I am an international student graduated from a Top10 public school with the overall GPA of 3.4. My GPA in my previous institution overseas is 3.6. My major is Molecular Biology. My GRE is V161 Q169 W4. I got 2 years of working experience in a small biotech company in Boston (it is REALLY hard for an international student to get a job, especially with a B.A in science) and I am going to have a publication recently(Should be a Tier-3 journal). I am going to apply for a Master of Biomedical engineering program.
My question is: I spent 6 semesters in total at my college in U.S (GPA of 3.4). I got really bad GPA(~2.2) in first and third semester. (Yes, I was playing League of Legend and hanging out with girls), and I got ~3.9 in other 4 semester. So, do I need to explain anything? Will it influence a lot? What can I do now?
@JessWoo - Welcome to the Forum! No you don’t need to make excuses but if your Letter writers can point out that you did very well in your final two semesters, presumably the upper division Biology courses, then that will be helpful.
Thanks! Yes, actually I took most upper division biology courses mostly in last 3 semester. However, my letter writer is a professor in one of the upper division course and I do not think he can comment on my performance on other courses. But I think he will mention that I do well in HIS course. Moreover, I do not know whether the grade reviewer will think that far that I did poorly in some ‘easy’ classes but did well in some ‘harder’ classes. Any suggestion?
There is not much you can do about that. I would not suggest that you try making excuses for your less than outstanding academics in those semesters. You can, however, ask your academic advisor (if it is a faculty member) to write a letter. The Advisor can assess your entire academic record and comment.