Has your grade ever mattered?

[bjcheung77]

Scorpion, for alternative credit courses, the grading doesn't matter. I would only focus on what you need to get the degree finished. If you are taking graded courses online from a college/university, then that course or set of courses will matter. There is one thing you need to look out for is if you do plan on going to a graduate school that does have some competitive admissions vs pretty much open admissions at the Big 3/Competency Based Degree providers - essentially, that is the GPA on the last 60 credits & completion of prerequisites for whichever degree you're looking at.

[dfrecore]

I think udi, eriehiker and jsh1138 are referring to normal courses, not the "grades" of the ACE/NCCRS courses.

The point is that if you have 20 pass/fail courses and a couple where you didn't get a good grade, you're in trouble. So the grade matters. If you make all A's then of course you'd be fine. But I had a couple of C's from 20 years ago that took me forever to bring up because 90% of my credits are pass/fail.

Totally different issue.  The grade that you get on the ACE course doesn't matter, because it's just P/F.  It doesn't affect your GPA.

Now, if you have a low GPA that you want to bring up, that's a different story entirely.  In that case, there's a bunch of other things you can try to raise it; but that's not what the OP's question was about.

[jcooke]

I am definitely curious about this discussion, as I will be pursuing a masters program to become a teacher. I’m working towards my BSBA in Gen Management, just applied to TESU today! 5 classes to go on my own and then Information Lit and Capstone at TESU. My first go-round with college, I had some As and Bs, but then instead of taking a semester off or dropping out the “correct” way, I just stopped going to class. So I’ve got 5 Fs coming in on a transcript. I know my GPA is around a 2.0 thanks to my youthful mistakes. What I make on the two courses at TESU will factor in to my GPA at graduation. All of these SL and SDC courses will just be recorded as pass. I have lurked in this forum for some time, and I know that if I wanted to increase my GPA, I’d likely look towards New Mexico Junior College. They have the cheapest rates I have ever heard of. Clovis Community College (I don’t think I’ve ever seen them mentioned on here before) is no where near as cheap as NMJC, but is on the lower end of prices I’ve seen and offers some courses Clovis doesn’t. (It has been a while since I’ve seriously evaluated either though, honestly). It’s too bad that ACE credit doesn’t factor in. I’m a solid 3.5 student.

[dfrecore]

I am definitely curious about this discussion, as I will be pursuing a masters program to become a teacher. I’m working towards my BSBA in Gen Management, just applied to TESU today! 5 classes to go on my own and then Information Lit and Capstone at TESU. My first go-round with college, I had some As and Bs, but then instead of taking a semester off or dropping out the “correct” way, I just stopped going to class. So I’ve got 5 Fs coming in on a transcript. I know my GPA is around a 2.0 thanks to my youthful mistakes. What I make on the two courses at TESU will factor in to my GPA at graduation. All of these SL and SDC courses will just be recorded as pass. I have lurked in this forum for some time, and I know that if I wanted to increase my GPA, I’d likely look towards New Mexico Junior College. They have the cheapest rates I have ever heard of. Clovis Community College (I don’t think I’ve ever seen them mentioned on here before) is no where near as cheap as NMJC, but is on the lower end of prices I’ve seen and offers some courses Clovis doesn’t. (It has been a while since I’ve seriously evaluated either though, honestly). It’s too bad that ACE credit doesn’t factor in. I’m a solid 3.5 student.

It depends on where you live as to how cheap you can get credits.  CA CC's are $46/cr in-state.  You can take ASU/EA courses right now for $99 (and you don't have to pay that until AFTER you find out your grade).  That's the lowest price I know of for RA credits, and they're from a 4yr school to boot.  So it would be worth taking those if you can.

Remember, you don't need a "graduating" GPA necessarily.  A school will look at all of your GPA's from all of the schools that you go to.  So they will look at the old school with the F's and the 2.0, then they'll look at TESU's GPA, then whatever other transcripts you send in.  Most likely, you'll have a 3.5 or 4.0 GPA at TESU.  Then they will compute their own GPA if you need a good one to get admitted.

But, to become a teacher, you may only need to check your state and look for an online post-bacc teacher credentialing program.  Many states offer them for free, and some even pay a stipend while you student teach.  So I wouldn't waste a single second worrying about your GPA until you figure out if it actually matters for something like this.  My bet is, it won't.

[TopHatWombat]

I understand that all of the external education providers which are ACE/NCCRS recommended transfer in as pass/fail or credit received only. However, has anyone had an experience where the grade earned or completion rate was actually investigated? E.g., a transcript review, an advisor meeting for a graduate program, a job application.

I'm curious if there is any benefit whatsoever to keeping grades high at providers like Study.com or Saylor compared to just passing for transfer credit, and I'd like to hear anyone's experiences involving them.

When I applied for on-campus graduate studies at a state flagship school after graduating from TESC the first time back in 2004, GPA was definitely an issue. I had a ton of CLEP, DSST, and military transfer credits, with very few graded classes. Fortunately, I had a high GRE score and I was applying for a very low demand Department of Energy funded program that the school was eager to fill in order to keep alive. I'm pretty sure that these latter factors were the only reason I was actually admitted.

[asianphd]

Anyone using the bachelor's degree from the top 3 for applying to graduate school? Didn't they ask for the transcript? Isn't it weird when the grade available is the capstone only?

[bjcheung77]

Yup, most of the schools will only look at the external GPA for admission purposes and nothing else, if you have more than one school transcript coming over, it won't really matter that you have 1 or 2 (cornerstone/capstone) from one of the Big 3. The same goes with the Competency Based degree providers as those are mainly assessed at 70% or higher in some cases, so it technically doesn't come in with a letter grade either. Mind you, GPA is just one portion of the "big picture" of the applicant, certifications, experience, and other check the box requirements are looked at as well. For non competitive graduate programs at universities that are not the Ivy League, you should be fine.

[dfrecore]

I understand that all of the external education providers which are ACE/NCCRS recommended transfer in as pass/fail or credit received only. However, has anyone had an experience where the grade earned or completion rate was actually investigated? E.g., a transcript review, an advisor meeting for a graduate program, a job application.

I'm curious if there is any benefit whatsoever to keeping grades high at providers like Study.com or Saylor compared to just passing for transfer credit, and I'd like to hear anyone's experiences involving them.

When I applied for on-campus graduate studies at a state flagship school after graduating from TESC the first time back in 2004, GPA was definitely an issue. I had a ton of CLEP, DSST, and military transfer credits, with very few graded classes. Fortunately, I had a high GRE score and I was applying for a very low demand Department of Energy funded program that the school was eager to fill in order to keep alive. I'm pretty sure that these latter factors were the only reason I was actually admitted.

Yes, your grade CAN matter - but for the particular purposes of this OP and needing a teaching credential, he may not even have to apply at school at all - there may be a free or even stipend-paying program in his state for people just like him.  No need to apply anywhere or try to get into a college.