BellaOnline Forums Education Colleges B's aren't any good anymore.

Okay, I have a 3.25 GPA (all while holding down a full-time job I might add) and when I went to my counselor, she told me that I would have to pull up my grades to get into the graduate school that I wanted to go to. And it isn't even an Ivy school.

So what's up? Isn't 3.00 supposed to be above average? Now it's like a B is a satisfactory grade and C's are just BAD! Now, everyone is supposed to be an A student and I even have some professors who "don't like" to give out A's reserving those for the "special" students.

What's a girl to do? It's like you have to get more than an A now. And how do you get more than a 4.5 on a 4.0 scale? Are there classes out there that weigh more than the regular 3 credit classes that are similar to the AP classes taken in high school?

Is there something I'm doing wrong?

When I was in college Bs were fine for undergrad and a lot of the grad programs as long as you did well on exams. The program I was in (Speech & Language Pathology/Audiology) had such a small graduate program you had to get all As in order to even be considered, and you had to pass the entrance exams and obtain your teaching certificate before entering the grad program. The catch 22 is that you had to get a grad degree to practice in the field.

A lot of the students who didn't pull that changed majors and went into the related "education of the exceptional child" or "education of the hearing impaired", where you only had to have a C average to graduate and qualify to take your exams for a teaching certificate. Kind of sad, eh?

Meg

Well, it's just driving me bonkers. Just when I think I have this college thing under wraps, here comes something else to knock me back down.

I think I'm going to talk to a GRADUATE counselor about it instead of my undergrad counselor. That way I can get the dish from the horses mouth.

But I feel like this is just WRONG!!! I feel cheated, like I wasn't given some very vital information at the beginning of this thing. Is there someway that you can bet a grade better than A. And like I said before, when did B's become bad?

They're bad when everyone else keeps doing better and better.

My GPA in high school, for example, was 2.9. That's only a B-. Not that bad, right?

Well, it was in those days of weighted grades when many of the students had a GPA better than 4.0. I was barely in the top 50% of my class.

In college my GPA was much better, but it's amazing how you can get all As in a semester except for one C, and man will that C pull your grade down in a way that getting 20 As for the next few semesters won't even begin to rectify. I don't quite understand how one C can affect your GPA so much and a slew of As barely do, but...

Whether or not a "B" is acceptable for admissions to a graduate or professional program depends on a variety of other factors--your GRE/GMAT/LSAT/other scores, your personal/professional recommendations, whether or not your school of choice is more inclined to open entry or is highly selective, your class ranking, the qualify of your personal essay, the school's evaluation of your previous work/volunteer experience, etc. The list goes on...

Keep in m ind that "Ivy League" schools are not the only "selective admissions" schools. Many universities have become more selective in their admissions requirements as the pool of potentially eligible applicants increases--you have to remember, their available space isn't changing and they have to have a way to cut down their potential lists.

Instead of going forward with the recommendations of the counselor at your current college, your best bet is to contact an admissions counselor at the university (or universities--you should apply to more than one) you plan to apply to and visit with that individual in length regarding your specific criteria and the likelihood of your matching the entrance requirements for the graduate program at that university.

Keep your chin up! If you can demonstrate your drive and personal commitment to graduate education to the admissions officer at the university you hope to attend, I would bet they will consider you with a 3.0 or better.

Best of luck,

Lynn Byrne

Nah, you're not doing anything wrong. And I have to agree with Lynn - talk to the school you want to get into about it, and if you need to, make that personal connection. That'll help. But you did write this post awhile ago, so what's the latest?

The latest is that after a semester of STARBUCKS and late nights, I got a 4.0 this semester which shot my GPA up to a 3.77. I travel a lot, so this summer when I stop at cities with schools that offer my proposed program, I'm going to visit with them. Also, I'm working on two research projects this summer and will present the first one at a research conference next Spring so things are looking up.

I spoke to a Graduate School consultant and she recommended that I extend my graduation date an extra semester so now I'll graduate in Spring of 08. I plan to either study abroad that semester, or spend that summer doing research.

So at least I gotta plan.