<p>To get into grad school?</p>
<p>Could doing research and self-study with a professor for a year between grad school and undergrad could be a viable option? </p>
<p>Also, I need to learn how to drive between college and grad school, or so my parents demand. =P</p>
<p>Alot of people apply directly to grad school from undergrad, but taking a year off to work in your field of study can do nothing but help your application. Also, many programs won't even accept people unless they have some professional experience suche as many MBA programs.</p>
<p>As far as driving is concerned (if thats actually what you meant) you might not need a car depending on where you go to graduate school. I go to school in Montreal and basically never use my whip. Public Transportation rocks!</p>
<p>In my field (biology), about half of the applicants apply right out of undergrad and half take various numbers of years off to do research before applying. Those who apply out of undergrad have a lower acceptance rate than those who take a year or a few off, since the fresh-from-undergrad applicants tend to have less research experience and more uncertainty about the types of problems they'd like to research.</p>
<p>^^^same as psychology</p>
<p>However, if you are an undergrad with a lot of research experience, don't worry! I believe I've probably had as much as some kids who took a year or two off, and I've already been accepted to one program (still interviewing at the rest).</p>
<p>Another question: if given the option between staying as an undergraduate for another year or graduating and then doing research for a year, which would you choose? I go to a state university and my parents pay for my tuition, so money is not the issue here.</p>
<p>Research, unless your GPA is <3.3 and you need the coursework to boost it up.</p>
<p>What of say, doing research or getting an intermediate Master's Degree? [that has more requirements, and I don't intend to do anything other than PhD].</p>
<p>
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Research, unless your GPA is <3.3 and you need the coursework to boost it up.
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</p>
<p>On the other hand, GPA is often not as relevant as research experience if you have the right recs and research.</p>
<p>One example:
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=298669%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=298669</a></p>
<p>I'm basing a lot of it on anecdotal evidence, but it seems that evaluations of admissions chances are based on anecdotal evidence.</p>
<p>GPA below a certain point does matter. Under 3.3 and you're getting into sketchy territory. Of course, there are people from say CalTech or MIT that get 3.0 undergrad GPAs and still get into top PhD programs, but those are rare cases, where they probably have brilliant recs from nobel prize winners and/or first author in some major journal.</p>
<p>Most research isn't a golden ticket to any grad school. In most cases it's a supplement or at least the crowning achievement of your undergrad, but there still needs to be a solid base for it to stand on. </p>
<p>A Master's can help. It will give you a chance to be more than a lab rat, and if you prove you can do good research at the graduate level, you will most likely be admitted to a Ph.D. anywhere. Of course, there's also a lot of coursework for Masters, so you won't get nearly as much research time as you would with a Ph.D., thus getting great research done is not as easy as you might think.</p>
<p>DH worked for nearly five years before going back to grad school. Best decision he made -- he was motivated, knew what he wanted, and if he was giving up a good salary to take on student loans, he was darned well going to do well.</p>
<p>This may vary depending on what you plan to study in grad school!</p>
<p>Ah, that makes sense. I have the impression that higher grades in graduate level coursework may be able to offset any low grades in freshman/soph years. [I have a learning disability and a weird learning style that makes me learn at a completely different rate than other people (very punctuated; leaps and plateaus)].</p>
<p>It should also be added that most of us are reffering to good or very good grad programs. There are a slew of grad programs who will take applicants straight out of undergrad, but I'm guessing we are all referring to programs that are at least competitive when it comes to admission.</p>