Graduate School For Spanish & GPA

Graduate School
1

<p>Hello</p>

<p>I am currently a junior double majoring in Spanish & Latin American Studies and minoring in General Business.</p>

<p>I started college as a business major/Spanish minor, but after 2 years of struggling in business courses, I decided to major in Spanish and minor in business, with the intention to go on to graduate school to teach at a university.</p>

<p>In terms of Spanish work, I have an excellent record. I currently have a 3.6 GPA in Spanish, I studied abroad for 3 weeks in Honduras last summer and next summer, I will be studying in Mexico for 2 months. In addition, my grandmother is Mexican and she taught me Spanish at a very young age, so I know that I can speak it fluently.</p>

<p>Solely looking at those things, it looks great, but my problem is that I struggled mightily in my business courses and I doubt I will be able to get up to a 3.0 by the time I graduate; I will probably get up to a 2.7/2.8 but my overall GPA will still be pretty bad. I know that I will be able to hold my strong Spanish GPA but I am worried about even having a chance to get into a graduate program just because of my overall GPA.</p>

<p>I know that my written work and Spanish speaking skills would be highly ranked, (I'm not trying to brag or anything, but I'm just saying having Hispanic family members and learning the language so young gives me an edge, in terms of fluency). Most Spanish programs require an interview and/or a written sample, so I am hoping that upon seeing those, they would forget about my old business courses, but my concern is that a graduate committee would see my overall GPA and automatically discount me even though my Spanish coursework is great and the bad grades were in an old major.</p>

<p>So do I have a chance to get into a graduate school or will they automatically discount me because of my low overall GPA?</p>

2

<p>Do really well on your GREs. High GRE scores can offset low GPAs. If the admissions counselors look at your transcripts they will see that the low grades were in irrelevant courses and will look at your GREs to see if they are better predictors. But GPA and GRE scores aren’t everything. If your essays are strong and you seem to have other good things going for you, you can still stand a chance.</p>

3

<p>One correction - there usually aren’t any “admissions counselors” for graduate school programs. Applications are reviewed directly by a committee of professors from the department or school you’re applying to. That’s one major reason why applying is totally different - your SOP needs to be written with an eye for what an academic wants to read.</p>