Things that just keep on sticking around
Sep. 1st, 2009 01:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
joflasherBayani, 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.
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.
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no subject
Date: 2009-09-02 05:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-02 07:00 pm (UTC)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.
no subject
Date: 2009-09-02 07:29 pm (UTC)