Do I need a 2nd Bachelors because of my low undergrad GPA, so I can go to Grad School?

Hello all,

In 2013 I graduated with a BS in Biology from the University of Louisville with a 2.22 cumulative GPA. Since then I have gained experience working with refugees, teaching medical terminology, I was a Peace Corps volunteer, had a baby, and now I have a decent job with the federal gov’t. While I made good with my undergrad circumstances, I will not be able to advance to senior positions until I obtain a Master’s. The problem that I am having a difficult time figuring out is what I will need to do so that I may be admitted to a Masters program that isn’t at some for-profit degree machine.

According to an online GPA calculator I will need about 150ish credits to move my GPA to a 3.0. While I love learning now and have my priorities straight as far as taking care of my new family and career prospects, I am not sure of the feasibility of essentially getting a 2nd bachelors of undergraduate courses just so I can have the chance to apply. I have 90th percentile GRE scores and a solid resume and great references. I am just thinking that grad schools will only care about academic performance from a few years ago. Has anyone heard of a similar situation? Does anyone have any insight?

Any help would be great.

Are you planning on getting your masters at a local university? You could try to enroll in a grad class in your intended program as a non-degree student. You should try to get an A. Take a couple courses and then apply to the degree program. This is the way you enter grad school through the back door. Hopefully these courses would count toward your degree.

I am still looking at programs. That is a great strategy, I would like to do a physical program (as opposed to an online degree) where I could personalize with professors and really show my perseverance and chops. I think my strengths will lend themselves to taking your suggestion. My fiance is deciding on where she will go to grad school and then once I know where we will be living I’ll focus more on this approach. Good advice, sometimes the simplest solutions are the best right?

A second BA would be a royal waste of money.

There are master’s degrees programs out there that don’t care about GPA. Get a good GPA at one of those, then go to a more reputable PhD program with it. Some state schools let you take 12 graduate school hours to get a good GPA, and if you do well in those graduate school classes, they disregard your undergrad GPA altogether.

You could take some non-degree graduate school classes and get A’s in those. That’s the expensive route-- no financial aide or scholarships for non-degree students. Still, cheaper than a new BA.

Online classes you could still show your work ethic to professors. If it’s a huge in-person class, you wouldn’t get to know the professor well anyway. There’s a variety of online degrees that cater to weak GPAs. I’m guessing University of Phoenix has low, low standards. They’re too expensive, but there are other schools out there where you could get a MA.

Also, after a decent number of years down the road, your resume would matter more than your GPA anyway. Some top 10 schools have accepted terrible students who got awful GPAs at 22- when they’re 32 or 42 now and earned some career accolades.

How long as it been since a semester when your GPA was horrible? Did you start the undergrad program at 18 years old and tank your GPA then-- with improvement since? If there’s some recent improvement, some state schools will still give you a chance, even through you graduated recently with a weak GPA.

What programs are you interested in-- what fields?

The non-degree student strategy will work, but that’s not the only way.

You dont have to get your total undergrad gpa up to 3.0…if you did a second bachelors in 2 semesters and did well (say a 3.5) , that is what they would focus on, especially given your test scores & the elapsed time. I did this…had an ok gpa on first bachelor’s, then a near-perfect gpa on second one…it was enough to get me into some top grad schools.

Some grad programs will admit you on probation, and once you prove you can do the work, they would admit you fully.

Also, some part-time night-school or weekend programs will accept just about anybody.