2 Most Common Misconceptions About Grades and Graduate School

Posted June 3rd, 2009

Misconception #1: Since grades alone are used to determine entry into most undergraduate programs, this must also be the case when applying to graduate school. WRONG!

It is easy to see why students would mistakenly assume that admission to graduate school depends mainly on obtaining or surpassing some minimum grade-point requirement. After all, that is the main qualification for admission to many undergraduate programs. But when it comes to applying to graduate school, this is simply not true! For the majority of schools and disciplines, the acceptance and rejection of graduate-school applicants is far from being an automatic process based entirely on grades. Rather, it involves a thorough evaluation of each candidate based on many defining features that are made apparent throughout the application process. This means that students with shortcomings in their grades can still get into grad school by compensating with excellent performance on some of the other important criteria.

Misconception #2: High GPA predicts success while in graduate school. WRONG AGAIN!

Grades are not a reliable predictor of success in graduate school. It has to do with the ways that students are taught and evaluated in graduate school. The methods of learning and evaluation are so different from those of undergraduate school that some students undergraduate GPA can be a rather poor predictor of their future performance in graduate school. Although there have been studies that found significant correlations between undergraduate GPA and graduate school success in some disciplines, these analyses typically involved very large groups of students, and many graduate-program faculty members would argue that the correlation is not so apparent when considering only the students in their own program. Even in disciplines in which there are thought to be stronger relations between undergraduate grades and graduate school success, no one would deny that there are frequent exceptions, and almost any graduate-program faculty member knows of cases in which students with suspect undergraduate grades turned out to be among the best graduate students. To learn more about applying successfully with or without a high GPA download eChapter 5