<p>I am a geoscience major from India. although my university do not give gpa, my academic scores have been average through 4 years or they seemed to have improved slightly from my first two years in school.
in order to offset i scored 1430 in gre
I have a keen interest in research i did one internship at psu under a us professer from whom i ll be getting one recommendation letter also.
what you think are my chances for admission my gpa would be just below 3.0 or there abouts
I am applying to penn state,jhu,texas at austin,cornell,ohio state,virginia tech,uni of chicago,columbia
please advice me in this regard
help reallly appreciated
thanks</p>
<p>I speak from a biology perspective, so keep that in mind while reading my opinion.</p>
<p>There a variety of factors that go into an admissions decision, but I think a GPA under 3.0 would be a huge hindrance to you, especially at some of the schools you are planning to apply to. Many schools explicitly state that their minimum is 3.0 (for biology) so I doubt JHU, Cornell, UChicago, or Columbia would really even consider you. You need strong GRE (which you have, but so will many at the programs you are aiming for), a decent GPA (you don’t), great research (not sure how important this is for geoscience), and good recommendations (you probably do). Basically, I think you need more safety schools. </p>
<p>Here is a link from UW-Madison: <a href=“http://www.geology.wisc.edu/prospective_stu/howto_apply.html[/url]”>http://www.geology.wisc.edu/prospective_stu/howto_apply.html</a></p>
<p>It includes minimum GPA requirements and average GRE scores.</p>
<p>I think I have good research experience and it does hold some value in my program. Uwm is also a pretty strong school in top 15 in my list and I think it would be tough to get admission there i actually have picked four schools under top 20 and penn state is no 7 but I have done one internship at that university before I dunnu if that will be enough to get admission</p>
<p>I think it does help to apply to schools where you have studied/researched, especially if the professor can vouch for you. Do you think your research is exceptional in any way as compared to your peers? The only reason I am getting interview offers is because of my research, so I think we are in a similar boat. I have 2 safety schools and 8 reach schools, and so far, have gotten interviews for my safety schools. I think you might have a shot at PSU and OSU, but the others are uncertain.</p>
<p>Indian colleges, barring a few, do not use the GPA system, and that is not something you have to worry about too much. The colleges understand the grading system of India, and the fact is that there is no one size fits all type of grading here, as you are aware. Eg. a Mumbai Uni topper gets in the 70’s while an Anna University topper gets in the 90’s. </p>
<p>Telling us your uni and marks would help.</p>
<p>yea I guess so some of the schools i applied only because it matched fully my research interests
i am from delhi university doing ms scored abt 57% thereabouts and yeah the topper gets around 70%+ in my department</p>
<p>Note the UW geology dept gpa requirements are for the last 60 credits of work- figure out your gpa without the first two years, then decide where you fit compared to the average. Also figure out your gpa in courses related to your field of study- a poor grade in humanities will lower your gpa but not matter for a science grad program. The average college grad will not go to grad school, expect the pace and workload to be much harder than the undergrad one.</p>
<p>I suggest you quit worrying about GPA in that case 
</p>
<p>They(the admissions committees) have their own way of calculating GPA for different boards, and 57% when the topper gets 70 is good, as I can attest from my own personal experience.</p>