Things that just keep on sticking around

[joflasher]

Bayani, this'll sound familiar.

So I got turned down for taking that class at MIT. Got a general GFY that basically said "you don't belong here."

Why? Because my undergraduate QPA was too low. Really. I had a fair number of C's in my transcript, did I know that? That's what the lady asked me.

The fact that I got within two classes of finishing two bachelor degrees in 4 years by massively overloading my schedule? Didn't count for anything.

Neither did the fact that the only "normal" load semester I did, I made Dean's List or the fact that I had As and Bs on every graduate level class I've ever taken. Those didn't balance out my less than spectacular undergrad QPA.

That I've been in the work force doing funded research since I was 19 and that I've won awards from NASA, the various branches of the military and Draper itself? Also not counted.

And don't get me started on CMU's wonderful QPA policy, in which 2.0 is truly is average for many of the colleges. MIT's is apparently around 3.2 for their undergraduates. Nothing like a level playing field.

I don't know which is more annoying ... that CMU's messed up grading policy is still able to bite me in the ass or that now, 10 years later, I'm still paying for my decision to try to do two degrees in the time it takes most people to do one. Although, even if I had stuck around another semester for those last two lab courses, I would still have low QPA by MIT's standards. I would have just had two sheets of paper up on the wall instead of one.

Hindsight is 20/20, I know but I seriously should have spent more time goofing off, less time busting ass and then maybe I would have had the 3.whatever that MIT was looking for.

Although, come to think of it, I'm still pretty happy with my 2.8 or whatever it was. Cause damn it, I worked hard for that.

Comments

[mh75.livejournal.com]

I've said it before, and i'll say it again - i'm proud of my BS degree from CMU, and i'm proud that i did as well as i did, regardless of whether it was easy for me to make Dean's list or not. I'm happier to have that degree than the perfect dean's list streak degree i may have been able to get else where.

But sometimes i think CMU should give us little letters to accompany our transcripts explaining the grading policy a little bit.

I'm sorry MIT is dumb. They should be sorry they are dumb, too. *hug*

[freeptop.livejournal.com]

"But sometimes i think CMU should give us little letters to accompany our transcripts explaining the grading policy a little bit."

They really should. Having a 22-year-old kid trying to explain to a prospective employer that CMU doesn't do grade inflation is somehow not terribly convincing for most employers (though I suppose it did work on my first boss, seeing as how he did hire me. Best boss I ever had, too...)

[freeptop.livejournal.com]

I am reminded of a time when I nearly throttled a manager at my previous place of employment. We were at lunch, and he telling me about how he went to the University of Louisiana at Baton Rouge for his B.S. He very fondly told me how he'd go to New Orleans every weekend to drink and party all weekend long, and he still got straight A's.

I was about ready to kill him on the spot. I _earned_ my grades, even if they weren't all good, damn it.

[meerkat299.livejournal.com]

Is there any way for you to submit an appeal to the decision by writing out the above a little more formally and including some official documentation or perhaps a letter of explanation from someone high-up in one of your CMU departments?

[flasher.livejournal.com]

I have a letter off to the Draper/MIT student adviser type asking just that but he's on vacation at the moment.

I don't even really care about CMU's grading. I'm just pissed that a number from 10 years ago was used to judge who & what I am today.

[meerkat299.livejournal.com]

I can see that, especially when it is judged by invalid criteria.

[dr4b]

I agree, that's about the comment I was going to make. What we were in college and what we are 10 years later can be vastly, vastly different. Even what we are as a freshman in college and what we are as a senior can be vastly different.

[tg2k.livejournal.com]

I very much agree. No doubt, I was quite an ass in and after college. I hope I've grown up now but I'm not the same person.

And while I managed something like a 3.2 QPA, I never ever overloaded and during some semesters took only 4 classes. Jo definitely got a better education than I did, and was more disciplined (and I would say smarter).

I still think GPA = QPA + 1. Back while I was in college, someone told me that prospective employers would take the CMU QPA and literally add one to it to weight it like the others. Oh well.

[prusik.livejournal.com]

Credentialism drives me nuts. It's an intentionally thoughtless way to make decisions. (It's supposedly more objective, but it really isn't. Rather being wary of how the system can be gamed, it rewards those who do. *sigh*)

Hopefully, you'll be able to make them see the light before classes start. Good luck.

[coldtortuga.livejournal.com]

Is it a class in the MIT ORC?

