<p>So here is my question. I graduated last year with a B.A. in psychology and a International Affairs minor, honors society because my psych GPA was high enough and good research experience (2 years in a neuroscience lab). I want to go into clinical psychology and follow up with a masters in international relations and hopefully work in developing countries as a clinical psychologist or in some mental field OR do research of some sort that involves international focus with clinical.</p>
<p>but I digress.</p>
<p>My GPA overall at my 4 year isn't very high, a 3.25. BUT my psych GPA is a 3.7 and about 44 credits of psychology classes. I took about 1/4 of them at a community college and the rest at my 4 year. They are all on my transcript but my 4 year doesn't calculate CC classes into the GPA, we only get credit for them.</p>
<p>My 3 questions are:</p>
<p>1) Will graduate schools recalculate my GPA including CC classes or will they only care about the GPA i had when i graduated from my 4 year?
2) I see on some applications is says to mention your 'major' GPA. Will my major GPA in that section still make me competitive?
3) Will grad schools simply 'write me off' because of the 3.25 or will they take note of the trend. Basically I'm simply curious how having classes in my major from a community college and a 4 year will be handled</p>
<p>If it matters also my recommendations are from my neuroscience lab mentor who teaches at the local medical school, one of my psych professors and then I'm not sure if it'll be one of my IA professors, or one of my 2 IA internship supervisors.</p>
<p>I have 2 internships through IA under my belt; 1 was a part time internship I’ve done for 2 years as a researcher for Asylum and Torture Victims and another was through Physicians for Human Rights for 8 weeks as a research intern.
My IA minor GPA is a 3.7 if that matters.</p>
Some will, some won’t. There is no one way that grad admissions committees do things. Some will recalculate your GPA, some will ignore the CC time… since you have no control over it, try not to worry about it.</p>
<p>
Yes, for those that consider it early. Bear in mind that most committees address grades in two rounds. In the first round, someone (usually an admin or junior prof) sorts the applications by “easy” criteria like GPA and GRE to get the top X applications worth in-depth review. In the second round, individual professors pick through and select “their” students to admit. </p>
<p>Some departments will use major GPA in that first round, and in those departments you stand a better chance, but they do not advertise their methods so again this is beyond your control. In the second round you are in a strong position regardless.</p>
<p>
Again, it varies, but an upward trend and strong major GPA are always good things. It really depends on how competitive the schools are - if you are applying to top-5 programs you are probably out of luck regardless, but you might have a shot at top-10 and definitely at top-25.</p>