Narrative Evaluations

[Nogpa]

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Hi all- First post, but I've enjoyed reading the madness of the last few months. I'm just wondering whether or not any of you have had any experience with narrative evaluations in place of the standard grades? I have a nice mix of both...two years of grades and two of evals, and I don't know how adcoms will view them. any thoughts? Thanks- NOGPA

 

[omores]

Hiya. Welcome to SDN.

Yes, I was in a similar situation: I had three years of coursework with narrative evaluations only, no grades (and hence no GPA). I did have one year of grades, though, and some graded post-bacc work as well.

Never had the slightest problem. During an interview, one interviewer did pull out my transcript, which was about 20 pages long since it contained the full text of all the evaluations. He said something along the lines of "This is the longest transcript I've ever seen. Am expected to read all of this?" I told him he was not obliged to, although some of it might prove quite entertaining. And yes, I was accepted to that school. Nobody else even mentioned it.

Good luck!

 

[Nogpa]

omores- thanks. It's good to hear that they weren't a hindrance. Where did you go to school that didn't have grades? TESC, by any chance?

 

[omores]

Nope -- what does TESC stand for? Is that where you are (or were)? I went to Bennington. Tiny little place in Vermont. And I was an art major, so my narrative evaluations were completely full of <img border="0" title="" alt="[Eek!]" src="eek.gif" /> art-speak <img border="0" title="" alt="[Eek!]" src="eek.gif" /> , and must have been particularly incomprehensible to the adcoms 😕 . But as I mentioned, it doesn't seem to have been a problem.

 

[burlypie]

Do I detect other Banana Slugs in this topic? I got my Physical Anthro degree (which rocked) from UC Santa Cruz, where I never got a grade either. It's encouraging to see that it's not really hindering admissions. I like that my transcripts are 20 pages long, all describing the interesting non-science work I did. My post bacc science classes are all real grades. I think it's perfect!

Can I mention how much I hate grades? I feel that with grades I'm getting so picky about the littlest things just so I can grub for points because ultimately that's what it comes down to. I think I was spoiled At UCSC with the emphasis on learning rather than on accumulating points...

 

[Nogpa]

Nope, not a banana slug...I'm a geoduck(that's gooey, not geo) from the evergreen state college(TESC) in washington. I'm not a real fan of grades either, but they may prove to be the bane of my existence in the coming app cycle. I have a private university with bad grades, a comm coll with great grades, and about a dozen or more pages of evals. It should be fun.