GPA for Grad School

[JohnnyHeck]

I'm at TESC with transfer letter grades. I don't have too many courses to go, and I would like to ensure that my composite GPA meets the strict minimum standards (I'm a hair short at present) for my targeted future Grad School. I believe that my TESC GPA will only be based on the one graded course I take there, the Captstone. Now I do have a few other courses that I would like to finish with CBE and I see that ECEs and DSSTs get graded. What do I have to do to make sure these grades will show up somewhere/somehow so that Admissions at my Grad School will have them to use in their calculation of my composite GPA.

[sanantone]

DSSTs do not come with grades. COSC and EC apply grades to two-digit DSSTs based on your score. I don't know if they do this for non-students on a credit bank transcript. The grade for the ECE will be on an EC transcript.

[cookderosa]

Grad schools calculate cumulative grades from all undergraduate courses.
What did you mean when you said "I'm at TESC with transfer letter grades?" Are you saying you have transfer credit with letter grades from another school but no graded credit at TESC? As sanatone said, you're not going to get grades from TESC unless you take courses from them. Is that an option? If you need grades, you should do the work to get them. That was my case too, I wanted grades for grad school. I took classes at TESC for that reason. Just because you CAN test out of a class, doesn't mean it's the best choice for every person in every situation. I don't think that taking 1 class is the best plan. What if you get a B? Then you're sitting at a 3.0 and have to explain that it's more based on other transfer grades. The Capstone is a group project. That kind of dice rolling makes me need a Tums.

[sanantone]

I think the OP has graded credits from other schools and knows that they will not be included in TESC's GPA. I also think he's okay with this, but he's in need of more graded credits to boost his cumulative GPA for grad school no matter where they come from. The last 60 hours I used to get into my graduate program came from a CC; I had no GPA at TESC.

You would have to make sure that the graduate school you're applying to will include the ECEs in their calculation. They look like Excelsior courses, but they're not. They have an "X" in the course code. If the school bothers to look at the transcript key, they'll know that they are tests and not courses.

[walternc3]

If you're looking to get an A grade then there are easier classes to take at TESC than the Capstone. Provided you're in the BSBA program you can still take the capstone at penn foster instead. Although a GPA for me was largely irrelevant as I'm going to Heriot-Watt University for my MBA I took business mathematics through TESC because I knew I could easily ace it and the business policy course looked like actual work.

[JohnnyHeck]

You would have to make sure that the graduate school you're applying to will include the ECEs in their calculation. They look like Excelsior courses, but they're not. They have an "X" in the course code. If the school bothers to look at the transcript key, they'll know that they are tests and not courses.

Bottom Line 1: Upon a test result transferred into TESC, no grades from a graded test will show up in any way on TESC transcript
Bottom Line 2: The only way to get grades on a TESC transcript is to take a TESC course.
Bottom Line 3: ECE grades do appear on an EC transcript but are distinguished as coming from a test rather than a course.

Corollary to 3: If you take an ECE you will have a transcript with all your ECEs from EC to send to your Grad School - Yes?
Will this EC transcript have its own GPA result from all the tests?
TESC recently announced that you can now sign up for ECEs directly through TESC. Will this change the above scenario?

What about the Ohio University CBEs? (OH abr. CCE)
The TESC Degree Planning Handbook (pg 31) states: "Ohio University Course Credit by Examination...Transcripted with letter grades..."
I take this to mean that TESC will use these OH grades in their calculation of my "Evaluation" to confirm my minimum GPA for awarding a degree. But I also presume that this means I have a transcript from OH to send to my Grad School - Yes?

[Jabberwocky]

If you're looking to get an A grade then there are easier classes to take at TESC than the Capstone. Provided you're in the BSBA program you can still take the capstone at penn foster instead. Although a GPA for me was largely irrelevant as I'm going to Heriot-Watt University for my MBA I took business mathematics through TESC because I knew I could easily ace it and the business policy course looked like actual work.

Not to get off-topic here, but I thought that TESC required you took the capstone with them??? Or is that just EC that makes such a requirement? And what made you choose HW University for the MBA?

[Yanji]

In my experience, graded CBE credits are fine to use for graduate applications. Your TESC "GPA" of one course will be largely irrelevant; they care about all of your undergrad coursework, not just the capstone. GPAs printed on transcripts are irrelevant as well, most schools take the time to calculate their own GPA based on the transcripts you provide them. If you really want to boost your GPA, you can always just plan in some easy courses which you can easily get A-/A on so that you don't need to rely on exam results so much.

[sanantone]

In my experience, graded CBE credits are fine to use for graduate applications. Your TESC "GPA" of one course will be largely irrelevant; they care about all of your undergrad coursework, not just the capstone. GPAs printed on transcripts are irrelevant as well, most schools take the time to calculate their own GPA based on the transcripts you provide them. If you really want to boost your GPA, you can always just plan in some easy courses which you can easily get A-/A on so that you don't need to rely on exam results so much.

I, personally, don't like the idea of depending on CBEs for grades; but everyone is different. There is less control over what you'll score on one test.