<p>Im currently a rising sophomore at a top tier liberal arts college and recently declared English as my major. I plan on pursuing my MA and Ph.D. and teaching at the university level. However, Im afraid that my grades from my freshman year are going to prevent me from either getting into some graduate programs or from obtaining a fellowship (which I will definitely need in order to pursue my studies, considering my already hefty college loan). I started off in the pre-med program at my school and finished this year with a cumulative GPA of 3.29 after taking general chemistry, advanced placement calculus, and organic chemistry. My GPA for my English classes alone is a 3.85. Im worried about my cumulative GPA because I plan on studying abroad my junior year. Because my school freezes our GPAs during our year abroad, Im afraid that I wont have enough time to graduate with a high enough cumulative GPA to be admitted into some of the graduate programs I have had my eye on-University of Chicago or Princeton. Should I be worried and what steps should I take to secure my chances of getting into a top graduate program?</p>
<p>Hi, </p>
<p>Im still in the process of applying to grad school so I may not have the best answers to your situation but I will try. </p>
<p>From what I have seen on this site I dont think your situation is that uncommon. It is also my understanding that grad schools care mostly about your GPA from junior and senior year and not so much freshmen year. Plus it looks like your major GPA will be pretty good. So I think as long as you do a good job explaining why you switched majors and showing that you are dedicated to your new one you should be fine. </p>
<p>And remember GPA is NOT the most important thing. Research, good letters of recommendations and a good statement of purpose should have a much greater impact than GPA.</p>
<p>the first year GPA in a pre-med program won’t hurt you at all if you’re applying for an english major. the schools will see your entire transcript, so they will see that you were in a completely unrelated field, switched, and improved.</p>
<p>traveling abroad will present some challenges for you, however. for one thing, your school freezing your junior year grades may be a problem since grad schools will be looking closely at your junior-year classes. when you apply for grad school, you’ll probably be doing so at the beginning of your senior year, so schools won’t see your senior year grades before they make their decisions. if they’re going off of your first and second year only (since third year is frozen), and your first year was poor due to the pre-med classes, this could be an issue.</p>
<p>secondly, in order to get strong letters of recommendation, you’ll need a good deal of contact with some of your professors. if you’re away for your third year, you won’t be building and maintaining connections with profs at your home school, so they may not be able to write LORs that are as strong as you’d like simply because they haven’t had as much contact with you.</p>
<p>i’m not saying that you shouldn’t go on exchange, but if you do, consider completing your 4 year degree in 5 years. it’s not even a matter of getting your overall GPA up. by leaving for a whole year, you’re missing out on relationships with professors and upper-level classes on your transcript. taking 5 years for a 4 year degree isn’t a big deal, so if you can afford it and really want to go abroad, then i’d suggest this path. perhaps others have taken their junior year abroad and still had success at grad school admissions, but it certainly presents some unique challenges.</p>
<p>also, make sure you have the right language preparation. for an english degree (i’m assuming that’s what you want), you’ll need reading knowledge of french and/or german. this will vary by program, but for princeton and uchicago, you’ll want the equivalency of two years of instruction for one language and one year of instruction for the other. a different second language is possible as well, but as far as i know, someone studying english or american lit usually needs french and german reading proficiency.</p>
<p>I disagree with some of the comments about junior year abroad. I’m a very big advocate for it. You’ll get away from everything, clear your head, enjoy yourself, and come back to the US refreshed. You might even gain a perspective that may help you with your studies.</p>
<p>Just go away if you can. You don’t have to do a whole year. I went for one semester and it didn’t hurt my relationship with my professors. They were still able to write strong LORs for me.</p>
<p>The problem that I DID have was completing a solid writing sample on time. This, you will need to plan ahead as writing samples are fairly important in admissions.</p>
<p>As for senior year grades, if you feel strongly about getting them seen by the adcoms, consider taking a year off so they can see everything. You’ll have the extra time to write a very nice application as you won’t have to deal with schoolwork and thesis at the same time (which I did and it was insane that my advisor told me in the following semester that she had wondered if I was ever going to have a nervous breakdown!).</p>
<p>Also, have you had a chance to speak with your professors about pursuing an English PhD?</p>