how do you explain a weak GPA?

Are you an international student? If you are you should contact the school your applying and they will explain how to convert it, there is a company that does it i believe.

But if you are an international, our GPA standards aren't really gonna help you that much since I believe you will be judge against your peers. IE if your indian they will probably be using your % of your school vs % of some other school and those stats don't show up in the schools' admission profile.

Hi All,

I graduated in 2009 with a CGPA of 2.6 in electrical engineering from U of Toronto. The engineering program is ranked 8th in the world and 5th in North America by USNews, so the school is indeed "top" (I do realize my GPA is indeed crap, irrespective of the fact if it is from a good school or not). I am working for a solid F500 company now in an engineering role. I am being pro active in my role and my group lead has given me the entire responsibility of a part of team management for a near-future project !

One of the reasons for my low gpa is that midway through my first year my mom had an accident and I had to drop off from school to take care of her as I am the only son(I didn't mind as I was only 16 at the time I got admitted. But this incident left me shaken to see my mom in such a state). I came back next year to finish my first year. My gpa has been an upward progression from 2nd year (albeit from a very low start. 2.2 in 2nd year. 2.6 in 3rd year and 2.9 4th year for a cumulative of 2.6/4.0). Another "excuse" for my low gpa is that I wasn't really interested in engineering and wanted to study history. But I am from an Asian background and my parents would not even let me allow anywhere near history. I have excellent extra curriculars (winning university wide case competition, managing a student council, mentor for freshman kids, coaching the engineering intramural flag football team etc etc)

Ofcourse I am still a good 3-4 years from applying to B-schools (not aiming for H/S/W. I am targeting the likes of Duke/Darden or CMU. At Darden close to 10% of the students has a GPA below 3.0 and at CMU this percentage was in the high teens. So I have some hope). But when I do apply, do I still have to prove my "quant skills" since I am from an engineering background? I took 3 calculus course, a discrete mathematics course, a differential equations and linear algebra course and a probability and statistics course. My marks range from a 60 to 95 in these courses with a few mid70s thrown in. In all my courses I was either at or above class average.

I am very confused as to what steps I should take to mitigate my low GPA. A 700+ GMAT is obviously going to be very important. I plan to take some accounting courses at a local community college to build an alternate transcript. Say I do well in these courses, would my new gpa matter or am I going to be judged primarily on my UG gpa? Is this a good idea? Or since I am an engineer I have to show adcoms my soft skills/leadership/communication skills instead?

Thank you,

enggtomba

Since I have a situation similar to you, I guess I can jump in. First off what most people suggest is that you should make sure all your other parts of your applications is strong, IE strong GMAT, strong work experience, strong extra cirriculars. If you are just out of school, you may want to wait a little bit so that you get some distance from your grades. Also you can try to take some classes, go for classes that are from well known institutions with course known to be rigirous/business related yet you can get an A in.

In your essays you should highlight you strengths and try to tackle why you're GPA is weak in the optional essay unless specifically asked elsewhere in the application. For optional essay, you should try not to focus the entire essay on boohoo look at me, but try to balance with "hey this is a low point in my life, but look what I have done since"

I think that's the important part, "what I have done since." Since I think if you spend too much time worrying about your GPA, you may be able to fix/explain your GPA, but never give any reason for someone to accept you.

Goodluck!

Hey thanks for the reply. Now I have an idea of what to do and on what to/what not to focus on!

@ emoryhopeful

good posts never miss my KUDOS! +1.

In fact, there are a lot of schools which drive their attention on the essay of explanation for low GPA. And the main idea of such an essay is to show that it is not your fault or the situation was difficult and that is why your GPA is low. And for writing the explaining for low GPA can have different reasons. For example, moving and changing a school could be a stressful process because of which people can't focus on education. Also, a death of someone from the family, problems with health or with family, etc. - all of that can influence GPA badly.

hi, want to ask your opinion, where should I put the explanation for low GPA, gap in resume etc if the school does not provide optional essay?

You'll have to weave it into your story. Maybe as a learning experience after you graduated.

Discuss how you've since applied yourself to fully take advantage of each learning opportunity and also, if it's the case, how you improved your performance on the GMAT or GRE by being diligent and focused.

Happy to help with more ideas if you want to get on a FREE call where we can get more specific.