<p>I am a third year bio-engineering major at a University of California school.
I have a 2.6 cumulative GPA.
I was wondering what my chances of getting into a graduate program are???</p>
<p>Thank You.</p>
<p>You need to show substantial improvement in your GPA over this year and next. Getting a professional masters may also help. Most graduate programs want a 3.0/4.0 GPA for admission. This can be offset in some cases by very strong test scores on your GRE. However, the most selective schools are getting applicants with very high, GRE scores, perfect GPA’s and a lot of research experience.</p>
<p>Most of the elite programs have cutoffs at 3.0, but from what I gather research experience is the most important factor.</p>
<p>I am a freshman, though, and have never been through the process.</p>
<p>It depends on the school and the program. I went through the application process a few years ago and I think all of the UCs advertised a minimum of either 3.0 or 3.5 for my program, and the reported average GPAs of the previous year’s admitted grad students were above of 3.5 for all of the UC schools I applied to. You still have time to raise your GPA, so I think you should try your best to do well in the time you have remaining there. </p>
<p>If grad school is very important to you, I recommend taking additional quarters (or semesters). You don’t necessarily need to artificially inflate your GPA with trivial courses, but it may be a good idea to start taking fewer courses per quarter/semester to give yourself more time to focus on each course.</p>
<p>Additional thought: I think some grad schools calculate your GPA only on your junior and senior years. I recall Berkeley does that.</p>