I am currently planning to apply to grad school but is currently having some doubts about my qualifications. I have a around a 2.7 for my undergraduate GPA (Wildlife Science) and most grad programs seems to require 3.0 or higher. I was not all that interested in my undergrad major but finished my bachelors nonetheless. This was partly due to financial and time restraints but I have to admit in retrospect is was primarily due to my lack of maturity and ability to the incentive to change colleges at the time (went to a specialized environment school).
Having worked in the field for around a year, I realize the environmental field is just not for me. I decided to change fields apply for a master program in Microbiology/biophysics/physics (I scored A/A- on all course related to cell bio in undergrad).I taken my GRE already and scored a 321 (162 verbal, 159 quant, 3.5 AWA) and have one good letter of reccomendation from a previous supervisor.
What are my chances of being accepted to a master program with my current credentials? I want to apply for the coming fall semester (earliest deadline is Jan 15) but should I seek to take some additional courses at a graduate school before I want to purse a master degree in a field that differs from my bachelors?
Not very good, to be honest. Your GPA will be a nonstarter for most programs, and you have not been out of school long enough to have anything that will convince them you are now more prepared. It’s great that you had good grades in this other area, but you need more, especially to be competitive.
Yes, absolutely. Take some grad level classes, get A’s, and get a few years working to give them reason to believe that the person applying is more advanced and mature than the person whose undergrad transcript they will see.
Thanks for the reply. I am still going to apply for this fall even if my chances are low. But I will take your advice on also applying to grad courses in the meantime if my appilication gets rejected
Why graduate school? It doesn’t seem to me like you are ready for that kind of commitment or level of coursework, plus it is not very relevant to your undergraduate major. With your low GPA and short employment history, you may end up having to go back as an undergrad in your new field of interest.
So microbiology, biophysics, and physics are three distinct fields. I would imagine that there is some overlap between wildlife science and microbiology - not a lot, but enough to form a foundation that you could build upon. You could conceivably take some extra biology classes as a non-degree student and do well in them to demonstrate that you can achieve in this area.
But physics and even biophysics? Those are different areas altogether. You likely do not have the prerequisite classes to gain admission to either one of those programs. You’d have to undertake significant coursework to make yourself competitive just from a core foundational level. And even in microbiology, I’m assuming that you don’t have all the prerequisites.
It seems like applying for Fall 2018 wouldn’t be a good use of your time. Have you checked out the prerequisites for MS programs in these three fields on the programs’ websites? If not, do that first.
Also, most programs require three letters of recommendation, so if you only have one that’s not enough. And generally, your letters should come from professors, so if this is a work supervisor who never taught you and didn’t supervise you in a pure research job, that’s not a good supporting letter.