September 2014 IDC Board

[psulaw0929]

There was one board several years ago where they decided if a person didn't have a GPA above X.XX that the application would not be looked at, they told NRC to just pro N them.

In a situation like that, would that be based off of undergrad GPA, most recent (graduate) GPA, or some combination of the two?

 

[A_Longo88]

This is how they select!! DUH!

 

[exNavyOffRec]

In a situation like that, would that be based off of undergrad GPA, most recent (graduate) GPA, or some combination of the two?

my thoughts is that it was based on either the GPA on the application or on the GPA on the calculation sheet.

 

[psulaw0929]

my thoughts is that it was based on either the GPA on the application or on the GPA on the calculation sheet.

Okay. My understanding is that the GPA on the APSR is the most recent GPA. And for the GPA worksheet, it is just a list of schools attended with GPAs. Is that correct? I still don't exactly understand how the GPA worksheet is filled out, even after seeing a copy of it.

 

[Popo Jijo]

View attachment 14069

This is how they select!! DUH!

I think it is more like this...

 

[IWhopeful]

As long as the GPA Quality Threshold is 3.15 or higher, I'm happy. I did poorly in a semester of Persian Farsi at Defense Language Institute, and settled for B's and C's in courses I didn't care about. It would be great to know that the board looks at the individual scores in STEM courses for those with liberal arts degrees. If only I had known 11 years ago when I started college that I would want to be a Naval Officer, and GPA was a biggie. At that time I was working full time and just wanted the piece of paper so I could teach music.

 

[PettyOfficerCJ]

One of the processors told me that every applicant gets a "score". This is based on some sort of formula into which your OAR and GPA (a GPA in a Masters carries more weight that a GPA in a bachelors in this formula) are both factored in. He said there have been some boards (particularly SWO or IDC boards it seems) where there have been so many packages that the board just decides to not look at packages below a certain "score" so that they're only left with a certain percentage of the packages (for example, let's say they only want to look at the top 50% of the packages.......or something along those lines).......I have a shipmate who personally knew an officer who had been part of a couple OCS selection boards and he affirmed the same thing......... This is no reason to not apply because you never know if they'll do that for your board or not........ and, I have a 50 OAR ( going for IW), but I have a 3.8 in a Masters. So anyone who has handled my package felt confident that it would be looked at.......I don't know yet whether or not it will be selected though.......just have to wait and see.....

 

[PettyOfficerCJ]

PS: Your most advanced degree is the one for the GPA....... but a 3.3 in a Masters will still carry more weight in the formula than a 3.5 in a bachelors. Again, they only use this formula to weed out the lowest percentage of packages in a board that has a ridiculous amount of applicants. If your package passes this stage, it doesn't mean it'll get selected..... just that the board will now actually open up and look at the package and examine every other factor and item in it. They just don't want to do that with packages that fall so far below the rest of the competition from the start.

 

[exNavyOffRec]

PS: Your most advanced degree is the one for the GPA....... but a 3.3 in a Masters will still carry more weight in the formula than a 3.5 in a bachelors.

no it won't, real basic but this is how the GPA calculation sheet works and I will use semester hours for the purpose of this example and say the person graduated with 120 semester hours for BA and 60 semester hours for MA, BA 3.0 GPA x 120 hours gives 360 gpa points, MA 3.5 GPA x 60 hours gives 210 gpa points, the GPA points are added up and divided by total number of credits so 570 GPA points divided by 180 hours gives a overall GPA on the calculation sheet of 3.16

Edit: the most recent degree GPA will go on the front of the APSR, but the GPA calculation sheet shows all.

 

[exNavyOffRec]

One of the processors told me that every applicant gets a "score". This is based on some sort of formula into which your OAR and GPA (a GPA in a Masters carries more weight that a GPA in a bachelors in this formula) are both factored in. He said there have been some boards (particularly SWO or IDC boards it seems) where there have been so many packages that the board just decides to not look at packages below a certain "score" so that they're only left with a certain percentage of the packages (for example, let's say they only want to look at the top 50% of the packages.......or something along those lines).......I have a shipmate who personally knew an officer who had been part of a couple OCS selection boards and he affirmed the same thing......... This is no reason to not apply because you never know if they'll do that for your board or not........ and, I have a 50 OAR ( going for IW), but I have a 3.8 in a Masters. So anyone who has handled my package felt confident that it would be looked at.......I don't know yet whether or not it will be selected though.......just have to wait and see.....

some boards will do a cutoff, the Intel board I spoke of it was just a straight GPA cutoff, this was without scoring any applications, Intel also has a tech and non tech guideline, they shoot for 60%/40%

One senior board member said he looked negatively on an application if the person had graduate GPA that was equal or below the persons undergraduate GPA.

 

[PettyOfficerCJ]

Your breakout of the GPA scoring is quite helpful.... I had never seen it broken out before. After what you wrote, I now know that all the degrees become factored into the GPA calculation. I think you misunderstand me though. What I wrote was not intending for applicants to compare themselves against themselves but, rather, their competition. Based on what you wrote, it is still true that someone's 3.5 in a Masters degree will still have more weight than someone's 3.8 in a Bachelor's degree (all other factors about the degrees aside) simply because anyone with a Masters must already have the weight of the Bachelor's points as well to be factored in. I only went into detail with it because I have heard (mostly off this forum but also on it) those with advanced degrees worrying about the GPA calculation. Their concern is "Well, if the board just sees my GPA as a number in a calculation (before looking at the actual application) then wouldn't someone who has a 4.0 (even though in an undergraduate degree) look better if it's just a number that the board sees??" Addressing this concern is why I viewed it as important for the forum to discuss it more in depth.

