How Do Graduate Schools Evaluate Multiple Degrees with Varying GPAs?

[LyleJr]

Hello all,

I just wanted to hear what the collected wisdom makes of my particular situation.

I am an undergraduate student in the United States who intends on applying for admissions to graduate school this coming year. In 2005 I went to University for the 1st time right out of high school at 18 years old and acquired a Bachelor's degree in film-making (of all things) with a 2.63 GPA. I had 121 Credit Hours of courses.

Skip forward nearly a decade ( I am 30 now), and I decided to go back to another University to get a 2nd Bachelor's degree, this time in Physics. I did not have to take things like Composition, General Psychology, History, etc. because they were already considered as "satisfied" by my 1st Bachelor's degree. So, just the science and math classes.

For my Physics degree I will have completed 60 credit hours of courses with a 4.0 GPA.

Both schools give out academic transcripts, but the two schools only show the courses I completed at their respective Universities. School 1 will show a Bachelor's with a 2.63 GPA and school 2 will show a Bachelor's with a 4.0 GPA.

So my questions are:

Will I need to submit BOTH transcripts?

If I have to submit both, will the overall GPA be combined somehow to create a hybrid score? If so how?

Obviously my 1st attempt at school was a poor performance with the 2.63 grade, but after several years of maturing, the 4.0 shows, I believe, a significant change. I feel that the 4.0 is a true representation of who I am now. Also, since it contains all the courses that a Physics Group would be interested in anyways (I think), I would hate for my adolescent mistakes to compromise my chances.

I know GPA is only one factor in an Admissions process, but some schools do have minimum entry requirements. A combination of my two GPAs weighted proportionally would most likely toss me out of contention for many schools, or at least that is what I am afraid.

Any thoughts?

 

[Choppy]

You will have to submit both transcripts, but I wouldn't fret over it too much. Different schools will calculate the relevant GPA in different ways. There should be information on this somewhere on each school's website. You could even contact some of the specific schools that you are interested in applying to and discuss this issue with them directly, if you can't find that information online.

 

[Vanadium 50]

Will I need to submit BOTH transcripts?

Yes.

If I have to submit both, will the overall GPA be combined somehow to create a hybrid score? If so how?

Every place will look at it differently. In most cases they will more heavily consider the later and more relevant grades, but the degree will differ by institution.

 

[LyleJr]

You will have to submit both transcripts, but I wouldn't fret over it too much. Different schools will calculate the relevant GPA in different ways. There should be information on this somewhere on each school's website. You could even contact some of the specific schools that you are interested in applying to and discuss this issue with them directly, if you can't find that information online.

Yes.
Every place will look at it differently. In most cases they will more heavily consider the later and more relevant grades, but the degree will differ by institution.

Thanks. I'm going to be making some calls and sending e-mails over the next month or so to find out what information I can at the various schools I am interested in.