Which undergrad years matter in graduate school?

Question

Typically when applying to graduate school, which are the undergrad years that matter most? My Sophomore and junior year GPA's are strong, but I can't really speak the same way about my freshman year...

Answer 1

As other people have said, generally your later years are more important. If your freshman year was a real disaster, as opposed to just being worse than your other years (for instace, my freshman GPA was a 2.7 but I ended with a 3.3 GPA, including four semesters on the Dean's List and one 4.0 semester), then you probably should try to explain why it went so badly in your personal statement. I had a really bad semester in my 4th year (out of 5), and so I had to write a paragraph or two about it in my personal statement.

There's one other factor to take into consideration. Many times the grad schools you apply to will look at your GPA for only the courses in the field you are applying for. So, if you are applying to grad school for history, they'll look at your GPA for only your history courses with the grades of your math, philosophy, and other random courses taken out. So, if you really didn't get started taking lots of your courses for your major until your sophmore or junior years, and didn't take many or any your freshman year, then you're probably okay.

Of course, grades aren't the only thing. There is also your personal statement, your letters of recommendation, and any required standardized test scores.

If you still have doubts, though, you can do what I did. At the start of my last year of undergrad, at the beginning of the fall semester when I was applying to grad schools, I went to my universities undergrad advisor in the department for the subject I was applying to grad school for, and I asked him what he thought my chances were. You might want to try that.

Answer 2

From my understanding, the last two years of your undergrad are the important. These last two year give admission committees the best idea of what you'll be like as a grad student--you've started to narrow your interests, you are more accustomed to college, you've mature more, etc. Also, this is the point where classes begin to get more advanced. Let's face it--freshmen classes are, er, freshmen classes! But if they are REALLY bad grades, I might address it in your purpose statement and spin the issue as "an ability to overcome difficulties."

However, while you might be worried about you general GPA, I would be more worried about making sure that you grades in your chosen field are immaculate. With less-than-great grades in you major, you just won't be taken seriously. (In fact, when you are in grad school, anything less than an A is considered a failure!)

Best of luck!

Answer 3

I had a horrible Freshman year -- but had grades in the other three years that would have allowed me to graduate with honors. I now have a MBA from Duke and a PhD from Berkeley -- so I was able to overcome it.

In your graduate school applications, you will be able to address what happened that year. They will forgive your first year if you did well after that, did very well in your major and have decent GRE scores.

Good luck.

Answer 4

A lot of graduate programs will look at your upper division GPA which is your last 90 units if you went to a quarter system school and loast 60 units if you went to a semester system school.