How important is my college GPA?

Hey, Ethan,

Your GPA is somewhat important. However, graduate schools will often look at your entire background to make a decision for admission. For example, you might have needed to work and take care of a family member while you attended school. Most colleges will consider all options as long as you can explain them. Also, many graduate schools have some sort of testing to get into the program. For example, you might have to take as standardized test, such as the GMAT, or GRE. Likewise, some school require you to write several essays to get into the program. So, the most important thing to consider is that you are more than your GPA, and that communicating with your graduate school will provide a better picture of what is actually required to get accepted. Best of luck, and look for good schools that will help you!

There's definitely a lot of variables that go into determining how important your college GPA is, including what school you are graduating from, what else you have done during your time at school, and what your scores are on other exams (GRE, GMAT, LSAT, etc if you're planning on going to grad school).

I graduated from a really good school (Univ. of PA), with really hard majors, but with just an ok GPA (2.97), and yet still got 5 job offers on graduation from major companies. The school I graduated from definitely made a difference here, along with leadership in a number of school activities, including the school newspaper (but any activity where you show initiative/drive will help).

When I applied for graduate school two years after graduation, I had work experience and good GRE and GMAT scores. I was accepted to a a leading MSCS program at a school I didn't attend, and was also accepted to Santa Clara University which I graduated from with an MBA.

So the key here, is if you have additional info/scores/life experiences etc., it can definitely help to offset a GPA that isn't the best.