<p>Given my situation, if i transfer out of my college to a university, how would it affect the GPA competitive standard. That’ll mean i spent 2 years in a college and the last 2 years in a university. How will that balance out? Will they look at trends? Does it affect the overall GPA?</p>
<p>Eh. In my experience, GPA differences aren’t based on college v. university, but more on the quality and reputation of the school. A 3.5 coming from a school that has a good reputation with the particular program in which you are interested may look better than a 3.6 or 3.7 coming from an unknown school, all other things being equal. But when I say “unknown”, I’m not talking about U.S. News rankings. Graduate committees don’t care about that. What they care about is their experiences with students from a particular department/school and the reputation within their field and the greater world of academia of a particular institution. In my experience, professors don’t rank-order institutions the way magazines do. They just have vague categories of “excellent,” “great,” “good,” “fair.” And these categories are going to vary from program to program.</p>
<p>Basically, just try to get as high a GPA as you can.</p>
<p>how can i get first hand experience on author publication or conference. How can i be iapart of a project and have it successfully published?</p>
<p>Quite frankly, it’s very unlikely that an undergrad will be “first author in a top ranked journal.” It’s unusual for undergrads to have publications in general, much less be first author, MUCH less be first author in a top journal. Your goal should be to get research experience and to present at a conference. Any publications are icing on the cake.</p>
<p>The best way to do this is to look up what professors are doing as far as research, and approach one and ask if they need a research assistant. If they don’t, ask them if they know a professor that does. Don’t limit yourself to your own college; you can also explore the nearby universities where people might be doing more interesting or extensive research. As you progress along in research, the opportunity may come along for you to do an independent project, and that’s when you would get the opportunity to present at a conference. Since most undergrads are only on projects for at most 3 years, and usually they only spend 1-2 years on one, it’s difficult to get an authorship. You have to contribute significantly to the writing of a scholarly paper, and honestly, most undergrads just aren’t there yet. Heck, a lot of first and second year graduate students aren’t there yet. I know a lot of people who don’t publish until their 3rd or 4th or 5th year of grad school. I’m going into my 4th and I’m hoping this first-authored revise and resubmit I have going now will be published in the next academic year.</p>
<p>The most important thing is just the experience. Connect with a professor.</p>
<p>I also don’t think it’s good advice to go to EVERY office hour and ask good question the WHOLE office hour. That’s kind of ridiculous, IMO. It is a good idea to <em>occasionally</em> go to office hours - when you actually have a question. I am a TA, and I would’ve been THRILLED if a student had come to my office hours just to chat about the psychology they learned in the class. (Most of the students who came just wanted to fill in the notes they were missing, word for word.) But you don’t want to hang around too much (the entire office hour every week) because then you become annoying. You don’t go to office hours to show that you “deserve a good grade.” Your grades are about the work you do. I had a student who came to office hours quite often and she still failed the final. I felt bad failing her, but she earned the F.</p>
<p>Before you volunteer to be a research assistant anywhere, you need to figure out what you’re interested in. Honestly, you can’t even plan to go to graduate school if you don’t even know what you want to major in yet - focus on that first. It is a good idea to get involved in research early, but what if you start in a biology lab and then realize you want to do English literature in grad school? Take some classes and explore your interests first. Settle on at least a range of majors. If you volunteer in a biology lab, even if you decide to go to graduate school for chemistry that experience will still be useful. Same if you do sociology research and go to school for econ or poli sci instead, or if you do English-type research and go for history or religion. But a biology lab research position won’t impress an English adcom, and vice versa.</p>