Most schools will advertise that they require anywhere from a 2.75 to 3.0. However, people with GPAs of around a 2.7 or even a 3.0 exactly will find themselves competing with people with much higher grades and portfolios that are just as good, if not better.

If your GPA is below a 3.0 and such, you could still get into a few schools provided your other stuff like porfolio are stellar. But you would be admitted on a provisional basis. So like get admitted and get a 3.0 for one semester, and you'll have regular standing.

But just to let you know, I know people who had 3.7 GPAs and got rejected from many programs. Every scenario really depends...

Either way, good luck.

what about a big fat D in calculas? do you think that grad schools will make me retake that?

i, for one, am quite bitter that i might have to retake calculas. i would be all for it if i felt, in the slightest way, it was related to architecture. after working for sometime, i can officially say that finding antiderivatives having nothing, literally nothing, to do with this profession.

you'll be alright. If you want tell me what your standings are, and
I can give you a better assessment.

Are you applying for a first professional degree or do you already have a background in architecture?

elvidchyld,

all depends on where you go to school and what kind of design you plan on doing.

I wish I would have been forced to take calculus in undergraduate. I would have been so much better off now that i am in graduate school (Stevens-Product Architecture Lab) where computational methods, complex geometries, and vector mechanics has a huge role in the curriculum.

The jobs that our graduates are getting also call for this knowledge.

But you are right. 99.9% of the profession will never need it. But maybe that should change.

Calculus is fun...but I have been doing web design scripting for 10 years and love the idea of dissecting functions and creating logic systems

oh.. and its about the portfolio and letters of rec.

The gpa only is meant to prove that you are semi-intelligent. Most schools want to know that you are hard worker and will produce pretty images that they can show on their website.

not graduate school but undergrad....i attended a community college before i applied to architecture school. i was concerned with my low GPAs and contacted the admissions counselor a year and a half prior to when i actually applied. he said that one factor the committee looks at also is progress, not just the bottom-line, cumulative GPA. he said they also look at the GPAs of each semester to see if the applicant is improving each semester.

3.4 gpa, b. of arts in architecture.

i will be applying for a first professional masters next year. i'm looking at yale, sci-arc, and ut-austin.

i am fairly confident with my portfolio work and recs.

fuck calculas.

3.6 gpa, B. Architecture (professional 5 year degree)

but my gre scores were super low. for some schools they dont even require them... but for the phd program i applied to they did- and my score were below their "minimum".

but i was accepted to the phd program. so what does that tell u??? maybe they count gpa's, gre's, and whatever else begins with a "g"... and maybe they dont.

calculus is shit

a good portfolio overides the crappiest of grades.

I had a D in calculus (2nd time) and a D in finite math and still got into Harvard

i made an a in calculus.
clac 2 on the other hand i just withdrew from mid semester due to NO passing grades. pos...

I just applied to schools...i had a 2.8 undergrad and bad GRE's. i got into UCLA, OSU, UT Austin, and still waiting on a few.

Its all in the portfolio...and thats all you can really change anyway

I wouldn't let your gpa and gre stuff stop you from applying to schools. If it is a big deal to them it probably isn't the right place for you....

My gpa was 3.1, my gre was sub-par, and yet the gsd gods have taken pity on me.... Something tells me you can work your magic somewhere.

I didn't even have a GPA (Hampshire College no grades, tests or majors) and got into the GSD. It's totally about the portfolio and the essay.

archmed,
if u were referring to me, my GPA is around 3.3, my C.V. is fully loaded and my portfolio is ok, but not very fancy,
the problem is that i'm applying from Iran, which will have a BIG negative impact on getting into an good school.
they automaticly assume i might be a terrorist or something?!
anyways, thanks for the advice.

by the way, i have a 5 year pro B.Arch degree, and i'm applying for a post-pro degree, i got my eyes on MIT, Harvard, Princeton and Berkeley.

nomadzilla, i don't think that applying from iran will have a negative effect for your application. in fact, i think it might work in your favor because schools love to have a diverse student population with strong portfolios. again, it all comes down to the porfolio.

i noticed you said that it is ok and not very fancy. are you referring to your grpahics and layout or to the actual content of your projects? if it's the graphic and layouts that are simple, i think you are ok. but if it's your projects that are ok, i would take sometime to rework them and make them stronger. the contents is what will determine your acceptance, not your country.

elvischyld;
thanks for the advice.
but the truth is since this whole Nuke-shit and un sanctions and stuff,
it's been hard for iranians to even get a US visa.
for example 2 of my friends who won the ASLA award of excellence in 2006, and got into harvard this year, weren't given a visa!
for some iranian students getting into schools like GSD is easier than getting into the US!!!

and about the portfolio, i meant in the sense of layouts and graphics it's not at all efficient, but the projects them self are well-designed and bold enough for most schools.
it would be nice if you could take a look at my portfolio but with the stone-age dial-ups we have in iran, it'll be hard for me to upload it.

thanks anyway!

i understand the difficulties from a visa stand point. my family is colombian and they are stingy with giving visas because the are scared of the possibility of entering the usa over and over trafficking cocaine.

my cousin was accepted to harvard a few years ago but wasn't given a student visa.

i wish you the best of luck when you apply to schools here. are you in tehran now?

elvischyld;

yes i currently live in Tehran;
nice to hear from someone who knows what i'm talking about!
but really cocaine is one issue and nukes are another!

unfortunately, people like us have to pay for the stupidity of governments ( Ahmadi-nejad, as well as Bush)

where are you living now? and where do you stand in the world of architecture?

sorry people if our talk got driven off from GPA!!!

i'll take my little conversation with elvischyld somewhere else if it's bothering anyone.


back to GPA's!