so today i got an email from the UMBC online masters program saying how they’ve provisionally accepted me into the program pending receipt of my transcripts, and i have no idea how this is going to go.

see, when i applied and it asked for my undergraduate history, i said that i went to UMBC from 2000-2006, and that i completed 90 credits there — because i didn’t actually graduate from UMBC, i only put down my major, but i didn’t note anything for the type of degree or the GPA i received. then i said that i was at UMUC from 2006-2008, that i completed 38 credits there, my major was information systems management, and that i got a BS degree with a GPA of 3.158.

now here’s the catch: even though on the UMUC transcript it says “cumulative undergraduate GPA: 3.158”, doing some math shows that’s just the GPA i got at UMUC and that it doesn’t factor in my GPA at UMBC at all since your GPA resets after transferring. this program i’m going into has a requirement of a 3.0, or a 2.75 in “special cases that require permission”. i requested copies of my transcripts to be sent to the school today, and here’s some thoughts on what can happen:

– they look at my UMUC transcript, see the 3.158 GPA, look at the UMBC transcript and see that yes, i did attend school there, and everything’s good

– they look at my UMUC transcript, see the 3.158 GPA, look at the UMBC transcript and note that 2.60 GPA and say “no”

– they look at my UMUC transcript, see the 3.158 GPA, but then figure out my entire undergraduate cumulative GPA for both UMBC and UMUC (i think it works out to something like a 2.69 or so) and say “no”

– and other variations that probably also include looking at GPAs and saying “no”

obviously i’m hoping they just look at the 3.158 GPA and i won’t have any problems. i’ll be disappointed if i get rejected, though, since i’m actually excited about this. also because my record at UMBC was super-spotty (it started out kind of ok but then went downhill once i was trying to master japanese and calculus and such), while i managed to get a 4.0 in my next-to-last semester at UMUC and really turned things around after i transferred there from UMBC.

looking at some other graduate schools’ policies, it seems if it’s under a 3.0, they only look at the last 60 credits or so to see if it passes, but i think i just barely miss out that way too. :/

i’m a little tempted to call them tomorrow to find out what their policy is for transfer credits (i mean, i already ordered my transcripts so there’s no stopping it now, so why bother at this point?), but i kind of don’t want to call… like if i do happen to call then it’ll just draw their attention to my application for greater scrutiny while if i don’t call then i hope that there’s a chance they may not notice what’s what.