Ytdyklly

I am completing my PhD and I was wondering how much does the PhD coursework grades affect future academia applications? My undergraduate and master's was somewhat decent grade wise (3.8/4) in both. However, I had taken two mandatory courses during my PhD and I got B+ and A- in them. It was not because of the difficulty in the coursework, but I was burned out with courseworks from master's and did not put any effort. My GPA turned out to be 3.56. I did not take any other coursework as my qualifiers committee found my theoretical knowledge adequate for continuing with my PhD.

Back of my mind, I am concerned that this will affect my postdoc and subsequent professorship applications.

Is there any academic out there in same boat as me but have made it successfully in the professional world?

In the US, at least, and in most fields, no one will look at your grades or care much about them. If they were good enough for your institution to give you a doctorate, they will be good enough for everyone.

I'm not sure this is universal, and would love to hear of exceptions. Such exceptions might occur in situations that have rigid regulations. Of course, if you are specifically hired to do X and you got terrible grades in X as a student, people might have some problems that need answers.

Having applied to a number of postdoc positions and some assistant professor positions (in Northern Europe and Germany), nobody has ever asked about my grades and they are not visible on my CV. Once someone asked about how quickly I finished my master's thesis.

Things may vary from country to country. 3.56/4is likely to be rated very good or excellent in most situations. However, in a context where an academic position is to be held on a competitive basis, an applicant with a GPA of 3.75, for example, is likely to get precedence over an applicant with a GPA of 3.5 or thereabout. The context and the academic culture matters.

The competition for faculty/postdoc positions is very stiff on:

• Papers


• Research interests/project proposal


• References


• Funding/grants/fellowships of candidate, if any


• Prestige of alma mater


• Prestige of advisor

If grades mattered to a search committee, they would be overshadowed by these. So they would come into play in two situations:

• If you somehow get candidates that are so close that you need to resort to looking at their grades to distinguish them.


• If the best candidates are seriously deficient in all the above points and grades are their biggest plus.

Due to extreme competition for academic positions, you are very unlikely to encounter either.

I have never been asked for my GPA, nor has anyone else I know in Academia. I'm most familiar with the U.S. system, but I know people with postdocs and professorships across the world and I'm pretty sure asking GPA would raise eyebrows world-wide.