GPA question

[tobyisking]

Between my time at Community College and TESU, I currently have a 2.5 GPA. In the future I would like to bring my overall GPA up to at least the 3.5 range for potential grad school applications and such. Can someone here help me figure out how many classes and the grades I would need to receive to do this? Assuming the courses I take are 3 credits a pop. I figure I could go and take some courses at my community college to get this done the cheapest way.

[MNomadic]

To calculate that, we'd need to know how many graded courses you currently have and what their grades are.

[tobyisking]

Whoops sorry about that.
My actual graded credits are as follows
TESU I took two graded classes for 3 credits each and received a B- and a B+. At my community college I took one class for 3 credits and received a C-

[Supermind]

How many graded credits do grad schools expect at the least? What if someone completes only the Capstone at TESU, and their transcript shows a 3.6 GPA?

---

Could someone also explain how COSC’s credit banking system works? Based on whatever I read on their website, for a sum of money, it seems like they will issue a transcript with graded credits, even if one does not graduate thro COSC. My question is, will this help if a grad school asks for graded credits? To verify my degree, they can see my TESU transcript. But can a COSC transcript help them see how well I performed in those subjects? Is it ok to submit two transcripts?

[natshar]

That is an interesting question. I feel like some people on this forum have gotten into grad schools with no GPA (when the cornerstone wasn't required, they had a TECEP option, etc.). I'm not sure how to answer it myself. I'll just say if you want to go to WGU based on what I've seen in this forum you would probably get in. I guess it all depends on where you want to go to grad school for how much GPA matters.

The quickest and cheapest way would probably be self-paced online courses at your community college. I don't know if your colleges offer them. Not all colleges do. My local community college does, and I would suggest them but they are kind of unique as they require two on-campus visits one for orientation and one for a proctored final, so that wouldn't work unless you live near me. But with self-paced courses, you complete more courses in less time. Just make sure they are for credit and with GPA. Not no CR/NC or Pass/Fail. Mine are for a GPA, but a lot of self-paced courses aren't.

[Supermind]

I would love to pursue a WGU Masters, and not have to worry about my GPA. However, I do not have that option being an international student. Most grad schools in my country would expect a GPA, and graded credits on my transcript. Also, I have put in efforts to ensure my study.com and most other course scores are consistently in the 90-95 range. I will also be happy for such grades to show up on my transcript.

[dfrecore]

First, you are very lucky that you've taken so few graded credits. For most people with a low GPA, they have tons of credits there, and it would take way too many to make it feasible to get that GPA up.

Second, you might want to calculate what you have at each school separately, because your GPA at one school isn't impacted by your GPA at another. You currently have a 3.0 at TESU, and the only way to change that is to get grades at TESU. Your GPA at your CC is 1.7, and the only way to change that is to get graded credits there. Your combined GPA (if another school was to look at it and just combine all of your credits giving equal credit to all of them) is 2.57. But not all schools look at it the same, so that's going to be a bit more difficult to determine (some use last 30 credits, some use last 60, some place more emphasis on a 4-yr school than a CC, some don't look if they're too old, some put more weight on courses in your major, etc.

In order to raise your CC GPA, you'd need to take 2 courses/6cr and get A's in both to get a 3.23 3 courses/9cr will get you to 3.43. 12cr will get you to 3.54.

In order to raise your TESU GPA, you'd need to take 1 course/3cr and get an A to get a 3.33. 2 courses/6cr will get you to 3.5.

For combined, you need 6cr to get 3.14, and 18cr to get 3.52.

https://gpacalculator.net/college-gpa-calculator/

[Ideas]

How many graded credits do grad schools expect at the least? What if someone completes only the Capstone at TESU, and their transcript shows a 3.6 GPA?

From what I've seen, it's common to say a minimum of 30 graded credits and for them to prefer 60 graded credits. However, many schools will give conditional acceptance if you have less than 30.

[Supermind]

That’s good to know. For most of us ‘testing out undergrads’, we will have only 3 graded Capstone credits to show. Even the Cornerstone course at TESU is not graded.

[Merlin]

It also depends on the college and masters program. Many of them have no specific graded credits requirement, and may not have a GPA requirement either. The more competitive the program, the higher the requirements will be.