<p>I plan on applying to graduate school inorganic chemistry.
I have currently an 2.77 GPA from the University of Toronto, with the 2013-14 year being my last year. I have lower grades from science/math courses that have very little to do with organic chemistry, as well as social sciences and humanities. I have much higher scores on organic and inorganic chemistry courses (3.7, 4.0, mostly)
I have very good GRE scores, 700-750 on Verbal, 750-800 on Quantitative.
I am currently working as an unpaid research assistant for the summer making precursors to Pd coupling reactions.
I can likely get very positive letters of recommendations.
Basically I have everything going well except my GPA. What chances do I have at a good graduate school, such as Berkeley, and what should I plan for to maximize my chances?</p>
<p>Are you applying in the U.S.? I don’t know about Canada, but in the US, many grad schools have a requirement for a 3.0 gpa before the department can even consider you. You’d need to check individual websites I think. If you find a Uni where the department is allowed to take you with the sub 3.0, then your higher gpa in the major may be the most important thing to them.</p>
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Not good. Not good at all. Berkeley is not just a “good” graduate school, it is a “TOP” graduate school, and from what you have indicated here you are probably not competitive at that type of program. </p>
<p>You are in a tough position, because your GPA suggests that you are quite fickle in your studies - while you are very strong in chemistry, if asked to go outside your comfort zone you do very poorly. That is a bit of a gamble for a program and professor to take, especially when they have more than enough applicants who perform well inside AND outside chemistry! This is a tough position to resolve, because you are going to have a hard time overcoming this appearance.</p>
<p>Best things I can say are to broaden your application plans to include a variety of programs at all levels of selectivity, and to plan on a few years of work and applications before you get in. You might get in right away - if everything lines up just right. But you cannot plan on that.</p>
<p>In most chemistry graduate programs, you will be asked to pass cumulative exams in more than one area of chemistry. Begin good in just one will not serve you well in this kind of program. Look carefully at programs which might have different types of qualifying exams and and not too many required courses in other areas of chemistry.</p>
<p>I’m interested to know whether the stated “GPA minimums” are absolute or should be taken with a grain of salt, and how I can maximize my chances of being in a good grad school.</p>
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It varies between programs, and very very few will admit to how they do it. For some, they WILL throw out applications below the indicated GPA. Others will reject them unless a professor goes out of their way to bring the application for consideration. For more still it is simply a recommendation. And bear in mind that minimums usually are minimums - most people getting in with a “minimum” GPA have something really exceptional in their application to make up for it (and NOT the GRE!).</p>
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Well, the problems is that you are strong in most of the things that could be fixed at this point in the game, and weak in the one area that is pretty much set in stone. Go try and get more research, try and get something published, and understand that at this point you are just going to have to decide to either (a) take the best grad offer you get this year or (b) come up with something to do over the next few years while you apply repeatedly and wait to see if any “good” graduate school finally says yes.</p>
<p>You should consider taking 2-3 years after your BA to work as a research tech or associate, or get an MS in chemistry before attempting top PhD programs. A 2.77 GPA does not make you competitive for top PhD programs.</p>
<p>I had a 2.2 cumulative undergrad gpa and I now attend Columbia University. It is possible to get in, you just have to work your behind off. I got a few years of experience in my field, begged a small, local college to let me in their graduate program, excelled there to take down a Masters and then wrote a knockout statement of purpose to Columbia. So it is possible.</p>
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<p>I heard from grad school/PhD graduate friends in chemistry that topflight PhD programs will accept someone whose GPA are below minimums PROVIDED they have outstanding enthusiastic recommendations from well-connected Profs and research track record or demonstrated potential for such which could be convincingly pushed by the LOR writers. </p>
<p>However, such cases are so few and far between that it’s best to view it as a one odd longshot in the dark.</p>
<p>At this point right now, getting accepted into Berkeley is not going to happen for you. Berkeley is HARD to get into because it is a top-notch graduate program. And like the person said before: 3.0 is the minimum for a reason. I suggest you try your hardest to get 4.0s these next two semesters to see if you can graduate with at least a 3.0, do some research or a post-bac (with a 3.5 or higher) and then apply to graduate school. Only a rare few of the graduate programs will look at your application with a 2.77 gpa, but it’s looking pretty bleek for Phd programs. Just focus on honing your skills in not just inorganic chem, but organic, and other courses as well. They want to accept students who are well rounded.</p>