My masters degree compromises of 30 credits, I lost both my grandparents in 10 days at the beginning of the semester and did terribly in it. I ended up with a C and 2B's. I want to repeat 2 courses to raise my gpa up to 3.7, would that cause problems in the screening if my cgpa is high enough.
Thank you everyone.
(editiert)
Hi there,
Sorry to hear. That's indeed a very unfortunate scenario.
The good news is that no, GPA should not stand in your way of getting an offer.
With most firms, they don't even proactively ask for the GPA. And you have no obligation to put the GPA on your CV.
What I recommend candidates to do instead is to emphasize what they were distinctive at during their academic period. Perhaps you weren't the best in class overall, but you were one of the best in one particular course. Highlighting the areas in which you were great will then show the best parts of you, which is what CVs are all about.
Happy to work with you on it once you decide to apply.
Best,
Cristian
I'm so sorry to hear :/ Never easy.
This is hard to advise as we do not know your entire situation (will this delay your graduation? What is left on record? Etc).
Personally, I did poorly on 1 course and re-took it in order to keep my 4.0 major GPA. It was worth it.
If you can re-take the C course, are confident you can get an A, and it won't set back your graduation, it would likely be worth it.
I'm not so sure it's worth it for Bs.
That said, master's grades are less important than undergrad, but it also does depend on your other work experience (as in, the grades matter more if you only have your undergrad and went straight to masters. They matter less if you worked for multiple years between the 2 degrees with relevant work experience + promotions)
Please don't take the above as advice on what you should do. There are many other factors at play that I don't have enough info on without speaking to you directly.
Highly recommend you also talk to your career center for more tailored advice here!
(editiert)
Hello Ian, Thank you so much for the reply. I did my masters program to raise my gpa, I was a computer science student and focused only on my projects and work and didn't care about my grades. In my application, I am willing to include my grades of the AI track from my undergrad and my grad gpa only. My grad gpa will be something around 3.74 and I am only counting on it. All what I am worried about if recruiters will look and see those grades and write the academic excellence requirement off because of it. Again your advice is invaluable and any further reply is much appreciated.
Hi there,
I am very sorry to hear about your losses. I lost both of my grandmothers in a matter of days and I can understand how you feel.
In terms of your question:
Q: I want to repeat 2 courses to raise my gpa up to 3.7, would that cause problems in the screening if my cgpa is high enough
If I understood correctly, your GPA is now below 3.7 and you would like to retake the courses to improve it.
It is unclear from your question what will happen if you retake the courses (eg will the old ones be still visible on your transcript? Will you have to graduate later?).
If the old courses won’t be visible anymore and you can graduate without delays, there should not be any issue with your future applications. In any case, I would consider if retaking the courses is feasible given the workload of other possible courses/activities you might have to take.
Best,
Francesco
I would graduate 1 semester late, but my masters program is a one year one. A lot of students dedicate one extra semester for the capstone and actually finish within 3 semesters instead of 2. The courses would still be visible but they won't count towards my gpa anymore, the policy is to take the highest grade when a course is repeated.
Thanks for sharing. From what you mentioned, repeating the courses should not be an issue given it is not unusual to complete your master in 3 semesters and the highest grade is considered. In any case, I saw you mentioned in the other comments you will have to repeat the C exam and postpone graduation anyway. If studying again for the courses won’t take too much time, you could also try to add an internship during the extra semester to strengthen your CV. Good luck!
Thank you so much francesco, you guys are amazing I swear. I am so paranoid about being below other applicants when it comes to my grades. I will do my strategy consulting internship during the same time, yes.
Whether this matters or not also depends on which company and country you're in. Typically your CGPA primarily matter only during screening, so you may consider other efforts to boost your chances. If you have someone from within the company referring or recommending you, most of that that easily offsets 1-2 bad grades you may have. So in addition to your consideration on whether to improve your grades, you should also try to obtain support from existing people within the organization.
Good luck!
Hello,
I'm sorry to hear about your situation. To be honest, recruiters generally care less about grades than most candidates think they do, particularly if there are mitigating circumstances. If you have a master's from a good university, that will be more important (as well as your work experience). A couple of Bs shouldn't be an issue. Retaking the class where you got a C would be an option, but that said, would retaking those courses delay your graduation or somehow impede your program in the course otherwise? Is this something you would want to do?
I think Ian's caution about this being a specific personal situation is also warranted - this is my general opinion on this topic, but it might not be applicable in every case. I'd also recommend you talk to someone like a coach or a career advisor in more detail about your specific situation.
I have to retake the C course to graduate anyways, this is a policy by our school. So I took that as a chance to increase my gpa by repeating another course. So simply by taking a C in the first place, my graduation is delayed. Is graduating 1 semester late for a one year program a problem ? My initial question is whether screeners would look into my first semester and question my academic abilities based on it and write me off from that requirement. This is causing me a lot of distress, graduating a bit late isn't at all.
I'm very sorry to hear about your experience. It is very understandable that such events impact things like school work.
Looking ahead, I would factor in some of the following to support your decision making:
I personally would only retake classes if it meant to not lose time to graduation, to not take on additional debt and to actually have a realistic shot at significantly improving my GPA (meaning I am confident that I can get an A and that an A actually moves the needle overall).
In any case, try to get internal referrals when you do apply to consulting firms. That will help in circumventing any automated GPA filters that might be applied.
Best of luck
I have to retake the C course to graduate anyways, this is a policy by our school. So I took that as a chance to increase my gpa by repeating another course. So simply by taking a C in the first place, my graduation is delayed. Is graduating 1 semester late for a one year program a problem ? My initial question is whether screeners would look into my first semester and question my academic abilities based on it and write me off from that requirement. This is causing me a lot of distress, graduating a bit late isn't at all.
