Advice about Retaking a Class

[HankRearden]

I am planning to apply to a handful of top MFE schools this year as well as two MFin schools (Princeton and MIT, either of which is where I truly would like to be next year). I feel pretty confident about my grades. I am a Mech Eng student at Georgia Tech with a 4.0, I transferred from Georgia Southern University with a 3.74, having a 4.0 average after my first year. I have only gotten 4 grades were not A's and all of them in my first year about 4 years ago (I have about a year of work experience in the mix too).

My concern: While my math/major grades have all been A's, I have a C in my Intro Macro-Econ class. Should I retake the class next semester to show that I can get an A in it or just let that be in the past and worry about more important things? The course is not hard, I was just immature then and had the misconception that my grades wouldn't matter there once I transferred. I am just worried about the class since it is Econ and I feel that would think that these schools would find that important.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

The big picture is that the Macro-Econ class doesn't add much value to your career choice. A C in Calculus I would be a big red flag.
Now some people on the admission committee would look at the C grade and give you a pass. Some will look at this blemish and think that a top student should handle himself well no matter boring or irrelevant the subject. You have no control over what people think. It's a 50/50 chance.

If you retake the course, the C is still there and the new A you may get retaking the same course might be overlooked.

Conclusion: move on, save time and money studying something more useful. Take a programming class, a math class. A yoga class would be swell.

Life is short, study something interesting. 10 years from now, you wish you would have taken other courses instead. Nobody will care about the grade anymore.

 

[Connor]

Agree, don't retake it but take something else useful