Transcript question

I go to a target and and have a high gpa. however, i went to another school prior to this and did awful. how did i get into said target? my guess is as good as yours, but i've done well ever since.

given that my resume gpa will consist only of courses i've taken at my current school (4 semesters worth), is there any chance hr dings me either during initial screening or, much scarier, post-offer transcript review, because of what my old grades looked like? my transcript lists my current gpa as "overall" so i wouldn't be lying by any stretch.

what should i do?

14 Comments
 

they'll know you went to another school before your current one and sooner or later when they ask for transcripts they'll likely want one from every school you attended...

 

my transcript lists all of my grades, but only factors those that i've taken at my current school into the gpa. that is my point. will i get dinged for not putting grades on my resume from prior schools?

these type of questions must annoy everyone here to death, but it is still important information.

 

make an excuse for working full time, or that you were sick. plus most banks dont really look at your transcript until the end to verify (from my understanding) maybe some firms like lehman might look at it.

 

they only check to verify at the end yes my point is even though the gpa listed doesn't factor in your poor grades from earlier, anyone who looks at it will probably go "hmmm a 3.8? but theres a bunch of Cs and B-s..." I mean if you really did all that badly your first two years, there will probably be enough low grades for someone accustomed to looking at transcripts and verifying grades to easily see that things dont add up. they've also likely seen plenty of transfers... that said, there's a good chance you could get away with it, but i'd be worried about getting a phone call a week after accepting my offer and being told i wont work anywhere on wall st again

 

how would you approach this? i'd like to be honest, and yet not jeapordize my chances at getting interviews. perhaps telling hr initially about my situation?

 

sure thing...

I'm at a top 15 school now and have a 3.76

i went to colgate for 3 semesters and finished with a 2.65

why the large disparity? i was an idiot, and just a really immature guy back then. everyone i've spoken to says that you generally just list your most recent school, but I think that is because people usually do better at the initial school. i'm a special case.....i hate myself.

i need to land a ft analyst gig this fall or i'm a failure at life. i know lehman and gs ask for stuff in advance, so they'll probably toss my resume right off the bat.

 

in your case, i recommend that you only list your most recent school and GPA. you do NOT have to list anything about your prior college - at least not on your resume.

if they ask you to fill out all the background stuff in an official application BEFORE you interview and they have it in their hands DURING the interview, then yeah they might ask about it, but even if they do you are still golden. who can argue with someone who has a 3.8 at a better college, with rising GPA trend, etc?

_______________________________________ http://www.drmarkklein.blogspot.com/
 
Best Response

I went through the same exact thing and here's what I found out:

overall GPA - combination of both schools

cumulative GPA - current school

transfer GPA - all classes that transferred from your previous school to your current school

I was told that it would be "deceptive" to put just your cumulative GPA on your resume. Either put just your overall, or your cumulative from each of the two schools separately (this is what I did).

 
bjavedI went through the same exact thing and here's what I found out:

overall GPA - combination of both schools

cumulative GPA - current school

transfer GPA - all classes that transferred from your previous school to your current school

I was told that it would be "deceptive" to put just your cumulative GPA on your resume. Either put just your overall, or your cumulative from each of the two schools separately (this is what I did).

there are serious problems with this approach:

  1. listing both schools doesn't give an indication of how many courses one would have had at each. in other words, i could have taken one class at a top school and the rest at a cc, and they would be looked at equally.

  2. from what i understand, you can't just calculate an overall gpa that hasn't been given by your school. each school weighs courses differently, and yours would be arbitrary.

i don't think i'm going to go out of my way to screw myself. i'll just write hr a letter during the process, and i'll go from there.

 

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