<p>I'm in my third year in a Top 3 Canadian university with national reputation. I'm taking Civil Engineering, and will be applying to Civil grad schools in US. Here's my situation:</p>
<p>My first year GPA was 2.6. In second year, I had a 3.4 GPA but my cumulative is still somewhere around 2.85 (which really sucks). According to my calculations, even though I get 4.00 GPA for both third year and fourth year, my cumulative is going to be 3.4... I have no clue how effective GRE scores are. I'm aiming for schools like JHU, Stanford, CMU, Northwestern, UPenn, Columbia and Princeton. </p>
<p>1) I'm wondering... My cumulative sucks because of that horrible first year. But if I get two 4.00's in a row for the next two years, will I still have a chance?</p>
<p>2) Can someone evaluate my chances for these schools?</p>
<p>3) Would interviews help me explain my problem and give those schools a better impression of me?</p>
<p>4) What else can I do to make up for that first year?</p>
<p>I had a similar query some time back, only in my case it was both freshman and sophomore year grades which were bad. The general consensus was that an increasing GPA trend looks really good on your app, and once you have a 3.4-3.5 or equivalent, a lot of other factors come into play in deciding your admission to a school.</p>
<p>Even if you do very well in your last 2 years, heck even if you have 4.0 GPA, getting in those schools is impossible without research experience. You need research exp more than GPA, so agree with denizen get 5 years undergrad, but focus more on research the last 2-3 years (and raise GPA in between) or finish in 4 years and do 1-2 year junior researcher position.</p>
<p>So to answer your #4 q: What else can I do to make up for that first year?
Make it up with awesome research exp
e.g. 2 years exp and if you can publish something in at least mid tier journal</p>
<p>EDIT: This is because the advantage of a 4.0 vs 3.5 is not too different, unlike a 3.5 vs 3.0 so you shouldn’t focus too much on GPA once you reach 3.5+ if you haven’t done much research. They will weigh the “3.50 GPA with 3 years 1 pubs research exp” more than the “3.95 with no pub and 1 summer research”</p>
<p>I had no clue about the importance of research experience. That is surely good to know! Thank you so much! What if I acquire more work experience in my relevant area of study. Would be equivalent? Because in my school, it’s really hard to get a research position with a prof during summer, and I’m already in my third year.</p>
<p>I’m really not too enthusiastic about the idea of extending my undergrad though… What else can I do? (For instance, interviews etc…)</p>
<p>Good question. Can you wait 5 months to find out? I have 0 undergrad research experience but 2 years of industry level research. I’ll let you know what happens.</p>
<p>If the work experience is highly relevant to the program, it will carry some weight. If it is paid research experience, even better. If the work experience is not relevant to your program, they’ll probably not even want to hear about it.</p>
<p>So back to my original question, would first year grades really matter that much? And also, do I still stand a chance for an Ivy-equivalent school? Thanks!</p>
I have 0 undergrad research experience but 2 years of industry level research. I’ll let you know what happens.</p>