<p>I'm currently an undergraduate chemistry major at Columbia. What kind of GPA would I need to get into somewhere like UCLA for graduate school?</p>
<p>After cross-indexing the difference quotient in the prestige index between the two universities, which is incidentally nearly three points, the required GPA is given as 3.7.</p>
<p>Required GPA’s don’t really exist for graduate school beyond the minimum for the college (3.0, 3.2 w/e.) There’s a lot more weight put on research, LOR, and SOP. I come from a much less prestigeous university (top 100 public university) and will be attending UC Berkeley for chemistry in the fall. At the time of application I had under a 3.6 GPA (slight upward trend at the time). Ixington is right, you should aim for approx. a 3.7 to be solid for top programs, even those ranked higher than UCLA. However, don’t let GPA deter you too much as I know people who went to MIT from a less prestigeous university than columbia with a 3.4 and myself with a 3.6. </p>
<p>Basically, aim for where Ixington suggests, but focus on research and don’t be deterred by a lower GPA. There’s much more to applications than that.</p>
<p>^I agree with Mustang </p>
<p>but after going through two cycles of applications in chemical engineering and material science I have to say that while GPA might not be the most important thing on your resume it is considered. Before I was applying I was told not to worry about my GPA and to focus on research and that advice was good and helpful but at the end of the day I know I was shut out of several different schools because of my GPA (~3.5-3.6). My research was good and solid but not breathtaking (no papers basically) moved my chances lower. I specifically asked one school why they rejected me and they flat out told me: your GPA was too low. Do I mean to discourage you? Hell no! I got into an amazing program and I’m going there next year but I sure do wish I had nudged my GPA even just a bit higher which would have definitely helped me when I was applying…</p>
<p>Yeah, just to make my emphasis clear, graduate programs do look somewhat holistically at applicants if they make cutoffs (GRE/GPA) so you can balance a weak aspect of your application with a strong one. 3.7-3.8, good LORs, 1-2 years of fairly active research, etc. is probably what you want for top programs but you can get in with other mixes. I know personally my research and factors based from that were what got me into better programs than my solid but not great GPA/GRE would have.</p>
<p>Best of Luck.</p>
<p>What if I get a B+ in orgo II?</p>
<p>If you get a B+ in O-Chem II (is this second semester intro O-chem or Advanced O-chem?) the grad school world is over for you.</p>
<p>It doesn’t matter. You are asking for specifics when admissions decisions are holistic. There is no formula for getting in somewhere. You should pursue research, REUs, mastering your field, and get to know your professors. That’s all.</p>
<p>So not the end of the world. Thanks!</p>
<p>It’s undergrad orgo II. I got a straight A in orgo I… not sure what happened.</p>
<p>Dude you are fine. Orgo II is supposed to be harder than I, because of all the mechanisms you have to learn (So I heard, I felt it was actually easier than Orgo I)</p>
<p>You would definitely be able to get into UCLA if you keep up your grades, and make it to be around a 3.6. Try and do well in PChem and other upper-level classes. If you were interested in Physical Chemistry, I would have advised you to take as much math as possible even up to a major or at least a minor. If you are interested in other fields of chemistry, just take a lot of advanced classes in that field.</p>
<p>Also join a Lab!!!</p>
<p>Lab is way more important than grades. 3.5+ and 2+ Research Experience (Hopefully with a publication) is way better than 3.9+ and 0-6 months experience.</p>
<p>You an definitely shoot for places like MIT, not too difficult to get into with a 3.6+ </p>
<p>Places like Harvard and Stanford are quite hard- you need close to a 3.8+/3.91 in the sciences but the average GRE and ChemGRE requirements are really easy to meet.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.chem.harvard.edu/academic/FAQ.pdf[/url]”>http://www.chem.harvard.edu/academic/FAQ.pdf</a></p>
<p>In general for the Chem GRE as long as you are not an international student, the 70-80th percentile should get you into the top 10-20.</p>
<p>To add another perspective to Sefago’s response. I agree with him that aiming for 70-80% on the Chem GRE (approx 780-840) is a good place, however, the chem GRE is generally considered to be one of the least important aspects of the application if you are not an international student. I have heard that for national students if you’re above 50% no one cares where you are until you’re at close to 90% and from my personal experience. To reflect on the relative unimportance of this aspect of your application, the Chem GRE is not required by a few places like MIT which is in the top 10, and UNC, a top 15 school, actually states that they won’t even look at it. I got into several top 20, 10, and a couple top 5 schools with a mid 50% on my chem GRE (yeah, studied over the summer, forgot everything before taking the exam later that fall, my mistake but luckily it didn’t hurt me). I got lucky, don’t do what I did, but still no single thing unless it’s terrible seals the deal.</p>
<p>I would also argue that the difficulty in getting into a program is largely specialization dependant. For instance, getting into Harvard organic chemistry is significantly harder than it’s inorganic because of the overall quality of each specialization (Harvard only has a few top notch inorganic people and they’re REALLY top notch…but there’s relatively few of them). </p>
<p>I also would not suggest MIT is easier to get into than those others and on visitation weekends I noticed far more people who got into Stanford but rejected from MIT than the other way around. Top 5’s top 5…they’re all very difficult to get into and at that tier of school you may get into one and not another for more specialized reasons i.e. someone wants you, they like your SOP, you fit a new program that’s starting there, etc.</p>
<p>Thanks guys! I’m working in a lab this summer and currently have a 3.8… hopefully I can keep it.</p>
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<p>Agree with this wholeheartedly. Was going to point that out previously but it slipped my mind. Very field specific. The best places for Organic Chemistry and Synthesis are usually Harvard, MIT and Columbia. The best and most difficult places for Biophysical Chemistry would be places like Stanford and Caltech and less so for Columbia where there isnt much biophysical chem going on.</p>
<p>About the 50%, yeah I think thats true since the averages for top schools are not that high. they usually hover around the 700+ mark.</p>
<p>Ended up getting an A- in the lecture course… but a B+ in the lab course. Heh</p>