Explaining undergrad course failures?

[tim415]

I'm guessing this question in some form gets asked often, so that'd be great if you also just direct me to a resource/blog/post if there's already a great answer.

How would you recommend an explanation of low GPA or course failures in undergrad? (if recommended at all)

I'm almost 10 years out of school, will be applying to PT/EMBA programs and wondering how much attention should be paid to my weak spot in undergrad. I attended one of the top engineering programs at the top engineering school in Canada, yet unfortunately had some unfortunate grades in freshman/sophomore year, and my GPA overall was just average. I ended up failing one of my calculus courses, although I cleared it almost immediately with an exam retake. The bright side is I went to a top tier school and program, but the downside is I struggled especially in my early years.

Since I knew this would be a weak point in my application, I made sure to score well on the GMAT, and just scored a 720. Given I've got 10 years of work/extracurricular experience to leverage, a decent GMAT score, and I'm not applying to FT programs, I'm thinking I my undergrad performance becomes less relevant.

I'm leaning towards addressing it in an essay, but perhaps not dedicating the whole optional essay to it. I have a history of successes and accomplishments, and my opinion those are great to prove my performance overall, so no need to make a big deal out of grades from 10+ years ago.

Opinions?

[brianlange77]

I'm guessing this question in some form gets asked often, so that'd be great if you also just direct me to a resource/blog/post if there's already a great answer.

How would you recommend an explanation of low GPA or course failures in undergrad? (if recommended at all)

I'm almost 10 years out of school, will be applying to PT/EMBA programs and wondering how much attention should be paid to my weak spot in undergrad. I attended one of the top engineering programs at the top engineering school in Canada, yet unfortunately had some unfortunate grades in freshman/sophomore year, and my GPA overall was just average. I ended up failing one of my calculus courses, although I cleared it almost immediately with an exam retake. The bright side is I went to a top tier school and program, but the downside is I struggled especially in my early years.

Since I knew this would be a weak point in my application, I made sure to score well on the GMAT, and just scored a 720. Given I've got 10 years of work/extracurricular experience to leverage, a decent GMAT score, and I'm not applying to FT programs, I'm thinking I my undergrad performance becomes less relevant.

I'm leaning towards addressing it in an essay, but perhaps not dedicating the whole optional essay to it. I have a history of successes and accomplishments, and my opinion those are great to prove my performance overall, so no need to make a big deal out of grades from 10+ years ago.

Opinions?

Tim,

It's a good question. What you are going to find from my response (and from others if you get it) is that this is the type of question for which there is no 'right' answer. IMHO, schools look at GPAs and GMATs to answer one primary question "Will this person be able to succeed academically in our classrooms?" Your GMAT is quite solid and shows that "Yes -- this person has academic ability."

A bad freshman year? Here, I think you benefit from having 10 years of work experience. I assume that it's good work experience, progressive responsibilities, promotions, impact, etc. If it was 1 year of work experience, I'd be more worried.

If you feel that you want to address it -- do so, but don't apologize. Have you learned from it? Would you do it differently if given the chance to do so? That's where I'd focus -- not that "blah blah blah, my dog ate my homework when I was a freshman."

Just my $0.02.

-Brian