When exactly should I enroll in one of the big 3?

[dfrecore]

Well seeing as how there are several of you guys who have seen it differently, maybe the experiences I've had are the strange ones? Either that or maybe we're miscommunicating and describing the same thing in different ways. I'm not suggesting at all that the information isn't available on the transcripts from each school, in fact I'm saying the opposite, that any school you transfer courses TO will show the transferred courses and the new courses on it also. Maybe part of it is a disconnect on the use of the word cumulative? All I meant by that is the final gpa from all your schoolwork from your last school. I really don't think this is a weird thing. Let me give you an example...

If Joe took 3 courses at CC (3 credits each), failed 1 with a 45 and passed the other two with 85 each, he has a 2.20 GPA. When Joe transfers to university, the two courses he passed are given equivalency to new courses and the failed course doesn't transfer to an equivalency because it was below a C grade. He takes 3 courses at university, and gets 89 on all three, plus the 85s from the first semester at CC, so his new gpa is 3.30.

Seems very normal to me, and is cumulative in that it combines the grades obtained from the different schools.

This is not normally the case. The new school does not use your old GPA like that. First of all, if you took 3 courses, with an F and 2 B's, your GPA would be 2.0 (not 2.2).

Then when you transferred, the new school only calculates their own GPA, which would be a 3.3 there. The old GPA stays with the old school.

So the cumulative GPA if you calculated it yourself would be a 2.65, but the new school wouldn't show that GPA. (BTW - Even if you were right, and there was some sort of cumulative GPA that got rid of bad grades that didn't transfer, your "new" GPA would be 3.18, not 3.3).

At TESU for instance, they calculate a GPA using your old GPA's to see if you at least have a 2.0 to enroll, but after that, they don't "bring" your GPA over to the school. Each school calculates it's own individual GPA, but may use old GPA info for different purposes. But they don't use another school's GPA in their own internal GPA calculation.

You're actually much better off without a cumulative GPA if you were a terrible student at one point, but then did really well when going back. Schools might be much more willing to forgive an old crappy GPA and look at more recent coursework, where you have a much higher GPA.

Also, some of the "fresh start" programs I've looked at don't give you the option of keeping your good grades but not the bad. It's all or nothing. So you can either choose to have them bring in all of your courses, including the bad grades, or you can bring in none. That would mean that none of your previous work counted, costing a lot more money to get into that new degree program (basically starting from scratch).

[txnicole]

But they don't use another school's GPA in their own internal GPA calculation.

Ok, now I know for sure this is a miscommunication. This (the quoted bit) is not what I'm saying at all. I'm talking about grades from multiple schools being counted together. NOT GPAs from multiple schools being counted together.

Which is why I also agree with this:

Then when you transferred, the new school only calculates their own GPA, which would be a 3.3 there. The old GPA stays with the old school.

and this:

At TESU for instance, they calculate a GPA using your old GPA's to see if you at least have a 2.0 to enroll, but after that, they don't "bring" your GPA over to the school. Each school calculates it's own individual GPA, but may use old GPA info for different purposes. But they don't use another school's GPA in their own internal GPA calculation.

I have no idea what it was that I said which has created the initial and ongoing disconnect, but from my perspective you're arguing back to me exactly what I'm trying to say.

As far as the GPA numbers, I used a gpa calculator for the numbers.

Either way, there's no point in beating this dead horse when we're actually agreeing. Ultimately, it's all a tangent and nothing to do with the original question about when to enroll anyway.

[sanantone]

This is not normally the case. The new school does not use your old GPA like that. First of all, if you took 3 courses, with an F and 2 B's, your GPA would be 2.0 (not 2.2).

Then when you transferred, the new school only calculates their own GPA, which would be a 3.3 there. The old GPA stays with the old school.

So the cumulative GPA if you calculated it yourself would be a 2.65, but the new school wouldn't show that GPA. (BTW - Even if you were right, and there was some sort of cumulative GPA that got rid of bad grades that didn't transfer, your "new" GPA would be 3.18, not 3.3).

At TESU for instance, they calculate a GPA using your old GPA's to see if you at least have a 2.0 to enroll, but after that, they don't "bring" your GPA over to the school. Each school calculates it's own individual GPA, but may use old GPA info for different purposes. But they don't use another school's GPA in their own internal GPA calculation.

You're actually much better off without a cumulative GPA if you were a terrible student at one point, but then did really well when going back. Schools might be much more willing to forgive an old crappy GPA and look at more recent coursework, where you have a much higher GPA.

Also, some of the "fresh start" programs I've looked at don't give you the option of keeping your good grades but not the bad. It's all or nothing. So you can either choose to have them bring in all of your courses, including the bad grades, or you can bring in none. That would mean that none of your previous work counted, costing a lot more money to get into that new degree program (basically starting from scratch).

To clarify, TESU will let you enroll if your GPA is below 2.0, but they will not include grades in your evaluation that would bring your internal GPA below 2.0. They would drop them into "other courses."

[davewill]

You may have used some gpa calculator, but it didn't work right. A 3 credit course with a 45 is an F and is worth 0 grade points. A 3 credit course with an 85 gets a B and is worth 3 * 3.0 = 9 grade points. In your example, you therefore have a total of 18 grade points representing 9 attempted credits for a GPA of 18/9 = 2.0 at the old school.

The three 89s are still Bs and count the same as the 85s leaving a 3.0 GPA at the University. The cumulative GPA would be calculated as 15 credits times 3.0 equals 45 grade points divided by 18 attempted credits equals a 2.5 GPA.

[txnicole]

You may have used some gpa calculator, but it didn't work right.

Yeah, looking at the numbers again it was clearly user error on that. I counted the 85s at B+ grades (worth 3.33) instead of B (worth 3.0). That's what skewed my numbers.