Do admissions folks take difficulty into consideration?

mhazelm · Post by **mhazelm** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 1:14 pm

If my grades from a typical full time semester courseload (say, 3-4 core/upper division and 1-2 lower div) are really good (4.0) - but my grades from the "semester from hell" ( i.e. 5 upper division/grad. courses + PGRE + research = horrible amount of stuff) aren't QUITE as good (mostly A's and say, a couple B's or a C), will it be obvious that maybe my worse grade was the result of that semester's courseload, rather than limited abilities in the subject matter?

My current courseload has been beyond ridiculous. To get everything done and at the "A" level has required well over 70 hours a week for the last 4 months. I have managed to do well in most of the classes, but the last two finals (today and tomorrow) just didn't get enough time... so yeah, I might end up with something like a C in optics (which is not characteristic of me) and B in real analysis

. I am hoping it will be obvious somehow that these grades aren't my usual standard...

Helio · Post by **Helio** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 3:03 pm

now if you send your transcripts off early enough they won't see that now will they? Just send out the transcripts before grades are posted and you don't have to worry, since they won't see them till after they accept you and as long as you have your degree nobody will really care

Ren · Post by **Ren** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 3:53 pm

Helio >> True

I don't think many programs require you to send your fall semester grade to them. So don't send if if you don't want to. now about the question. I personally think they would take that into account. Obviously if you get A in every other courses you take and only one B or C it's not likely because you're not smart enough to do well in that one course. But they might also see that as the limited amount of work you can handle and do well. Ok I'm not being helpful

my situation is different though. I have a really bad (below my usual standard) grade for one semester. I didn't even have a lot of work that semester. I had 4 then droped one, and still end up not getting A in my two physics classes (even though they're relatively easy). That was entirely due to personal issue. I don't feel like I should address it since it might sonds like excuses.

twistor · Post by **twistor** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 3:57 pm

You will not have to submit your fall grades to gain admission, however a final transcript will be required.

grae313 · Post by **grae313** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 4:01 pm

Re: Do admissions folks take difficulty into consideration?

Yes.

Helio · Post by **Helio** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 5:06 pm

Ren wrote:Helio >> True

I don't think many programs require you to send your fall semester grade to them. So don't send if if you don't want to. now about the question. I personally think they would take that into account. Obviously if you get A in every other courses you take and only one B or C it's not likely because you're not smart enough to do well in that one course. But they might also see that as the limited amount of work you can handle and do well. Ok I'm not being helpful

my situation is different though. I have a really bad (below my usual standard) grade for one semester. I didn't even have a lot of work that semester. I had 4 then droped one, and still end up not getting A in my two physics classes (even though they're relatively easy). That was entirely due to personal issue. I don't feel like I should address it since it might sonds like excuses.

as long as they are not physics or sort of essential math class (diff eq, PDE) they won't really care about other grades

mhazelm · Post by **mhazelm** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 5:51 pm

That's the whole problem, though. It would be real analysis (pretty important for math) and optics. The optics is much less important for my emphasis, though.

Well, nothing to do about it now, just wait and see what happens... that's life, I guess.

Helio · Post by **Helio** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 6:02 pm

mhazelm wrote:That's the whole problem, though. It would be real analysis (pretty important for math) and optics. The optics is much less important for my emphasis, though.

Well, nothing to do about it now, just wait and see what happens... that's life, I guess.

honestly, go send you transcripts off like NOW don't wait just go and get it done. the scores won't show up and you won't have to worry

mhazelm · Post by **mhazelm** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 6:04 pm

Luckily I ordered a whole bunch of transcripts a week ago

good thing. I think I will stop worrying about everything now. If that's even possible...

I will be so glad when this whole applications process is over and I either got in somewhere, or didn't - so tired of thinking about it all the time!

PoincareSection · Post by **PoincareSection** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 11:45 pm

Everyone I know gets a bad grade in real analysis

Helio · Post by **Helio** » Thu Dec 11, 2008 1:44 am

PoincareSection wrote:Everyone I know gets a bad grade in real analysis

you mean the grade range of:

1x 80%
2x 50%
17x 20%

mhazelm · Post by **mhazelm** » Thu Dec 11, 2008 3:16 am

the optics class at my school is the WORST. If you think 20% in analysis is low, you should take our optics class. Someone got a 7 on the first midterm this year, and 4 (out of 100) on another...

For our each exam, we are required to memorize our professor's handwritten, scanned derivations of every equation in each chapter, verbatim (if you forget something or simplify too soon, you lose the points). The notes are almost impossible to read (handwriting is not great, and there are random things crossed out and arrows linking pieces together and it's VERY confusing). Just last Thursday - a week ago - he gave us 6 of these new derivations to memorize; one of them is 22 pages long, the others range from 2-12 pages long, but you can imagine that with an average of 8 pages per derivation, and 6 new ones, that's 48 pages of stuff to memorize. Plus, we have to know all the others from the previous midterms on the final. And the tests also have these horrible short answer questions (again, don't phrase it just right and it's gone), and he puts on homework questions (we don't turn in homework). So, basically the whole class is "how well do you memorize". Maybe I'm a bad physicist, but aside from being opposed to this sort of learning, I also CANNOT memorize over 50 pages of these handwritten things in less than a week, much less when I had three other finals before optics!!!!! Apparently no one else can either, since the class average ranges from 30-50%.

I am DONE with optics when I get into grad. school. Ugh.

Helio · Post by **Helio** » Thu Dec 11, 2008 5:37 am

mhazelm wrote:the optics class at my school is the WORST. If you think 20% in analysis is low, you should take our optics class. Someone got a 7 on the first midterm this year, and 4 (out of 100) on another...

For our each exam, we are required to memorize our professor's handwritten, scanned derivations of every equation in each chapter, verbatim (if you forget something or simplify too soon, you lose the points). The notes are almost impossible to read (handwriting is not great, and there are random things crossed out and arrows linking pieces together and it's VERY confusing). Just last Thursday - a week ago - he gave us 6 of these new derivations to memorize; one of them is 22 pages long, the others range from 2-12 pages long, but you can imagine that with an average of 8 pages per derivation, and 6 new ones, that's 48 pages of stuff to memorize. Plus, we have to know all the others from the previous midterms on the final. And the tests also have these horrible short answer questions (again, don't phrase it just right and it's gone), and he puts on homework questions (we don't turn in homework). So, basically the whole class is "how well do you memorize". Maybe I'm a bad physicist, but aside from being opposed to this sort of learning, I also CANNOT memorize over 50 pages of these handwritten things in less than a week, much less when I had three other finals before optics!!!!! Apparently no one else can either, since the class average ranges from 30-50%.

I am DONE with optics when I get into grad. school. Ugh.

sounds like my EM class

1x 89%
2x 40%
3x 30%
4x 8%

and curved so that the person with the 40% gets a shafting for being only the second best

mhazelm · Post by **mhazelm** » Wed Dec 17, 2008 7:59 pm

yay, this post didn't matter after all. My cumulative GPA actually went up this semester and I just had one bad grade - a B+ in real analysis, A's everywhere else... that's better then it could have been!! it's the only part of my academic life that hasn't crashed and burned this week!! yay for something being okay. See, I can't do standardized tests worth s*** but I got 95% on my (not multiple choice) quantum final. Take that, ETS!!!! mwahahahahaha