[flasher.livejournal.com]

ORC? Not sure what that is.

[coldtortuga.livejournal.com]

MIT "Operations Research Center"

Sorry I was being lazy: the answer is in your previous lj post on the topic. That class is required for the master's degree program in the MIT ORC, and it is taught by one of the ORC's co-directors, so I think it is safe to call it an ORC class :-)

Given that several Draper folks are on a first-name basis with both co-directors of the ORC --- partly because Draper staff have been supervising ORC students for years and years, and partly because both of those co-directors have ongoing Draper-sponsored UIR&Ds --- I think it very likely that a couple phone calls could straighten out the situation. For example Dr. K could phone Prof. Bertsimas, who could then go to grad admissions and beat someone senseless with a clue-stick. In fact you or I could go directly to Bertsimas or Barnhart but we're not so weighty as Dr. K.

[flasher.livejournal.com]

Dr. K is the individual who is on vacation right now. I figure he's the best bet to go raise the WTF flag over at MIT.

[rsbdeadman.livejournal.com]

Dumb dumb dumb. Ten years out there's way more of a record to look at. Keep working the advisor or other networks. There's usually a way around the number gate.

Don't know if it would help this time, but did you have to take a GMAT or GRE to apply? A good recent score on that may help you past the filter.

[flasher.livejournal.com]

Nope, this was supposed to be the equivalent of CMU staff taking a course ... I'm considered MIT staff for this sort of thing. My application was all of a page or so long, so no GREs.

[freeptop.livejournal.com]

Speaking from experience, if this was the equivalent of CMU staff taking a course, you wouldn't have needed to "apply" for anything other than your boss' permission.

I could understand an application if you were trying to get a degree, but just for trying to take courses as a staff member? That's utterly ridiculous.

[flasher.livejournal.com]

Yep. Special students are MIT, Draper or Lincoln Lab employees seeking to take a class and NOT seeking a degree. I had been told that the transcript request was a formality but apparently not.

[freeptop.livejournal.com]

That's completely stupid. At the very least, it looks like they are doing it this way to be able to produce charts of numbers that don't really mean much to say how wonderful they are, instead of just pointing to the quality of work they produce.

Given that they could very easily justify leaving out the numbers of employees taking classes when it comes to those number displays, it just makes that policy even more stupid...

[shoebox-bird.livejournal.com]

That's just plain retarded. You're just taking a class as a non degree-seeking student, right? Why would they care what your undergraduate GPA was?

[flasher.livejournal.com]

That's one of the many things that is FUBAR about this situation. It's not like I'm trying to get into the PhD program or anything.

[msde.livejournal.com]

My pet peeve is that I could have gamed my QPA by strictly taking courses based on fulfilling diploma requirements and difficulty, instead of taking courses with interesting topics. I used to mitigate it by listing my in-major QPA.

I do wish I had toughed it out for that one last stats course for a minor on my piece of paper, but oh well.

I laugh whenever I hear about 4.6 GPAs. What the hell is a 4.6 GPA anyway?

For you it was doubly difficult the first year, most guys going into CS are just repeating content because CMU won't let you place out of more than the first intro course.

[msde.livejournal.com]

MIT's dumb about undergrads too. I had the same problem with MIT going from HS -> undergrad, in a HS with strict admissions and no inflating AP courses. I'm just not 99th percentile in the liberal arts, which I needed to be in order to look like 90th percentile from a typical HS.

[flasher.livejournal.com]

Hey, I had a class on programming before I came to CMU. I took it at Juniata College and it was taught in Basic on a VAX. :)

I do remember one of my CS classmates giving me a severe WTF look when I told him I didn't know anything but a bit of Basic my freshman year. He responded that I must have made it in because I was a girl. He didn't understand why I refused to go out with him a week later.

[donutjay.livejournal.com]

Agreed. He sounds like a dumbass.

I came in with only BASIC and one 3 week summer class of Pascal. Still don't know how I made it in.

And MIT rejected me as an undergrad, so I feel your pain, too. Hope you can work it out with your advisor.

[talldean.livejournal.com]

Transferring my 2.5 out of CMU to another school meant I started over as not a first-semester senior, but as a second-semester sophomore; C's don't usually seem to transfer, and the few D's on there certainly didn't.

I feel the pain.

[arashink.livejournal.com]

Jesus Humperdinct Christ.

You have my sincerest condolences sympathies wishes to smack their admissions department with a tire iron.