Does your Undergraduate GPA affect your Graduate GPA?

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by BMWGuinness, Jan 20, 2008.

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  1. BMWGuinness

    BMWGuinness New Member

    Never really thought about an MBA until recently.

    I screwed around in college, ending up with a 2.75 in my lower 60 credits. Now I'll be doing Credit by Exam for most of my upper 60, so I don't expect to graduate with a high GPA, though I plan to smash the GMAT easily.

    I hope to end up with a 3.0 after all is said and done (especially if I enroll in Excelsior, which accepts certain exams as grades).

    What I was wondering is, will my undergraduate GPA affect my Graduate GPA. If I get a 4.0 for my MBA, will it be received as a 4.0, or an extension of my undergraduate GPA?
     
  2. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    Who cares about your GPA, graduate or undergraduate? Seriously, who's going to look? Employers hiring very junior people might look because they don't have much else to go on with inexperienced applicants. But for mid-career professionals, I wonder if anyone would ever look. Or, at least, enough people looking to make it actually matter to you.

    Go get your degrees. Get the grades you can earn, and what you have time for. Be more concerned about what you've done and what you can do, not your grades.
     
  3. Abner

    Abner Well-Known Member


    Very true. I have never had an employer look at my GPA. Their main concern is the buckskin.

    Abner
     
  4. scaredrain

    scaredrain Member

    The only job that cared about my GPA was when I worked for the public school system. You have to have at least a 2.5 GPA to be a teacher in NC.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 20, 2008
  5. iquagmire

    iquagmire Member

    I am pretty sure the answer is no. Your 4.0 MBA is the GPA. Not an extension (or average) of the undergraduate GPA. So if you have a 2.75 undergrad GPA and you will also have a 4.0 MBA GPA.

    I do agree with everyone else, most employers don't care about GPA.
     
  6. macattack

    macattack New Member

    Your MBA GPA will only be based on the grades earned in the courses on your graduate transcript. Undergrad GPA is not a factor.

    I disagree with the others to some extent. While employers don't look at GPA, your grades are an indicator of you mastery in a subject. Why go through the motions of an MBA half-assed. B's are handed out in grad business programs like candy.
     
  7. BMWGuinness

    BMWGuinness New Member

    Well, I was thinking more along the lines of "Graduating with Distinction" and not necessarily just the GPA.

    I would think achieving an MBA "with distinction" would be nice to put on the resume.
     
  8. PhD2B

    PhD2B Dazed and Confused

    My current employer was a little concerned about some of my undergraduate grades. I explained that my low grades in certain courses were due to a lack of maturity at that time in my life and that my grades from my master's degree were a current representation of me. I got the job so they must have been satisfied with that answer. :D
     
  9. macattack

    macattack New Member

    Are there programs that award "with distinction"?
     
  10. BMWGuinness

    BMWGuinness New Member

    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 21, 2008
  11. foobar

    foobar Member

    At many, if not most schools, undergraduate courses taken while a graduate student don't even count toward the graduate gpa.
     
  12. Ted Heiks

    Ted Heiks Moderator and Distinguished Senior Member

    A 4.0 in a graduate degree remains a 4.0, regardless of whether your undergrad GPA was a 4.0 or a 2.0 (or anything in between).
     
  13. edowave

    edowave Active Member

    When I came back to UF to pursue my PhD, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that my undergraduate GPA would be erased. The only GPA listed on my transcript now is my graduate GPA. :)
     
  14. cookderosa

    cookderosa Resident Chef

    Building on this question- what about if you enroll in one of the BA to MA program? TESC has one, I know many schools do. At TESC, once you hit the 99 credit point, you can apply to the MA program and start taking grad credits that double dip toward your MA. I wonder how the GPA would be calculated in this situation??
     
  15. Ted Heiks

    Ted Heiks Moderator and Distinguished Senior Member

    My guess would be that after the 99th credit and up to the 120th credit, you would be simultaneously running an undergrad GPA and a grad GPA.
     
  16. Bruce

    Bruce Moderator

    I agree 100%.....remember the old joke;

    Q: What do they call the person who graduates last in his class at medical school?

    A: Doctor.
     
  17. BMWGuinness

    BMWGuinness New Member

    I care, its all about being the best I can be, and proving myself, to myself.
     
  18. Ted Heiks

    Ted Heiks Moderator and Distinguished Senior Member

    I would think that there would be about four situations in which one ought to care about one's GPA. 1) in any event, one would want to keep one's GPA at graduatable levels; 2) one who is planning on further grad school would want to keep the GPA high enough to be admissable to the next degree; 3) people seeking a teaching position of some sort might want to pay attention to GPA; and, as you noted, 4) employers might pay attention to the GPA for very junior positions.
     
  19. Arch23

    Arch23 New Member

    You should certainly care,; in my opinion, however, if it's being "the best you can be" that's your concern, the focus should be on becoming the most learned individual you can be through your MBA studies, rather than on the GPA that comes along with it...

    In response to your concern, though, I agree with what most posters here have said: your grad GPA is separate from your undergrad one and shouldn't cause you sleepless nights.
     
  20. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    I agree. Like I said, "who cares?"

    Seriously, these are good points, but I still maintain that for the majority of people, their GPA's are ancient history, like where you graduated high school. It matters if you're applying to college, trying to attend your reunion, or if you're getting a security clearance, but that's about it. (Similar circumstances at the same fringe level can be inserted here.) But employers don't check on your high school performance, and I wouldn't want to work for anyone who did.

    (NB: I'm railing against the over-emphasis on grades for two reasons: I hate them as an instructor--they imply a precision of measurement that simply doesn't exist--and because as an employer, I'm much more interested in the things that have occurred since graduation! For the record, my UG was 3.4 and my grad was 3.8., so this isn't personal. No grades in my Ph.D. program.)
     

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