Bad GPA but good GRE

Graduate School
1

<p>Hi, guys.</p>

<p>I studied EE at UCLA and graduated with a B.S. in 2009. My first year went rather well, but the wheels flew off during my sophomore year. Because of a number of issues that I'd rather not delve into (but I describe them as anxiety and adjustment issues), my GPA plummeted during that year, to the point where I was placed on academic probation. However, I pulled myself out of that hole and my GPA slowly climbed back up over the course of the rest of my undergrad education. When I graduated, I had a GPA between 2.9 and 3. (I don't want to get too specific for privacy concerns).</p>

<p>I worked as an intern at a company that specializes in proxy servers and web filters for a year after graduation and got a little resume padding from there. However, due to the lack of job opportunities, I've applied to a few grad schools, namely UC Davis, UC Irvine, UC Santa Cruz, UC Santa Barbara, and San Diego State. I also plan on applying to San Jose State and UC Riverside.</p>

<p>My GRE's were pretty good. I got an 800 on the quantitative, 770 on the verbal, and a 4.0 on the analytical writing.</p>

<p>So what do you think my chances are at the schools I applied to and plan on applying to? I applied for an M.S. in EE at all of them.</p>

2

<p>You can’t get much more specific than between 2.9 and 3.0 :p</p>

<p>As long as you meet the minimum cutoff GPA, you should be fine as far as the numbers game goes - grad schools pay more attention to the second half of a transcript anyway, and an improvement trend is what they want to see.</p>

<p>There is no way of judging what your “chances” are - it depends on a wide array of issues, from your statement of purpose to matching a professor’s research interest to funding availability.</p>

3

<p>UC schools require a 3.0 minimum to consider you for admission. Cal States want anything between 2.5 to 3.0 depending on the campus. So for the Cal States I think you will be fine, but for the UCs, you might have a harder time.</p>