High undergrad GPA, low grad GPA. Will it matter?

[eHombre]

So I've looked around the nontrad forum and I haven't really seen anyone with a situation like mine, so I'd like to start a thread about it.

Here are the stats: uGPA > 3.8, sGPA > 3.8; MCAT = 40

All good, right? My concern is that my grades are poor in the five graduate classes I took toward my science Ph.D., with the gGPA working out to slightly < 3.0 (!!). I'll be graduating this spring with several publications and these classes were taken more than 4 years ago.

(Yes, I said five. As a Ph.D. program, classwork was deemphasized. My program actually required a B minimum in only 4 classes, but as I neglected to turn in a term paper in one of the classes and ended up below a "gentleman's B", I had to take one more class to make it up.)

So I guess I'm asking.. does any of this matter? I'm applying to mostly top 40 schools. Will the downward trajectory in grades (senior year GPA was also lower) significantly affect my application? Does this count as a part of my academic record that I'll have to explain on the secondaries when asked? Is it likely that I'll be asked about this at the interview stage?

Thanks in advance for your responses!

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[n3xa]

I'm on my phone so I'm lazy to find the thread, but there is one thread that addresses this issue and the short answer is that some schools do and some schools don't. Off the top of my head, VCU says on their website that they expect students to have a 3.5+ in grad classes.

But your mcat is great and so is your undergrad gpa, so I wouldn't worry too much about it.

 

[Doc2doc2]

An interviewer at one of the schools referred to my grad school grades several times as evidence that I could not succeed in medical school, which was "much harder" than grad school. He also pointed out my age, children and general nontrad status as additional points against me. Yes, this was at the interview. My MCAT score, undergrad GPA, ECs, etc were totally ignored by this fellow. Just be prepared to deal with questions about this.

 

[eHombre]

An interviewer at one of the schools referred to my grad school grades several times as evidence that I could not succeed in medical school, which was "much harder" than grad school. He also pointed out my age, children and general nontrad status as additional points against me. Yes, this was at the interview. My MCAT score, undergrad GPA, ECs, etc were totally ignored by this fellow. Just be prepared to deal with questions about this.

Good to know. I'll have a response ready, maybe something like:

“Grades and coursework were not emphasized in my graduate program, and with only four required classes and a heavy workload in lab, it was difficult to make up for the mistakes of my first semester.”

 

[Morsetlis]

Would you like your doctor to conveniently forget to mail your lab specimen to the lab before it expires, just like you conveniently forgot to turn in a term paper?

Just sayin', people will be critical of your grade. Have a good response...

In the end, I think that you will get into at least one school. It'll probably be one that does not care so much about grades.

 

[n3xa]

An interviewer at one of the schools referred to my grad school grades several times as evidence that I could not succeed in medical school, which was "much harder" than grad school. He also pointed out my age, children and general nontrad status as additional points against me. Yes, this was at the interview. My MCAT score, undergrad GPA, ECs, etc were totally ignored by this fellow. Just be prepared to deal with questions about this.

If I have another experience similar to my physical organic chemistry class in graduate school I think I would cry. :cry:

And I loved physical chemistry in undergrad!

My interviewers have not said a word about my graduate gpa or my unbalanced mcat score as of yet.

CN: YMMV