A- Grades and Their Impact on Graduate School Admissions

[ahsanxr]

I'm a freshman, Physics and Math double major with a long term goal to enter a top notch graduate school in one of the fields. My question is should I be worried if I get a lot of A- grades instead of solid "A"s? I think that might be the case for me this semester. I probably got an A in Calc III but from what the present situation seems like I'll probably have "A-"s in Intro Physics II, Fundamentals of Computational Physics, Differential Equations and my English Writing class. Is this something which will significantly hinder my chances of getting into a top graduate school? Do schools care whether you have an A or an A-?

 

[Pengwuino]

Yes, you might as well drop out of school all together.

 

[ahsanxr]

Alright, I should have clarified. I'm not one of those people who freak out and say things like "my life is over" when they see one B+. I just want to know whether top schools like say MIT or Harvard would care about such a thing. Even though I could have gotten A's in all of these classes, I'm still rather content with A-'s too.

 

[Pengwuino]

Alright, I should have clarified. I'm not one of those people who freak out and say things like "my life is over" when they see one B+. I just want to know whether top schools like say MIT or Harvard would care about such a thing. Even though I could have gotten A's in all of these classes, I'm still rather content with A-'s too.

Keeping a 4.0 for your undergrad studies is not only hard, but worth much less than a 4.0 as a high schooler. There are so many other things that departments look like when you apply to their grad school that a small mistake here and there don't really mean much. An A- instead of an A definitely fits in the category of "small mistake", if you can even call it a mistake/issue.

 

[ahsanxr]

An A- instead of an A definitely fits in the category of "small mistake", if you can even call it a mistake/issue.

I see. So assuming I get A- in all my classes (which hopefully isn't true. I might get an A in Diff Eq if the final goes well or Physics depending on the grade scale the professor decides on) except for Calc, my GPA for this year would be about 3.84. I guess I shouldn't be worried.

 

[Chaostamer]

If your school is anything like mine, an 'A-' is worth a 3.75. Then, assuming you get nothing but 'A-' for your entire college career, that will be your overall GPA. I think that even the top-tier grad programs will look pretty favorably upon that, especially if it's supplemented with research and whatnot. You'll likely be fine.

 

[Chunkysalsa]

Its not a big deal but the difference between an A and an A- should be quite small. So if you've developed a pattern of earning A- then you should try and find out where that small mistake keeps happening.

For instance I usually start out very strong but screw up near the end (especially Finals, I have trouble studying for finals). So find out how to improve yourself based on past patterns.


I mean for a little bit more effort you could take that 3.75 GPA to a 4.0. That is if there is even a difference between the two grades.


Of course I agree with everyone here that its not at all a big deal and you should be proud that you're making A-s in all your classes.

 

[twofish-quant]

MIT has a policy that if you fail a class in the first semester, the grade is not recorded. The reason for this is so that people "get used" to lower grades and don't freak out if they run into problems there. Also grades at MIT and Harvard tend to be "inflated" with respect to most large public universities.

If you were getting a C. I'd be worried. If you are getting A-'s, I'd have to say that you should get used to it since it's going to happen again.

 

[flyingpig]

I have three 89s this year...THREE BORDERLINE MARKS. You will be fine...

 

[ahsanxr]

Its not a big deal but the difference between an A and an A- should be quite small. So if you've developed a pattern of earning A- then you should try and find out where that small mistake keeps happening.

For instance I usually start out very strong but screw up near the end (especially Finals, I have trouble studying for finals). So find out how to improve yourself based on past patterns.I mean for a little bit more effort you could take that 3.75 GPA to a 4.0. That is if there is even a difference between the two grades.Of course I agree with everyone here that its not at all a big deal and you should be proud that you're making A-s in all your classes.

Well this semester I didn't have a good start. I got a 59 on my first Physics midterm, a 50% on the first Programming homework and my initial homeworks in general weren't that good. A lot of the time computational/calculational errors and misreading problems were the reasons for this, which is extremely frustrating for me. Its mainly the only thing standing between me being the getting 100's on my tests. These kind of errors have always bought me down. In fact today I had my Physics final and I completely misinterpreted a really simple optics problem which is going to cause me at least 5 points on a 100 point exam.

MIT has a policy that if you fail a class in the first semester, the grade is not recorded. The reason for this is so that people "get used" to lower grades and don't freak out if they run into problems there. Also grades at MIT and Harvard tend to be "inflated" with respect to most large public universities.

If you were getting a C. I'd be worried. If you are getting A-'s, I'd have to say that you should get used to it since it's going to happen again.

Considering the classes I'm taking next semester, I think you're right. Although I would still aim for an A's, since you know the shoot for the moon saying and what not.

 

[ahsanxr]

I got a B in Differential Equations due to the poor final. I probably should be worried now. :(

 

[StevieTNZ]

I think of grades as indicators of ones knowledge at one particular time. You can easily learn where you went wrong in the exam/test/whatever, and know the material at a later date, which if you were to be tested could be an A+ grade.

 

[twofish-quant]

Well this semester I didn't have a good start. I got a 59 on my first Physics midterm, a 50% on the first Programming homework and my initial homeworks in general weren't that good.

If you got an A- with a 59 midterm that means that you are fighting the curve, and it's likely that you are going to get A's and B's because more people are average.

Its mainly the only thing standing between me being the getting 100's on my tests.

It's probably not. If people start getting 100's on the tests, the teacher will cover more material and make the tests harder. Also, if you are in a class with a high curve, and you do something better but everyone else does it better, your grades will stay the same.

Also at some point you need to make a decision as to whether or not getting 100's and 4.0's is worth it. The more time you spend on that, the less time you have for other things.

 

[Angry Citizen]

I got a B in Differential Equations due to the poor final. I probably should be worried now. :(

No. No you really shouldn't. If you start getting C's, and if you want to go to grad school, then you start worrying.

 

[ahsanxr]

If you got an A- with a 59 midterm that means that you are fighting the curve, and it's likely that you are going to get A's and B's because more people are average.
It's probably not. If people start getting 100's on the tests, the teacher will cover more material and make the tests harder. Also, if you are in a class with a high curve, and you do something better but everyone else does it better, your grades will stay the same.

Also at some point you need to make a decision as to whether or not getting 100's and 4.0's is worth it. The more time you spend on that, the less time you have for other things.

Well there always are a couple of people with 100's or at least high 90 scores. And like I said before, it's not a matter of effort for me. I usually know the material but I just don't do as well as I can on tests because of making careless mistakes/misreading problems, so I have to work on that rather than spending excessive amounts studying.

No. No you really shouldn't. If you start getting C's, and if you want to go to grad school, then you start worrying.

This was an extremely disappointing grade for me, because honestly, I didn't find anything hard in that class (other than maybe the amount of algebra involved in the method of undetermined coefficients for higher order equations). The problem this time was that I failed to recall how to solve a system of differential equations with complex eigenvalues. That was just one problem, but the professor being as awesome as he is, based the next one on the previous one too. So I probably lost a total of 10-15 points on a 100 point final because of that.