How will a low grade affect future opportunities?

[ironkiwi]

So I made it into a clinical PhD program with good internship match rates and a decent but not stellar reputation. More than one third of the first year students in the program (3 students total) received a C in our Assessment course this past fall (the rest got B's), and the three of us are in shock. We earned solid A's in our other courses. How much is this going to hurt us in four years when we start applying to internships assuming everything else goes smoothly? How unusual is it for more than a third of a class to essentially fail a course?
The worst part for me is that I came in very committed to a neuropsych focus, I've done assessment in a research setting at large research institutions, and done it successfully, the expectations for the class just seemed excessively picky.

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[Therapist4Chnge]

So I made it into a clinical PhD program with good internship match rates and a decent but not stellar reputation. More than one third of the first year students in the program (3 students total) received a C in our Assessment course this past fall (the rest got B's), and the three of us are in shock. We earned solid A's in our other courses. How much is this going to hurt us in four years when we start applying to internships assuming everything else goes smoothly? How unusual is it for more than a third of a class to essentially fail a course?
The worst part for me is that I came in very committed to a neuropsych focus, I've done assessment in a research setting at large research institutions, and done it successfully, the expectations for the class just seemed excessively picky.

Eh, I doubt anyone will take much notice or care about one C…just don't get another one, particularly in an assessment course. Grades matter only as much as passing and showing some general competency, as the much more important part is how that knowledge is applied, etc.

 

[WisNeuro]

Depends on who reviews your file tbh. I'd just be sure to get good grades in all of your other npsych related classes. A few more low grades and the npsych people on internship and postdoc will take notice.

 

[smalltownpsych]

We all got those grades in our Ethnic Studies/Diversity class or whatever they called it. We decided that it was because we weren't minorities so obviously couldn't really grasp the concepts. I think I ended up with a B-. It seems like there are always one or two professors in any doctoral program that want to make sure that we know what it feels like to get a lower grade. This seemed to be much more likely to occur during the first year. Most of my cohort almost unraveled when they got their first B or *gasp* a C on an exam. I was not quite as high an achiever so was used to getting the occasional B throughout undergrad.

 

[PsychBiker]

Important student lesson: No one cares about your GPA after you've gotten into grad school.

I'm generalizing of course. Obviously you can't get 8 F's, retakes classes, and not go noticed. But, generally speaking, no one cares about your GPA. If you've gotten into a decent doctorate program then you've proven you can regurgitate information. Out of the hundreds of graduate files I have read through, not one has had a GPA below a 3.8.

 

[AcronymAllergy]

Important student lesson: No one cares about your GPA after you've gotten into grad school.

I'm generalizing of course. Obviously you can't get 8 F's, retakes classes, and not go noticed. But, generally speaking, no one cares about your GPA. If you've gotten into a decent doctorate program then you've proven you can regurgitate information. Out of the hundreds of graduate files I have read through, not one has had a GPA below a 3.8.

Although the caveat is because of the grade inflation in grad school, if someone is consistently getting B's in nearly all of their classes, that could raise some eyebrows. But will one C matter in the grand scheme of things? Not likely, particularly if you do well in other assessment/neuropsych-oriented classes.