Should I Include My Undergraduate GPA on My Postgrad Applications?

[leon1127]

I am preparing my post Grad apps now. I have been wondering if I should state this somewhere on my resume or statement of purpose.
"I finished my undergraduate degree with GPA 3.3+ 2 years after high school." although 3.3 is quite low, but it will be my GPA until the end of this semester.
There are two sides of this.
On one hand, I think this is quite an accomplishment in my life and it should be mention to tell people that I can accomplish something big. (If this is big)
On the other hand, people may think I am (big-head) over-confident. This is not special at all.

I was educated to think this is not humble. But then I have always been told that my way of thinking does not match with this country. So I want some unbiased opinion that when you see similar statement above in an application, what would you think?
Moreover, if it state that on my application, is it going to be a strong selling point by any chance?

Any thought will be truly appreciated.

 

[fliptomato]

Hi Leon, I don't think it's a particularly relevant thing. The admissions committee will be able to see from your transcript what your GPA is and how long it took you to finish. However, at the end of the day you're being compared to other people (who may have taken 2, 3, 4, 5 years to finish their undergrad) based on your potential as a graduate student and a scientist, now how quickly you finished college.

From the grad school's point of view, it doesn't matter if the student they have is age 18, 20, or 24. If an 18-yr old has more scientific potential than a 24-yr old, then they are the preferred applicant.

How you sell yourself (i.e. whether you sound 'big-headed' or not) is something of a finer detail. You are supposed to sell yourself on your application. The admissions committee will be composed of faculty in a given department. So if you're trying to sell yourself to a group of scientists, you can probably make a more compelling point by stating facts and expounding on how it is relevant to you being a good candidate. (That approach kind of takes the question of 'humility' out of the equation, I think.)

 

[phun]

If I were you, I would take one more yr and take additional courses relavent to your major (grad level courses, if possible), and bring that gpa up to 3.5 range.
They are not going to be impressed by the fact that you finished your undergrad degree in 2 yrs.

 

[mathwonk]

what is perhaps more important is what you studied in those 2 years. a short undergrad career is possibly a liability if you omitted some important courses.

 

[leon1127]

thanks for reply

In these 2 years, I actually finish my degree possibly with 131 hours. In fact, it inculdes almost all classes they offer in Applied Maths and Stat, that would get me a double degee in Applied Maths and Stat if they offer. Too bad they don't offer that titles because they are too closely related.

PROBABILITY THEORY AND STAT
METHODS OF APPLIED MATHEMATICS
ADV. ENGINEERING MATHEMATICS
COMPUTER SCIENCE I
PROB SLVNG FOR MATH COMPETITIONS
TOPOLOGY
MATHEMATICAL ANALYSIS I
ABSTRACT ALGEBRA I
MATHEMATICAL ECONOMICS
PROBABILITY
NUMERICAL ANALYSIS
ADV WRITING IN NAT. SCI & MATH
MATHEMATICAL STATISTICS
MATHEMATICAL ANALYSIS II
PARTIAL DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
DATA ANALYSIS/STATISTICNS/ACTUAR
COMPLEX VARIABLES
STOCHASTIC PROCESSES

Audited or Will be Audited
QUANTUM INFORMATION
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
GAME THEORY
MATH METHODS IN IMAGE PROCESSING

The list above is what would be taken since this summer until graduation. My school is on the transistion between classical calculus and modern vector computation because those more experience professors are retiring.

Now, I understand that I shold not emphasis this point heavily if I even state it somewhere in my resume. I want some opinions on the primary which is "should I state it on my resume?".

 

[leon1127]

If I were you, I would take one more yr and take additional courses relavent to your major (grad level courses, if possible), and bring that gpa up to 3.5 range.
They are not going to be impressed by the fact that you finished your undergrad degree in 2 yrs.

Problem is that all master level classes are usually hosted in the senior class with different exams. I won't learn anything new in master level class. I have audited quite a bit of classes and I realized that most graduate classes in my school concerntrate on quantum algebra and application of topology. So taking a graduate level class is not a very good option to me since my school's maths department is very small. Also, it is being too small and lack of classes that I am interested, this is why i want to learn so soon.
After this semester, it must go up to 3.5+. The only concern would be if the GPA can be released before deadline.

 

[phun]

If you are taking 18 math classes and auditing 4 within a summer+2 semesters, I don't see how I can make any suggestions that would sound good enough for you.
However, one thing I can say for sure is that you don't need to mention that you are getting your degree in 2 yrs because it will be apparent on your transcript.
Every single thing you put on your application should add something, and not repeat the same information that can be found/infered elsewhere.