Getting into grad school with a 3.4 GPA

Graduate School
1

I’m an International Studies major at Johns Hopkins University. I transferred just last semester from a community college in the Baltimore area. Because I live near campus, I am commuting, but I think it’s made my school performance low because of the wasted time. This issue, my being an incessant procrastinator on assignments, and a number of other factors are what I believe caused my my GPA to drop this low to a 3.4 upon coming to Hopkins. Last semester, I took 4 classes and got B+'s in 3 and an A- in 1. I have a feeling I will end up with A-'s in all my classes this semester, but I can’t say anything definitively. The fact that I come from an underprivileged background and am still adjusting to Hopkins are two things I intend to detail in my statement of purpose as potential excuses for this. I have 3 semesters left, but I’ve pretty much been scarred by the high school admissions process where schools are said to look particularly at junior year grades. I took a mock GRE exam and did very poorly, so I’m freaking out about when I will be tasked to take the real exam. I’ve never been a good test taker.

I’m looking at Columbia, UPenn, Princeton, Georgetown, Hopkins, UChicago and UCLA as potential grad schools to apply to for a Masters in International Affairs, which, as you probably know, are very prestigious. I really don’t want to go to a school that’s generally deemed average and have aspired to attend these schools since starting college. As far as experience goes, I interned at a non-for-profit last semester, but am not working now (taking 5 classes) and rarely have any internship experience I can fall back on. However, I am a part of numerous International Studies-related clubs on campus. I’m currently applying to internships for the summer, but have no idea if I’ll get in. I’m thinking of taking a gap year to rack up more experiences in a foreign country. I’m taking Japanese, so I know it’ll really help my language skills and supplement my international work experience. However, I am being pressured by an advisor of mine to apply to a PhD program straight out of undergrad, so I can continue to seek an education without having to pay through fellowships. Graduation is only one year away and I don’t have a plan for what I’m going to do afterwards. I’d appreciate any advice for my dilemma because I’m literally about to explode.

2

Well, sure you can, but the best way to mitigate the low-ish GPA is having an outstanding application otherwise. MIA students are generally young professionals with several years of work experience, so I think you should plan to take more than just one gap year - probably at least 2-3 years of work in a role relevant to international affairs. That’s going to strengthen your application the most; since the vast majority of competitive applicants have this experience, a graduation senior with a 3.4 GPA won’t be the most competitive.

It is common, I think, for advisors to pressure good students to go to graduate school right away. You can gently push back on that pressure; while saving money is great, running to a PhD program to do so isn’t always a good idea.