This semester I am taking 17 credits with 3 labs and 5 lectures and I don’t think I will likely end up with two C+s in two lectures, both required for my major, and maybe a C in a lab. I have a 3.4 currently and this should bring me down to around a 3.25 but I’m worried these grades will look bad. I have gotten As and Bs my last three semester with the exception of a C+ in a lab. I know I have time to bring my GPA up but I’m worried this is going to hurt me when it comes to grad school and competing for internships especially since I’m in my second year. How much does a bad semester impact the future??
Impossible to say, not knowing what kind of a grad school program or how competitive it is. But generally, one bad semester won’t cause a lot of damage if you rebound grade-wise, have good GRE scores, letters of recommendation, internships, etc. For now, I would focus more on figuring out what went wrong this year, especially in the lab portion, and making sure you’re not in this situation again. Good luck!
I received a really bad grade in one course. Let’s just say it was Disastrous. I’ve had a handful of C’s as well. I still got into a decent grad school. I really had my heart set on this grad school because it received quite a bit of praise from one of my favorite professors at USC. My interest was in computational linguistics and even she admitted that UW was stronger in this field (at least at the moment) than USC. One bad grade/semester shouldn’t ruin you. Life happens. Of course, it does depend on the program (as mentioned above), but there are so many other aspects to an application besides your GPA.
Cs get degrees. If you really want grad school or research internships before grad school try to stay above 3.25 which seems to be a cut off for many summer research internship programs.
Thank you all for the advice. I’m a biology major. That’s good to know about grad school cutoffs. I actually have to maintain at least a 3.25 for a scholarship.