And you are right about a board member looking unfavorably on someone whose undergraduate GPA was significantly lower than their graduate one. Anyone who has been to graduate school would agree wholeheartedly with you. In fact, as strict as many graduate programs are for getting in, many are far stricter about allowing you to stay in. They pick you because they expect you to perform at high levels, and if you don't.....well, they will quickly get rid of you. My graduate school had a policy that if you got below an 80% in more than one of the core courses of the program, then you had failed the program. (I knew of one girl who had a grade come in late and was actually pulled from the commencement lineup the day before.) This is why most graduate schools do not have a bell curve for grading. They expect only the highest performers to be there. I cannot speak for the medical and law fields though. I have an idea that their's might function differently....It still would depend on the situation of the two degrees for that person though. If I had a 4.0 in a Bachelors degree in Underwater Basket Weaving or Theater or such and then later when on to earn a Master of Science in Mathematics with a 3.5 GPA, I would expect any board member to look far more favorably on my Masters degree even though while quite good was still considerably lower than the B.A. GPA. (I did not do either of these degrees, for the record.....lol.....though I must say, while I learned quite a deal from all the electives I took, my undergraduate degree was kind of lame......I truly wish that I had tried to challenge myself more and not have waited until grad school to "kick it up a notch".....but I was a teacher for several years before I enlisted, and the experience definitely helped me in advising my students in how to approach their degree/studies decisions.)

 

[PettyOfficerCJ]

*** Correction: what I wrote above in the
last paragraph should actually state "... any board member looking unfavorably on someone who graduate GPA was significantly lower than their undergraduate one..."...... my apologies for the confusion.

 

[lilcountry]

There are so many different ways that the board can select individuals. All I can hope for is that I made it through that first cut and they actually look at my resume and work history.

 

[psulaw0929]

Based on what you wrote, it is still true that someone's 3.5 in a Masters degree will still have more weight than someone's 3.8 in a Bachelor's degree (all other factors about the degrees aside) simply because anyone with a Masters must already have the weight of the Bachelor's points as well to be factored in.

I cannot speak for the medical and law fields though. I have an idea that their's might function differently....It still would depend on the situation of the two degrees for that person though.

I'm having a hard time following your math. A graduate degree wouldn't carry more weight, it would carry equal weight since it is simply GPA X Credits. If anything, it will carry less weight because usually graduate programs require less credit hours than undergraduate programs. Also, to look at the math, if someone had 120 credits with a undergraduate GPA of 3.8, then this would be [(3.8GPA X 120 Credits)/120 total credits] = 3.8. If you then add a graduate degree, let's use your example of a 3.5GPA in a Masters with NavyOffRec's example of 60 credits. This would be [(3.8GPA X 120 credits) + (3.5GPA X 60 credits)]/180 total credits = 666 GPA points/180 total credits = 3.7 GPA. So you can see, in this instance, the graduate degree actually hurts the GPA calculation. I'm sure it still helps that one may have a graduate degree, but it doesn't necessarily help their GPA calculation.

Also, coming from a law program, i'm disappointed for the reasons I have stated previously on this thread. My law school was curved on a B average (= 3.0). So I graduated with a 3.05 GPA which places me ahead of the curve (and high among my class) but still isn't, prima facie, a high GPA. So for a board member to look unfavorably upon people who pursued certain graduate programs (and/or at better schools) seems unfair. Let's say that someone got a 4.0 from some median level college, scored high on some graduate admissions test, and got into a graduate engineering program at MIT. This is purely hypothetical and I don't know what MIT's grading system is like but the point is that this would probably be a very difficult program and the individual would be competing against very impressive individuals, and there is probably a pretty good chance that this person could possibly get a lower graduate GPA (yet they got an impressive degree from an amazing school). Looking unfavorably upon lower graduate GPAs, and not taking into consideration the ranking of the school and the program just encourages people to go to lower ranked schools with easier programs to get better GPAs due to the easier grading and course requirements and the lesser competition.

Sorry for the rant because I realize that my comments don't affect anything.

 

[PettyOfficerCJ]

No, I was saying it carries more weight,based on the info NavOffRec provided us, because if there is a Masters degree for a GPA calc then there must be a Bachelors degree that gets added in as well. He corrected my statement because it was coming across as my saying that Masters Degree (only)=Overall GPA calc....which could hurt some people (such as those in programs like yours.... I'm assuming you had a higher undergrad GPA if you were able to get into law school ... what I'm saying is that Masters Degree = Masters Degree plus Bachelors Degree and the combination of the two gives you a weightier score. All I'm trying to say is that having a Masters degree should for the most part help a GPA calc because it is being added to what you already have for Bachelors degree points. Since many graduate schools won't let you stay in if you're pulling a low GPA, most people will be helped by that math.
But, like I said, I couldn't speak for the law and medical field. Surely the board looks at what the actual masters was in once they get to the package. The board member I was referring to said they used their "formula" to get rid of a lot of packages that were barely meeting the minimum requirements for submitting but were still submitted (ie. someone with a 35 OAR and exactly a 2.5 bachelors GPA.) You seem like you have great stats, so I wouldn't worry that your JD GPA was a little low. I mean, it is still a JD..... quite impressive....