<p>Seriously need help!
I was suspended for one semester from college. I am now studying at another university (not CC) this semester. Next semester, I plan to go back to the previous one where I stayed for three semesters.</p>
<p>I have two questions:</p>
<p>1) What if my return is denied? My grades this semester in the new school won't be very high, probably several Bs and Cs but I do make progress because I got Cs, Ds and Fs before. I think going back is crucial to my future.</p>
<p>2) If I go back successfully, I am going to retake several courses. However, my final GPA won't be above 3.5 no matter how hard I try. Can I go into a good graduate school with a low GPA and a suspension record on transcript? Will they look at my gpa in a different way regarding my suspension?</p>
<p>I am an international student, Asian.
I'll provide more information if needed.</p>
<p>Were you suspended for low grades or academic dishonesty?
Grad school is not necessarily as numbers driven as law school, but you should bolster up your academic credentials with relevant summer work, research and internships.</p>
<p>You should check with the school whether the suspension stays on the transcript. Often after re-admitting a student, that will be erased (depending). Make a phone-call to your department adviser or dean.</p>
<p>What kind of graduate school? There is a big difference between a terminal masters, a PhD, a professional graduate degree. What is it you want to do exactly? WHY graduate school?</p>
<p>If your grades are this low, and you are still struggling to bring them up, and there isn’t an obvious/identifiable reason for the low GPA, I hate to be blunt but maybe graduate school isn’t a good idea for you. Going for the sake of going doesn’t make a lot of sense. They aren’t looking at your GPA to see if you ‘deserve it’ but rather whether you can cut it or not. </p>
<p>If you need funding, I’m guessing you are probably looking toward a PhD program (those tend to be funded, whereas masters are usually much less likely to be funded, except for maybe the top most students). Anyone that would pay your way is looking for you to take on an academic career and bring esteem to their university. But if school doesn’t come easy to you (in your chosen area), this path does not seem very realistic. But also why would you want to be getting a PhD if you struggle with undergrad and aren’t yet doing research? </p>
<p>Having said that, not by a stretch are all graduate schools equal- some are serious and lead to great outcomes, some are just a joke that they just suck money from people and write them a degree that doesn’t mean anything to anyone (but in some circles, having more letters provides prestige, regardless). It is 100% about where you go. In my experience, there is such a diversity of graduate schools out there, that no doubt you can go to graduate school with a low GPA. There is a graduate school for everybody (which is why no one should take the letters PhD seriously). But such programs at the lower end of the spectrum will want you to pay them, not the other way around.</p>
<p>D2 is an college senior majoring in neuroscience and doing research in cognition. Cognitive neuro is an extremely competitive field. Admission to a funded PhD degree at a strong program will require a good GPA and a good GRE score, but more important than either of those is relevant research experience, excellent grades in your upper level core courses and excellent LORs from your PI and upper level major professors.</p>
<p>Thank you very much, starbright and wayoutwestmom.
I’m so ashamed to say I really regard doing research as my career and thus I really want to going to a good Ph.D. program of my interest.
I’m a thinking giant and an action dwarf. I have the ability to handle the courses, even as an international student but I lack self-discipline and perseverance. Although feeling chilled towards my previous school’s irresponsibility, I think the suspension is all my fault.
I post here because I want to find comforts but it makes me more aware of the situation.
I know no one would exactly know what’s happening to me and what will happen to me in the future, not even myself. Past is unchangeable. All I can do is to start working hard from now on.
But, still, any other insights or suggestions are highly welcomed. I need to prepare myself well for a great competition.</p>
<p>It’s difficult for me to understand what you mean about your previous school’s irresponsibility?</p>
<p>Regarding a bad start and grad school: grad school is more likely than medical school to forgive a bad start, BUT you had better show that something happened and you had an epiphany and then you changed, thereafter your grades should be spotless. If you are not ready to earn virtual straight As, then take some time off and prepare yourself to have that perseverance. Wait to return to school until you are ready to be successful, you only get one break, one bad start and do over.</p>
<p>If a student has a bad beginning and then makes a change and proves he has matured and is ready for the future, grad schools will give your application consideration. It is vastly better to have a gap year and get your act together before proceeding</p>
<p>By saying it’s irresponsible, I mean my previous school doesn’t really care about its students. I came to college knowing little about how American education works. I could not find anyone for help at that time. Yes, they have really bad advisors who are cold and arrogant. They made wrong suggestions or did not make suggestions at all.</p>
<p>“I’m a thinking giant and an action dwarf. I have the ability to handle the courses, even as an international student but I lack self-discipline and perseverance.”</p>
<p>How do you propose to develop the self-discipline and perseverance that you currently lack? Did you have this difficulty before you started college, or is it a new thing? If it is a new thing, have you considered how much is due to culture shock? A bit of reading on that subject might give you some insight into the difficulties that you had adjusting to your first university.</p>
<p>If lack of self-discipline and perseverance are things that you struggled with before college, it may be time to get yourself evaluated for a learning disability along the line of Executive Dysfunction or ADD/ADHD. The counseling center at your current university should be able to help you find someone to do this evaluation, and can help you master the organizational skills needed to get your life headed in the direction that you want it to go.</p>
<p>OP - I would make sure that any school you attend will help you find a part-time research position, to get a grasp of whether this is really what you want to do, and get the experience that grad schools seek out. At some schools, these are open only to the most accomplished underclassmen, those with prior experience, and seniors. You would probably want to avoid these schools even if they have a “better” reputation.</p>
<p>Some students are much better at research than at taking classes and doing well on exams and enjoy spending long hours in reserach jobs, and you probably want to see if you can turn out to be one of these students, although to get into grad school you would probably also need to bring your grades up and it might be too late in any case to be aiming at the very top grad schools. (Be sure your field is not currently a “winner take all” field, with jobs and opportunities for advancement available only to those who perform very well from the get-go.)</p>
<p>If it turns out that you are able to get some experience under your belt, being in a good lab can provide lots of encouragement and the grad students might be able to give you some help with course selection and study skills. Even students who do well in coursework find it encouraging to have the support of lab staff begind them.</p>
<p>In the meantime, you will need to put into action the insight you got from doing poorly in the courses you attempted and will retake. Poor advising is not an uncommon problem, especially since advisors are not always in a position to know a student’s background in lots of detail and might be reluctant to tell you too much about a professor or course that gets lots of complaints, or even how much homework to expect for each class you take.</p>
<p>Sometimes students find that their grades can improve dramatically upon retake if they are careful not to repeat initial mistakes, ranging from inadequte preparation (signing up for the wrong course or wrong section and not taking time to remediate before class begins), failure to seek feed-back early in the term, a lack of true understanding of how a curved class can work against them, not taking action if the professor or TA does not explain well, all the way through to unrealistic budgeting of time and effort.</p>