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Rounding gpa

GPA
New answer on Sep 30, 2023
5 Answers
346 Views
Anonymous A asked on Sep 01, 2023

Is it a problem if I round my gpa from 3.66 to 3.7 ? Would that be considered as a dishonest act or is it totally fine. 

Also is it worth it to repeat a course to get a gpa of 3.8 or is mine (3.66) good enough ? 

 

Thanks in advance everyone.

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Benjamin
Expert
Content Creator
replied on Sep 30, 2023
Ex-BCG Principal | 8+ years consulting experience in SEA | BCG top interviewer & top performer

Hi,

For GPA, the higher the better.

Rounding to 1 decimal place is not unreasonable, but I would only do that if the rounding does not change the degree award (e.g. if you were a magna and rounding made you a summa)

All the best!

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Ian
Expert
Content Creator
replied on Sep 02, 2023
#1 BCG coach | MBB | Tier 2 | Digital, Tech, Platinion | 100% personal success rate (8/8) | 95% candidate success rate

Hi there,

You can round up to 3.7 - and I actually recommend that you do :)

It sounds like that course was either a C or a D? If it were me, I would probably retake a class where I got a C or D, both for GPA purposes and transcript purposes. That said, you do have to balance out that decision with the “cost”. If you have space and it just costs you an extracirricular/"free" class, then the cost is low.

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Sophia
Expert
replied on Sep 03, 2023
Top-Ranked Coach on PrepLounge for 3 years| 6+ years of coaching

Hello,

I personally advise candidates to keep GPA with 2 decimal places and not round.

Regarding repeating the course to boost your GPA, I would say it's probably not worth it if you weren't already planning to retake the course for other reasons. GPA plays a smaller role in resume evaluations than most people assume, so if your resume is generally good, that difference shouldn't matter much.

 

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Cristian
Expert
Content Creator
replied on Sep 02, 2023
#1 rated MBB & McKinsey Coach

Hi there!

Totally ok to round it up like that. 

Yes, if you can increase your GPA, that's even better. 

Last but not least, don't only mention GPA on your application, but also positioning within cohort. This is a lot more important than GPA on its own because it gives an indication of relative performance. 

Best,
Cristian

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Andi
Expert
replied on Sep 02, 2023
BCG 1st & Final Round interviewer | Personalized prep with >95% success rate | 7yrs coaching | #1 for Experienced Hires

Hi there

that's totally fine and mathematically also correct. Between 3.7 and 3.8 no big difference, so should ask yourself if the effort is worth the impact? In my view a clear “No", assuming that 3.7 already gets you in the at least top 25% of your cohort.

Hope this helps.
 

Regards, Andi

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Benjamin gave the best answer

Benjamin

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Ex-BCG Principal | 8+ years consulting experience in SEA | BCG top interviewer & top performer
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