Do grad school see transfer grades?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around concerns about how transfer grades from a previous institution may impact graduate school applications, particularly in the context of a student's performance in a calculus course. The scope includes personal experiences, emotional responses to academic challenges, and the implications of grades on future academic opportunities.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Debate/contested
  • Homework-related

Main Points Raised

  • One participant expresses anxiety about potentially receiving an A- in a calculus course and questions whether this grade will negatively affect graduate school applications.
  • Another participant notes that graduate school applications typically require transcripts from all previously attended colleges, implying that all grades will be visible to admissions committees.
  • Concerns are raised about the emotional toll of academic performance, with one participant suggesting that if minor setbacks cause significant distress, it may indicate challenges ahead in a scientific career.
  • A participant reflects on their frustration with their own performance on a test, indicating a struggle with decision-making under pressure.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants generally agree that transfer grades will be visible to graduate schools, but there is no consensus on the extent to which a single grade may impact admissions decisions or the emotional implications of academic performance.

Contextual Notes

Participants express varying levels of concern about the significance of grades, with some emphasizing the importance of maintaining high marks while others suggest that the stress associated with grades may not be sustainable in a scientific career.

Who May Find This Useful

Students considering transferring universities, those interested in graduate school applications, and individuals reflecting on the pressures of academic performance in STEM fields.

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Hi all!

I am currently a sophomore transferring from a small unknown university to a large state school. I hope to go to graduate school for mathematics one day. I've been getting decent grades. I have gotten an A in everything but today I was forced into a life and death situation kinda thing and I made the wrong choice. (Exaggerating like no tomorrow of course...)

The story is I messed up big time in my calculus 2 class. For the first two tests I got a 98 and a 100 respectively but I took the third one today and oh ************. <Please fill in the stars with your imagination in a very bad way.> These three tests are 60% of the final grade with another 10% from homework and 30% from the final. I estimate that I will be getting around an 80 on the third test and knowing I will get the full 10% from homework I need to get at least a 98 on the final to get a 95 for my class grade which I believe is the cut off for an A.

Yes, yes. I know I sound like another whiner/ranter that this board sees so very often and I acknowledge that fact. I must let the world know of my dumb mistake. Anyhow...

It was all due to this one problem where I had to find if the series n/sqrt(2n^2-5) converges or diverges which was arguably the EASIEST question on the darn test. Being worth a whole 20 points and being so easy my mind just slipped. For those who might think I didn't study enough, I think I studied so much I couldn't even tell the difference between functions anymore thus leading to getting this one wrong. At first I used the integral test and that diverged. I then used the divergence theorem to show that it was divergent as well but for some strange reason as I sat there for 40 minutes(No exaggeration on this part. I was done with the rest of the test for a while already.), I decided to use the limit comparison test.(Probably because everything else was based on the limit comparison test and ratio test and the ratio test didn't work. Should have known better than to think all test questions would somehow be correlated.) I crossed out the previous work with the integral test because my mind was so jumbled up I just closed my eyes and chose one. After the test I realized the limit comparison test didn't work...

I believe I shouldn't have much trouble scoring a 98 or better on the final but I like to know my options. I am an extreme pessimist to the max.

If by Sir Issac Newton's will, I don't make the 98 and get the A-, will I be forever damned? I am transferring to a new school so my real question is, when I graduate from that university, will this black spot be seen on my transcript by the university committee of whichever grad school I will be applying to? (I gathered that anything worse than an A was detrimental to applying for grad school.)
 
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Ok. I realized that because of this question on the test I became careless about the other questions. I know for sure there is another wrong one. There goes my A.
 
To answer your question, most applications (all I have ever seen) ask for transcripts from every college you have attended previously. So they will see the grades.

Perhaps more importantly, if getting two problems wrong on a test causes you this much stress, you will be absolutely miserable with a career in science. In research, things don't work all the time. (Not to mention the high degree of difficulty of grad school)
 
Thanks for the reply.

I have made my peace with it.(for now) its just so frustrating that I had the answer and decided to go with the wrong one.
 

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