How do Adcoms view a super low GPA?

4 fails?

You're digging a deeper hole. I don't know how you can explain to the adcomm how your school expects its students to fail 5 classes.

Ok here's the thing that frustrates me.

Most people go to lovey-dovey schools were A's are handed out like candy, and half the class gets a B+ or better. Nobody ever fails, and everybody has a super high GPA without putting in much effort. Your school does not really bother with a fail count as most people very rarely fail classes.

Welcome to my school, where everyone gets absolutely raped. We all came in with 95-99% high school averages, beat out 10-20 other applicants for our spot, etc. All very, very intelligent people. Then we do our assignments, go the classes, learn all the material, and go write our very first midterm, everything goes great! Then we first get our taste of.... rapage. We knew everything yet get 41%, 57%, 61%, 39%, etc. No bell curve for you! Then the rapage never stops, and your goal in life goes from getting good grades to doing anything you absolutely can to getting out of that school and ending the nightmare that is my school. Like I said most fail out, only 1/3 graduate.

But yeah it just really frustrates me when people go "omg! that's impossible, how can a school give out grades that crappy?" well that's my school. There are a few other schools like that too, but I know mine is notorious for not bell curving and giving out the lowest possible marks. But still, we have Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Microsoft, Google, Oracle, Lehman Brothers, McKinsey, etc hire from our undergraduate program. Marks really don't mean sh*t at my school. All that matters is that you get the piece of paper. Also all you need is a 60% average and you can fail up to 6 classes and still get an honours degree (which is 80%+ and 1-2 fails at most other schools).

If your school is so selective and so highly respected, then B-schools would know about the "give crappy grades to all" philosophy of your school. If the grades didn't stop Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley & McKinsey to recruit people from your school, then grades won't matter so much to the B-schools too.

I agree with mNeo.

In my Engineering School from Brazil the system is a 0 to 10 grade. In Brazil some schools have the minimum grade to pass is 5 and others have 7, you simply cannot compare them directly, to give you the picture, 7 in my school was a very good grade for a single course, by graduating with 7 one would be among the top 20% of the whole school.

Another thing, the average length to graduate in my school is around 6,5 years, although the program has 5 as standard, really I saw that my teachers had pleasure to give us bad grades, something almost sexual, REALLY. I have some friends who took 7 years to graduate and still got into very good B-school, because they know how things work there. On the other hand, the school just across the street uses to give 9 and 10 to everybody, and the B-Schools also know that.

I think you're overreacting. Have you already talked to people from your school? See if they provide your ranking - I'm quite sure they do so.

And true if GS, Microsoft and other companies usually hire your folks I wouldn't be that worried, B-schools would follow the same pattern...

Apparently you have failed to get educated and didn't even realize. if I am on adcom, i would look for an explanation of attitude in your optional essay.

I'm not trying to pick on you.

I"m just saying that it may not be in your best interest to explain your fails by saying your school expects 6 fails out of its students.

Just give them your class rank and let it be. 2-3 sentences about it and that's it. All it takes is one person from your school with high marks to overshadow your claims.

On the bright side, your undergrad marks are not calculated into the school's average. At least the 4-5 schools I'm interested in.

BTW, this is from someone who got a failed class too. I didn't make an excuse. I owned up to it and said I slacked off. (I put it more elegantly)

StartupAddict, I believe you may be worrying a bit too much. I would just explain to them regarding the competitiveness of your school in the optional essay/area and let it be that. If it's a very respected school, the adcoms would have heard of it and will know how to deal with the grades from that school.

As for your generalization of "lovey-dovey" schools that rarely fail people, I have to disagree. Berkeley's grading is quite harsh, and 50% of the engineering freshmen flunk out or drop out after getting C's or worse after the first year. In humanities and sciences it ain't much better, with lots of C's and D's giving out by professors all the time.

Even at a school like Stanford, which has a reputation for getting B+'s and higher, many of the undergrad I've known have gotten C's and D's in their classes. Albeit, they do get slightly "inflated" grades than Cal, haha

I would try to minimize your generalizations based on schools, race, or countries if possible.

Agree completely with Kryzak. There are schools like Berkeley, MIT, etc in the states that are absolute killers in grading. In addition, they also have the best of the best students from aroudn the world, and these geniuses do get high grades despite it being tough. (side note to Kryzak, I think Stanford's grade inflation is as bad as it gets...i think it's 0.5 GPA higher than Cal.)

To StartupAddict What it comes down to is this. If there are people in your school who get A's (or equivalent) then, you don't really have any excuse. In your school, you should've been the top 10-15% of your class, if you're not, then it it's nobody's fault but yours. What is your school? you haven't indicated that info yet. Whatever it is, I doubt its harder than Berkeley, MIT, Peking Uni, IIT, Oxford, etc and other top international schools.

Hey, there's nothing shameful about getting a mediocre grade, however, if you come across as making excuses, Adcoms will not like it. Just accept your low GPA, and show how you demonstrate academic potential, etc etc, and with your strong work experience you can probably get in somewhere decent for MBA.

Okay! I have been reading StartupAddict's posts and I have to say I am a little irritated. I am from Canada as well and attended the University of Waterloo. From the descriptions in the posts, StartupAddict seems to be from the same school. Hopefully, none of you guys have developed a bad impression of Canadians or University of Waterloo graduates. Our programs are indeed demanding, but not unlike any of the other programs at the top schools around the world. A good GPA is attainable with some application, perseverance, and humility. More importantly, it is not just one race of people that get good grades and it is definitely not because they study for 15 hours/day. There are some genuinely intelligent people in the world and profiles of some people on this forum reinforces my viewpoint. I wish all of you the best and hop to attend business school with some of you.

BTW, change your avatar.

That guy looks creepy.

most of the 4.0 students I know at Cal and Stanford were NOT Chinese/Hong Kong people who have no life and study for 15 hours a day. They were Americans, presidents of students societies, intramural sports players, etc... Probably some of the most well rounded people I know.

Though there is some truth in GRADUATE school, where the foreign students (many from China and India) often got the top grades in each of the graduate classes. I don't know how they do it, but they're good!

LOL - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Ellison

larry ellison is creepy

-and 'rich.' Please include 'rich' when talking about Mr. Ellison

Kryzak,
One reason for this might be that foreign students have a lot more to lose if they don't do well. Many of them are in the U.S on scholarships and might have to return if they don't maintain their grades.

very true clobo. That makes sense. I just remember some killer-hard midterms/finals that I had NO CLUE how to do (and of course, bombed), and a few people in the class always got 100% on those tests. Then again, these people competed against the millions/billions of people from their countries to come here for graduate school, and are fighting to change their (and their family's) lives. I definitely respect that!

You have done a better job of saying what I wanted to say to StartupAddict.