raising the bar.

In regards to taking a poor grade v. taking a W, I'd personally take a W if you can clearly explain why you decided to forgo the letter grade. However, I think both am1x90xnike and Fontaine made valid points.

Both can be seen negatively when applying for any graduate program, but as long as you can make a clear case as to why "xyz" happened, and what you have done since then to remedy the situation, I don't believe that will the defining factor as to whether or not you get into the program of your choice.