<p>Hi! I'm currently a sophomore in college going into my Junior year this fall. I've always thought about going to graduate school in Psychology. However, I got a couple of C's this school year and I was thinking of pre-med so, I screwed up my G.P.A. i stand now with a 2.7 due to the classes i was taking.. I'm working on raising my GPA this school year by making it to the dean's list, without any pre-med courses. Just focusing on my upper divisions. However, I'm worried I might not get into a good graduate school. Is there anyone who can give me some advice? I just want to reassure myself I can still get into a good school.</p>
<p>If you have a reason for the low GPA, like a rough adjustment freshman year, then you show a consistent pattern of improvement, such as high GPA your last two years, thereby exhibiting that you have successfully overcome whatever issue led to the bad early grades, you should be able to go to grad school. You may need to do a master’s first to prove yourself. Your research experience and knowledge of what grad school is all about plus LORs is a critical component of the grad school app. Clinical psych is a competitive field.</p>
<p>If you are thinking med school, then those grades will count in full against you, so it would really depend on the overall picture. Once again, LORs, strong MCAT, strong medically related and other ECs would all add strength to an application.</p>
<p>I had a low GPA and got into the grad program of my choice – but it’s going to be a lot harder to explain a low GPA in an area like medicine than it will be in the humanities.</p>
<p>For humanities fields, I find that having a strong CV/Resume and, if applicable, a portfolio of your publications and works will sometimes supersede a low GPA. How a teacher grades you in a bio GE isn’t going to change the fact you’re a good fiction writer, for example.</p>
<p>Do you have a cumulative GPA of 2.7? Or is that the GPA of your sophomore year?</p>
<p>Med schools and clinical psych PhD programs are going to be tough, if not impossible, with a 2.7 after two years of college, although a lot still depends on what happens the next two years. D.O. programs might be a possibility if you turn around with nearly straight As (especially in science courses) and get a great MCAT score; they are slightly more forgiving than MD programs, although they are still competitive. You’ll probably have to wait until after you graduate to apply, however, since you’ll need the programs to see your full college transcript.</p>
<p>You won’t get into good science graduate programs if your science and math grades are low. It doesn’t matter if you improve your GPA with easier courses; they will see right through that. Medical schools and possibly law schools are about the only programs that care about raw GPA; they also tend to weigh test scores more heavily. The good news is that, if you choose to pursue a science (other than medicine), you can probably get into a decent program with a GPA turnaround and solid research experience. You may have to wait until after you’ve graduated to apply so that they will see your full transcript; it will also give you a year to get more research.</p>
<p>Thank you everyone for the advice. However, I’m not pursuing a medical career; I was just considering it. I’m pursuing a career in cognitive or developmental psychology. I’m still unsure of which one to choose. At the moment, I’m working on raising my G.P.A. by taking summer courses, and only taking 12 units each quarter. And being involved in a research lab. I’m hoping to get into a good graduate program.</p>
<p>If you are planning to pursue a psych PhD, then you can certainly rehabilitate your GPA with a solid research masters and that is if you don’t manage to bring it up your last two years of undergrad…but then you need to show an improving trend in order to get into grad school ;)</p>
<p>You could do an experimental psych masters, get some research under your belt, determine your area of focus, then move on to PhD</p>