Bombed first two years of Undergrad. Chance of getting into a decent PHD program?

Graduate School
1

<p>Hi everyone, I' m currently majoring in Environmental Science with a double minor in Bio and Chem.</p>

<p>Coming from a Chicago Public High school I was not prepare for college at all. It has taken me a long time to adjust to college and I believe I'm still adjusting after two years.</p>

<p>I have a cumulative GPA of 3.06 right now and I really want to go for my PHD in Conservation Biology, or Evolution.</p>

<p>I have done so far, two research projects, both with professors, and is currently working on another project with my Evolution professor, I will be planning to work in his lab until the end of my undergraduate career.</p>

<p>If I can get my act together and do really well for the next two years, and if I can raise my GPA up to a 3.4 (I hope), do well on the GRE and have good letter of recommendations. Do you guys think I can get into a decent PHD program?</p>

<p>My dream school was always The University of Chicago, I was really bad during my highschool years and i blew my chances, and I do not want it to happen during college undergraduate years.</p>

<p>Can you guys help me? and if you can recommend some tips on how to do better in college that would be greatly appreciated as well.</p>

2

<p>This is what happened the first year:
-All C’s in the Gen Bio sequence, and a bunch of B’s in other non major classes that I won’t mention.</p>

<p>Second year:
-B and A in Gen Chem sequence.
-C+ and A in Calc sequence
-B and A in physics sequence
-B+ in genetics</p>

<p>I basically tackled on the chem, calc, and physics sequence my Sophomore year. The second semester I took on that, and Genetics. I almost died with that schedule.</p>

<p>In my opinion I have improve a lot compared to my freshmen year, but still not enough. The lower grades in the non major classes such as English and Philosophy really kills my GPA.</p>

<p>If you haven’t notice I got straight C’s for the Bio sequence, this is what really bothers me. Do you think I should retake at least one semester of it? or maybe the whole sequence over? I’m a bio minor so I only have to take 4 additional bio classes along with the gen bio sequence. Even if I do well in those remainder 4 Bio classes my Bio GPA will still be mediocre. Help me out?</p>

3

<p>Really depends on what you do with research. Numbers aren’t everything, but you don’t want to be a negative outlier when it comes to application pools. Get your GPA up to a 3.4, and I suspect you’ll be ok.</p>

<p>But really, I would concentrate on research and try to get to the advanced stages on some projects so you can ideally get some poster presentations, conference proceedings, or even a pub out of them. If you do that, and perhaps take some graduate courses in your field of interest (and do well in them), you can be a solid candidate.</p>

4

<p>Thanks Oyama, I’m planning to do research in Ecology/Evolution Biology. I will definitely try my best the next two years to raise my GPA up to a 3.4.</p>

<p>As for research I’ am planning to have at least 1 paper publish, as well as what you mentioned.</p>

<p>So it would be best just to keep taking Biology courses and not worry about the C’s in my Gen Bio sequence?</p>

5

<p>How you perform in “harder” classes more relevant to what your research is on supersedes how you performed in the intro stuff. I’m sure adcomms prefer applicants that did well all four years, but they do acknowledge that many strong applicants had rough starts (I myself had a 2.7 my first 4 quarters before maintaining a 3.94 the next 3 years to finish with a 3.7). I wouldn’t dwell on showing that you can do the easy stuff by retaking courses; I’d just make sure that my later work speaks for itself to demonstrate to adcomms that your past grades aren’t representative of the later you.</p>

6

<p>Thanks! I’ll keep that in mind.</p>

<p>When you decided to work harder and maintained that 3.94 GPA all three years, how did you go in doing it? Was it that you we’re just super intelligent, or we’re you diligent and had mastered time management? Or maybe both?</p>

<p>I’m taking organic chem and air chemistry next semester, and I could use the tips if you care to share them.</p>

7

<p>If you knew me in real life, you’d know I’m no smarter than anyone else at my alma mater.</p>

<p>I really just goofed off my first year or so being involved in a fraternity as soon as I stepped foot in college. I was in over my head majoring in computer engineering–something I knew that could be lucrative, but I had no particular interest in. I never bothered going to classes, nor doing any reading/homework, and research was completely a non-option since I thought it was for “the nerds”.</p>

<p>Luckily/unluckily, my parents couldn’t help finance my education, even though FAFSA said they could, so I was taking loans out and working part-time throughout all four years trying to pay off my tuition. When I received such low grades, it really did spark some frustration in me since I was paying so much to throw my degree in the trash.</p>

<p>Eventually, I switched majors to joint math/econ since I liked my GE econ courses, and thought I’d do well as a Ph.D.; after taking game theory and behavioral economics, I began doubling in psychology. For once, I was actually enjoying my classes. After taking my first psychology courses, the professor of my first class personally invited me to join his lab since I was at the top of the class and asked the right questions (it was a fairly small upper-division seminar). </p>

<p>At that point, everything just clicked. I deactivated from my fraternity; I was taking classes I had a keen interest in; I had a great part-time job that not only paid well, but I had fun doing (surprisingly enough, it was as a programmer analyst at a hospital; just a year earlier, I was dreading all my computer science courses); and I was getting involved in research. I think this is where I started feeling accountable for all my actions and success, so having this in the back of my mind sort of kept me in check. I never let my grades slip and since I was pressed for time (third and fourth years, I was taking 22-32 units per quarter when the normal full-time load was 12), I always stayed ahead of my classes by reading ahead. Being involved in quite a bit of psychology research helped me by allowing me to not study as much to maintain high grades (I learned much much more in the lab than in the classroom), and the fact that I was taking advanced math classes allowed me to essentially get a 4.0 in my economics courses without ever having to attend class or read (if you could do the fairly simple math, you could derive the answer to just about any question/application in undergraduate-level economics exams). The only subjects I had trouble with were my upper-division math courses, which did take up quite a bit of study time. Combined, I never had too much time to dawdle, and I was able to maintain sanity by just scheduling my “fun time” with friends like I did everything else in life.</p>

<p>I think my strategy was that if I never had time to idle, I never would. I began to feel reinforced when I stuck to my schedule and list of goals for the day/week/month. My problem early on was that I had too much spare time, so I was always procrastinating, and never doing anything productive.</p>

<p>Now that I’ve been away from school for a year, and have had a relatively easier life working full-time, hopefully I can rekindle the same kind of work ethic I had as an undergrad starting this fall.</p>

8

<p>Many grad schools ask for GPA in your last 2 years and/or GPA in your major. For a Master’s or PhD, your LORs & research experience are going to be critical factors and have more bearing than your overall GPA, IF you finish strong.</p>