<p>I got a friend from UCI thinking about grad school. However, he was pretty demoralized when I told him his GPA is too low for grad school. But I still keep on telling him to apply. What schools do you think he should apply and what is his realistic chance? I know it doesn't look good at all. I think he prefer to stay in west-coast</p>
<p>Here is his background:
UCI internatinal student from Taiwan
Chemical Engineering major
Willing pay full-tuition for grad school
UCI GPA 2.6-2.7
One year research on nanocrystal</p>
<p>His GPA is quite low. Even with stellar research/GREs, that single indicator will get his application denied upon entry.. There are many other candidates with great research/GPA/GRE. It’s sad, but true.</p>
<p>What I recommend is pursue a job (which has potential to fund a M.S.) and then maybe lead to a PhD.</p>
<p>Is there a language barrier that may be keeping his gpa low? It’s lower than what schools like to see but it’s not tragic.
It still can’t hurt to apply to grad school since he does have some research experience.</p>
<p>Could you give us more information? Graduate schools calculate GPA funny ways–some only look at UPPER Division courses, some look at only major related while others look at holistic.</p>
<p>Thanks a lot for your help nshah9617 and eveyone</p>
<p>He was a transfer from community college. All his classes in UCI are his major classess. 2.6-2.7 is his major GPA at UCI. </p>
<p>I think he is really screwed and I don’t think too highly of his chances on finding jobs. I don’t think he has language barrier since he has been in the US since 11th grade. Now I think he probably not hard-working enough or not very bright.</p>
<p>More than just not being able to get in, I’d be pretty concerned about your buddy hacking it in grad school. If he’s not pulling okay grades with his intro level courses and early advanced courses, he’s gonna get slaughtered with the continued onslaught of grad-level courses that he’s not doing so well in at the moment. Typically, if your GPA falls beneath a 3.0 in grad school, you’re bumped to academic probation. Two semesters below a 3.0 and no diploma.</p>
<p>There’s a reason they have those GPA requirements… Your friend might want to reevaluate his career goals, or pull his grades up as much as he can and then work for a few years to get some experience and soften that low GPA.</p>
<p>^ “Slaughtered” haha… I guess that’s what graduate school is about, working with the best of the best.</p>
<p>Imagine the smartest 3 guys/girls in your class of 60-90. That is basically the quality of your grad school competition. (For the first year of coursework at least).</p>