<p>I graduated college with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology last summer. I really struggled my entire undergraduate career because I funded my entire education by myself: through loans and working full-time, at various local bars/restaurants, a scholarship. I legitimately had no idea how I would pay for some semesters, so I just kept working as much as possible to compensate. I'm not making excuses, I clearly underperformed. I feel the stress of financing my education really affected my performance. (In high school I had an amazing GPA and was an I.B. student so its not laziness or lack of motivation). I originally wanted to go to medical school, but I soon realized that I just did not want to be pre-med and hated my chemistry classes. I jumped around from biology to political science to psychology. I did ok my senior year but my overall GPA is a 3.0. I graduated hoping to take a few years off to work, but I have been unsuccessful in finding full time employment. I even enrolled in a paralegal certificate at a community college right after graduating hoping to find employment through that program, but I soon realized I hated the work and would be miserable as a paralegal. I really do have the drive for graduate school, I have the experiences to prove that I know this is what I want; however, on paper I look horrible to an admissions committee.</p>
<p>I want to go to graduate school to get my Ph.D. in Human Factors Psychology; however, I had a meeting with the director of the program yesterday and I feel even worse about my chances. I have not yet taken the GRE, but he informed me they only accepted 4 of 40 students that applied for this year. Two were Presidential Fellowship scholars. I have approximately a year of research experience in the I/O psych lab and I am currently volunteering in a Human Factors lab on campus in an undergrad RA position. I am currently attending grad school as a non-degree, post-bacc certificate student. I am doing well in my grad classes now, but I'm wondering if I'm just a lost cause? Will they even consider those as part of the admission process? Any advice on how I can strengthen my application? I am taking some experimental psychology undergraduate classes this summer and some higher level statistics courses. </p>
<p>These are my stats:
3.0 overall
3.4 major GPA
1 year research experience
GRE-will take in the next two months after studying/preparing
No publications
No awards/honors</p>
<p>By the time I apply I will have:</p>
<p>2 more semesters of relevant research experience
3 letters of rec (two from graduate students, my research experience is primarily helping them create stimuli and run studies for their dissertations)
Hopefully competitive GRE score</p>
<p>I really, really want this Ph.D. and I am willing to work my butt off. I just know don't how to get there and I feel really stuck.</p>