Taking extra course to raise GPA

[twofish-quant]

My GPA is 3.98 and I can raise it to 3.985 which is translatable to a 3.99 by taking an extra course. Is it a stupid idea to take it say for a better grad school application? (The benefit is it will raise my class rank)

If engineering is anything like physics, it's not going to matter.

Also, as long as your GPA is decent (and it is), you are better off taking harder courses with slightly lower grades than easy courses with high grades. A B- in quantum field theory looks a *LOT* more impressive than an A+ in Consumer Math.

This all assumes it's like physics, which it may not be.

 

[twofish-quant]

Yes MIT for instance requires you to mention your class rank and surprisingly with my high GPA my class rank is 5/33.

Can you point a reference to that? I would be very surprised about this since MIT doesn't calculate class ranking for their own undergraduates. I have no clue what my class rank is, and one thing that the professors there tell you to not obsess about grades since they don't mean that much.

 

[Jorriss]

Oh no the same applies in engineering but I get a special scholarship if I make it into the top5, that's why I'm really intent on stupid little things like going from a 3.98 to a 3.99. I can't think of any other things I can do to have a better chance of setting myself apart from the rest of the applicants.

Who gives the scholarship? And who is the official body that decides you made it into a top 5 school? Or do they just use the US news rankings? That sounds like an odd scholarship.

 

[twofish-quant]

Would it help if the course is an Easy-A course?

No it would hurt. Physics graduate schools would much prefer B's in hard courses than A's in easy courses. If the course is an Easy-A, that's a reason *NOT* to take it.

One reason I think you would be better off taking something else, is that if you are *sure* that you are going to get an A in the course, that's not the type of course that will impress people in graduate school committees. What you want is a course that is tough as hell, in which you have to work your rear end off to scrap up a B.

All this assumes physics graduate school. I've heard that graduate schools in other areas will obsess about grades.

 

[Ans426]

No it would hurt. Physics graduate schools would much prefer B's in hard courses than A's in easy courses. If the course is an Easy-A, that's a reason *NOT* to take it.

One reason I think you would be better off taking something else, is that if you are *sure* that you are going to get an A in the course, that's not the type of course that will impress people in graduate school committees. What you want is a course that is tough as hell, in which you have to work your rear end off to scrap up a B.

All this assumes physics graduate school. I've heard that graduate schools in other areas will obsess about grades.

But how would a school ever know it was a Hard-B?

 

[twofish-quant]

But how would a school ever know it was a Hard-B?

I have to keep repeating that everything I'm saying applies to physics... But...

In physics, course titles and contents are standard enough so that you can figure out the relative difficult of the course from the title. If that doesn't work then you can get the names of the textbooks used. Also, there is this cool invention called the internet and google. People can type in the course name and then get to the syllabus. If it's obvious to you that it's an easy-A, it's going to be obvious to the person that comes across it via google.

The other thing is that you can get it mentioned in the letters of recommendation.

This *will* be an issue, because if you have a near perfect GPA, people *will* wonder if you got it by padding your transcript and avoiding hard classes.

One reason that this is important is even if no one else knows, you will know. In graduate school, you are going to be given a lot of rope, and the committee is going to wonder if you are able to make a rope bridge or if you end up accidentally hanging yourself with it.

The issue here is that in graduate school, people will supervise you a lot less, and so committees are looking for people that are going to challenge themselves *even if no one else knows about it*.

 

[twofish-quant]

I'm really intent on stupid little things like going from a 3.98 to a 3.99. I can't think of any other things I can do to have a better chance of setting myself apart from the rest of the applicants.

Maybe you can't set yourself apart.

Something about academia is that at some point you are going to find yourself "average" or "below average" and you have to get used to it.