Schools GPA for Grad School Admissions: How Important?

AI Thread Summary
GPA plays a significant role in grad school admissions, particularly as a threshold for eligibility. In highly competitive programs, such as top physics colleges, achieving high grades can be challenging due to grade inflation. While A+ grades may indicate exceptional performance, the consensus is that the distinction between an A and an A+ is less critical than other application components. Admissions committees often prioritize letters of recommendation, research experience, and personal statements over minor GPA differences. In a competitive applicant pool, these qualitative factors can weigh more heavily in decision-making than the specific grades achieved.
Miviato
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How important is your GPA for grad school admissions? I study in a very competitive college (top 3 in physics) and, for most classes, even though grade inflation exists, getting an A+ can be extremely hard (top 5%) and require substantially more work than getting an A (which isn't that hard). Do grad school admissions actually care if I have a lot of A+ in my transcript? Or is it just how I have read: the GPA is just a threshold, and the difference between A and A+ will not make any difference in my overall application?
Appreciate your inputs!
 
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Miviato said:
Or is it just how I have read: the GPA is just a threshold, and the difference between A and A+ will not make any difference in my overall application?
Appreciate your inputs!

Where did you read that?

Let's say you have fifty applicants and five spots and a limited amount of time. How are you going to decide which applicants to make an offer to?
 
Choppy said:
Where did you read that?

Let's say you have fifty applicants and five spots and a limited amount of time. How are you going to decide which applicants to make an offer to?
Letters of rec, research, personal statement I would imagine are all worth far more than the difference between A and A+.
 

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