GPA requirements for PhD programs

itsJones610

I was wondering if most Science and Engineering PhD programs look at the entire undergrad gpa or the Junior/Senior gpa? I am a returning student and my old gpa (from 12 years ago) is 2.04 after 63 credits. I figured out that depending on which path I take to finish my undergrad I will need to finish with an average gpa of about 3.7 or higher just to pull my overall gpa to a 3.0. Will my old gpa hurt my chances?

Simon Bridge

Cannot speak for others - at the University of Auckland, the gpa for only the final qualifying year is all that matters unless you are very borderline and/or you are entering a restricted program.

Of course none of it matters if someone important wants to supervise you :)

eri

Most look at your entire GPA. But at most schools (or in most states), credits expire after 10 years if you don't apply them to a degree, which means your GPA starts over (and you have to start over from the beginning with your bachelors degree). Are you sure your credits are still valid?

itsJones610

Yes they are still valid. I'm at Penn State they have something called academic renewal but to qualify you have to be out for more than 4 years AND have a gpa lower than 2.00. So my 2.04 just narrowly missed the cutoff. Too bad my younger self didn't know this or maybe I would've put more effort into skipping class and not studying lol.