Grad school with low GPA

Graduate School
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<p>I’m curious why you want to go to grad school if you did not enjoy college. Grad school is designed for students who love academics and who are willing to forego a “normal” life for the academic rigor and, often, loneliness of focusing on a single subject. The coursework can be grueling and all-consuming. Your social life gets tucked between studying and writing, not the other way around. I’m not sensing any love for a specific field in your post, which suggests that graduate school may be even less enjoyable for you. Or did I misread?</p>

<p>Universities have two sets of criteria, as many have noted. The graduate school itself has its minimum requirements, generally a minimum of 3.0 in your major field and some base score for the GRE. If your application meets these standards, it then gets passed to the department for a decision. So, a 3.0 might be a minimum for the graduate school, but the individual department may have higher standards.</p>

<p>Since the department, and not a general admission office, makes the final selections, recommendations and grades/coursework are everything. This is also where the “peer evaluations” that USNWR cites as being important to ranking come in. Stanford is <em>highly</em> regarded, so that will help. I suggest working closely with some Stanford professors who will later be able to not only write recommendations but also to suggest places for you to apply. For instance, Professor X may have a former student who is now the chair of a department at University Y. Or he may have written several papers with a senior faculty member at University Y. Or both. This professor may suggest that you apply to University Y without telling you why because he knows that his recommendation will probably carry extra weight. Likewise, the more well-known a professor is in his field (you can gauge it by referenced papers), the more weight his recommendation will have – provided that he writes good ones, something you won’t be able to tell unfortunately. Listen to where he suggests you apply because he will have a better gauge at where you have a chance than you will. You should apply to programs that interest you, naturally, but make sure you include some of his suggestions.</p>

<p>If he hedges at all, then you may safely assume that you may not be ready for graduate school. Or that he’s not likely to write you a good recommendation.</p>

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<p>You may be able to get into some MS programs in your field, but I wouldn’t count on any funding – even MS programs often have 3.0 GPA minimums.</p>

<p>Since you plan on working first, though, you have a chance. Try to get a job relevant to what you want to do in graduate school, and take some graduate courses as a non-degree student to prove that you can do some graduate work. Bulking up your research profile helps, too. An excellent record of research accompanied by excellent letters of recommendation can offset a low undergrad GPA, especially if you take some graduate classes and do well in it.</p>

<p>It also totally won’t take you 5-10 years to get past any low undergrad GPA. 2-3 years of outside work experience, even unrelated to your job, will be enough.</p>

<p>Also, calculate your major GPA and your last-60-credits GPA to see if they are any higher.</p>