How Do You Explain Low Undergraduate Grades To Graduate School?
It is important to identify the circumstance and specific situation you are explaining to an admissions committee (adcom). We on the admissions committee are looking at overall trends in grade performance, grades in specific types of courses or individual classes, and we want to understand the context around that performance.
Trends to explain:
- High grades at the beginning then getting lower overall
- What happened? Why the fall?
- Low grades in one year, but high grades in all others
- Why was that semester or year different than all the others?
- High grades in all the courses unrelated to your grad school goal, but low ones in areas you will study at grad school.
Specific course issues:
- Did you have trouble with a specific course that you just couldn’t figure out?
- Why?
- Why will that not be a hindrance in grad school?
- Are there any "prerequisites" for the grad school program that you did poorly in?
- Why?
- What can or have you done to overcome that?
Remember that grades should be just one part of a holistic review, but sometimes they are make or break for a specific program. You should consider what other parts of your application are strong and whether there is any offsetting benefit from those other credentials.
You’re thinking about applying to graduate school, but you have some low undergraduate grades on your college transcript. Although you may have a few low grades on your college transcript, that does not mean that your graduate school admissions application is going to be rejected. Many people have low undergraduate grades for a variety of reasons, but it is up to you to explain these low grades to the graduate school. There are a few things that you can do to help you better explain your low undergraduate grades. Identify the reasons for your low undergraduate grades. There are many reasons why a person may have low undergraduate grades, such as having a medical illness, experiencing high levels of stress or depression, having a learning disability, working extensive hours on the job, dealing with the death of a loved one, suffering from abuse or being involved in a terrible accident. These types of things can definitely have an impact on your academic performance, which can result in
