<p>(1) How can you tell how competitive a Graduate School is? For instance, I'm looking into Columbia's Financial Engineering M.S. program and it gives me no information how competitive it is. Am I just suppose to assume that since it's Columbia, it's competitive? lol</p>
<p>(2) How important are freshman year grades? I mean what if one was to have a rocky freshman year but have an amazing sophomore, junior, and senior year? Do you think graduate schools look at upward trends or do you think that's more of a undergraduate admissions process? For grad schools like Columbia, would you say there is a cut off GPA? </p>
<p>(3) How common is it for people to be accepted to graduate school straight after college? </p>
<p>Thanks in advance for these questions if anyone could answer them.</p>
<p>(1) It’s hard to quantify the selectivity of a graduate program. GPAs depend on the undergraduate institution (3.5 from MIT =!= 3.5 from crappy state U), GRE scores don’t mean a thing and admission rates only tell you so much. The single most important factor might be your work experience or the quality of your letters of recommendation, which cannot be quantified at all. </p>
<p>That being said, most programs are happy to tell you what they consider important (e.g. a strong math background or work experience) and about the background of their students. You can also google the names of current students in the program and see what you come up with. </p>
<p>If you are not restricted by location, it’s usually a good idea to apply to a wide range of schools that meet your academic and professional needs. </p>
<p>(3) It depends on the discipline. In some disciplines it’s encouraged to go straight to graduate school, in others it’s discouraged. I don’t know enough about financial engineering to answer your question.</p>
<p>2) Graduate schools definitely favor strong upward trends in GPA towards the end of your college career. Don’t worry too much about your freshman year GPA, its understandable that you were in a transitional period. </p>
<p>Also make sure you have some kind of research exp or connections with professors to get good letters of rec =]</p>
<p>Oh okay, that’s great to know. My freshman GPA isn’t even that bad (currently a 2.9 but I am possibly failing a class (but I think if I murder the final I can pass–>taking class Pass/Fail). I honestly lacked motivation and drive this whole year but now that I have dreams and goals, I’m definitely motivated and driven.</p>