Barely Missing Offer Conditions - Sort of

So I'm in this weird situation and really don't know what to do about it. I received offers from KCL and UCL for an MRes program (Biology/Chemistry related for both) and both asked me to obtain a 3.3 GPA or higher by the time I graduate. I applied with a 3.25.

The problem is, my university has an odd way of calculating cumulative GPAs. You get an unofficial GPA (contains 1st year marks) and an official version (calculated without 1st year marks). I'm repeating a course this semester for a better grade, but this will only be reflected in my official (where the new grade replaces the old one). The unofficial won't replace this grade.

1. If my unofficial is calculated with the grade replacement, my GPA will be above a 3.35.

2. If my unofficial is calculated without replacing the grade, it will be 3.27.

3. Moreover, my official will be likely skimming the 3.3 mark (give or take 0.02 pts), no matter what happens with the unofficial.

Could either university still find grounds to reject me? Even if I miss the mark by 0.02 points or less? Could I ask them to consider the first option, since that is the most indicative of my academic performance as a whole anyway?

Really freaking out. Could use some advice.

Reply 1

monkyvirus

13

You should contact postgrad admissions for the relevant departments. If it's a close run thing they may let you in anyway but yes if you technically don't meet their requirements they could refuse you. Though I would think they would base the decision on the official grade because most degrees don't include pre-honours marks so it wouldn't seem fair otherwise.

Original post by bananalemon

............................

They will both be international enough to be aware of the difference between unofficial and official and will have a standard practice as which they use - almost certainly the official one.

They won't make any decision about missed offers until the results of UK undergrad degrees are in and they can see who is likely to take up a place and who has missed. They will offer any spaces to those who missed their offers by the smallest margin - so if you miss, you won't get any decision from them until July/August time.

Reply 3

bananalemon

OP

1

Original post by threeportdrift

They will both be international enough to be aware of the difference between unofficial and official and will have a standard practice as which they use - almost certainly the official one.

They won't make any decision about missed offers until the results of UK undergrad degrees are in and they can see who is likely to take up a place and who has missed. They will offer any spaces to those who missed their offers by the smallest margin - so if you miss, you won't get any decision from them until July/August time.

The thing is, most US universities don't have this practice of not including first year grades in the official transcript. I would even say that this is a rare occurrence and is unique to a handful of programs. For some students, it works for them. In my case, it works against me. The whole point of the practice is to raise the overall GPA of students who take difficult, foundation classes in their first year. I went through a non-traditional route and took these same classes in my second year.

UCL did request that I send them my unofficial transcript for this reason and have told me that they considered both in the evaluation of my application. Because I know that they considered both versions, I was hoping I could ask them to use the option that gave the highest GPA, since it is technically calculated in the way that >80% of US programs mark their students.

Reply 4

bananalemon

OP

1

Also, is it standard for universities to round GPAs to the nearest tenth? They specified 3.3, not 3.30. This might mean that a 3.28 is considered a 3.3 by their system. Idk I'm just so worried and don't want to ask them anything until I get my official grades.

Original post by bananalemon

Also, is it standard for universities to round GPAs to the nearest tenth? They specified 3.3, not 3.30. This might mean that a 3.28 is considered a 3.3 by their system. Idk I'm just so worried and don't want to ask them anything until I get my official grades.

You can't ask them to do anything - well you can, but they won't take any notice of your request. They can see your entire transcript, and if it comes to missing your offer condition, then as I said before, after UK results are out, when they know the spaces that are still available, they will look at the academic records of those who missed very marginally and will accept those that missed by what, in their judgement, is the smallest margin. There is simply no way of knowing how they might view your near miss against the near miss of someone from another country who perhaps had 0.02 lower grade under their scoring system, but massively more relevant professional experience, for example.

Reply 6

bananalemon

OP

1

Original post by threeportdrift

You can't ask them to do anything - well you can, but they won't take any notice of your request. They can see your entire transcript, and if it comes to missing your offer condition, then as I said before, after UK results are out, when they know the spaces that are still available, they will look at the academic records of those who missed very marginally and will accept those that missed by what, in their judgement, is the smallest margin. There is simply no way of knowing how they might view your near miss against the near miss of someone from another country who perhaps had 0.02 lower grade under their scoring system, but massively more relevant professional experience, for example.

Thank you, that's fair and makes sense, even if it's not what I want to hear. Just hope they like me enough to want to keep me in the program if I do end up missing it.

Barely Missing Offer Conditions - Sort of

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