Afraid of not getting into grad school/Genetic Engineering

Graduate School
1

<p>I'm a first-generation college student with ADHD. Unfortunately, my GPA suffered a lot in high school for other reasons, but I feel the unpreparedness of H.S (our science courses were awful and not competitive at all) is still affecting me until now (I just didn't know why). I was just diagnosed (Halfway through Jr./Sr. Year of college), which explains a lot of my grades. I consider myself to be a very intelligent person (participate a lot, very creative, good points, etc.), but my grades reflect that I'm lazy. I'm not lazy; I just have a lot of difficulty getting organized, not forgetting things, and concentrating for/completing readings. I thought all this was normal.</p>

<p>I'd like to know if it would be better for me to find a job after graduation and then hopefully get into a Master's program, or a Doctorate one. I don't know which one is more competitive to get into, but I have made it a life goal that I want to become a GENETIC ENGINEER (clone, make knockouts, play with genes in general, etc), which needs for me to get a Ph. D. However, the outcome of being diagnosed with an LD that makes my attention span for reading very short, a.k.a bad grades is scaring me into not knowing what to do. Should I apply (probably not get accepted) and then get a job to get good recommendations? Do I take a year off? Also, should I apply to a Master's program, or a Doctorate? </p>

<p><strong><em>My plan is to graduate, get a job (idk what kind would be good for this situation) for recommendations, study very intensely for the GRE's (maybe also for subject tests to show I'm not a complete idiot in the courses I didn't do well in), and then hopefully get accepted into a mediocre/okay Master's now that I have medication (and it actually works). After I do great to increase my chances of getting into a top Doctorate. Is this possible? If so, what should I do? I would like to get into a top program, but I'm scared a late diagnosis might prevent me from getting into even the most basic grad program.</em></strong></p>

<p>Stats:
Bio/Psych double major. Done with psych, declared Bio last year.
I am taking Bio-focused courses from now until graduation (3 semesters including this one to raise my GPA).</p>

<p>My cumulative GPA at my current school is a 2.5, and has gone from 2.58 -> 3.18 ->2.37 ->2.37-> 2.15 last semester. I have never failed a class anywhere, but I got a D+ in Calculus and a D in Physics last semester (reason why I went to see the doctor who diagnosed me).
I have a 2.8 GPA at my first school (was there for 1 year)
I also have a 3.8 at a school where I took dual enrollment/summer classes (previously a community college, so idk how well this will be taken)
No internships nor lab experience yet because I need letters of recommendation from professors!</p>

2

<p>You will have a very tough time indeed, though there are always down-tier masters programs ready to take someone that they’ve got plausible deniability on (as in, there was a reasonable basis on which we thought they might not fail), and due to your sense of purpose and intellectual horsepower, you may well have it. The trouble with them is what happens when you graduate, and odds are, it’s not what you were hoping would happen. </p>

<p>Congrats on finding an effective med. Don’t get complacent, it will be a lifelong battle against ADHD. Savor being ahead of it for now, and try to stay on the forward half. It’s when you take a break and slide to the back of the treadmill that you get in trouble. </p>

<p>I think the strongest option for you is to try to get a BS-level technician job in a lab doing genetic work. An excellent ADHD-med-fueled work record, plus you taking any opportunities you can to talk science with your PI or whoever you’ll be reporting to and thus gaining the ability to speak as someone who lives and breathes genetic engineering, will be the proof top-notch grad schools are looking for that you’ve really defeated your demons and will make an excellent grad student. </p>

<p>Word of caution: if you want that job, network like a boss, start now, and work with your school’s career center too. I had quite a bit better stats than you and 3 years research experience (difference in my case: I was into a more glamorous, read ‘non-industrial’ and ‘overcrowded’, field than you, neuroscience), and spent over a year looking for BS-level work in a science lab, only to go completely bust and end up taking a job as a software tester. It is a slaughter out there in the job market, but remember what I forgot: it’s who you know, not what you know, in the job market. </p>

3

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<p>Your GPA is a major issue, yes, but having no research or lab experience is much more concerning to me and should be your top priority, especially since there may not be a lot you can do about your GPA (although if you have the time and ability to get it above a 3.0, that would be ideal). It’ll be a hard sell to graduate schools to convince them that this is what you want to do if you have no experience in it.</p>

<p>I agree with the above poster that what you really need to do is get experience, and start now. You don’t need letters of rec to volunteer in a professor’s lab or even to work as a lab tech, and definitely don’t assume that you can’t do anything until you get one. If you can swing it, you may have to start as a volunteer in a lab (perhaps, in addition to working another job to make ends meet) or you may have to start as a lab tech or something similar before you can get involved in a research project. But whatever you can get, take it full advantage of it. That’ll be your best shot at getting into a graduate program, in my opinion.</p>

4

<p>With your current GPA, you need to give a program a good reason to think you are able to maintain a 3.0 in graduate courses. I do graduate admissions for my university and we do give students in your situation a chance in our Masters program but we need to see evidence that the trust is well-founded. Otherwise, it is unethical to admit a student whom we think will fail. </p>

<p>What I look for is work experience and good letter of reference from the employer. It is often the case that a student who has work experience is better prepared and more motivated to succeed in a graduate program than simply going into it right out of college. This is particularly true for someone in your situation who is just learning to cope with a learning disability. Those coping skills become more effective with experience.</p>

<p>I also think that you should look for a Masters program first for two reasons. The first is because oyu need to show you can do the work before applying for a Ph.D. The second is that you need to make sure that you are convinced about the path to a Ph.D., which can take as many as 6+ years. It is not a task to undertake lightly.</p>

<p>Good Luck!</p>

5

<p>I’d highly recommend working as a tech over getting a masters. You’ll get a roughly equivalent benefit from either in the eyes of PhD programs, but doing it as work has the advantage of getting paid (and not paying tuition!) and being able to have a bit of time and wiggle room to figure out if this is really what you want to do. Don’t just be a 9 to 5 tech, though. To make the experience meaningful both in terms of your education and your CV, you have a LOT of catching up to do, so you’re going to have to prove yourself in the lab by not only doing the normal things required of techs, but consistently reading new papers in the field, volunteering for journal clubs and talks, presenting possible experiments to your advisor, etc. You’re going to need to exceed what is expected at this point to make up for lost time. Good luck!</p>

6

<p>Thank you all for your responses. I am now volunteering at my professor’s lab doing Ecology-type stuff. While it is not what I want to do with my career (but still very cool), I think and hope that having a presence there will help me later. Hopefully I can get a reference from the professor later after volunteering for a while. </p>

<p>Also, I already read a bunch of articles (mostly popular ones unless they are really novel) because I love following science. I hope this knowledge will also help me, since that way I can have more creative while simultaneously logical connections in future research, etc.</p>

7

<p>Oh, and one more question: Since I transferred and have also taken Summer courses at another school, how does that GPA work? Will they look at everything? I have a much higher GPA at a former community college due to only taking Summer courses there. </p>

8

<p>It is likely that the courses you took at the CC were general education or lower division courses. While they will be considered, they do not carry as much weight as the upper division courses in your major do.</p>