<p>Hello all,</p>
<p>My undergrad GPA is low, like 2.9 although I went to a top school.
Should I apply to grad school with this GPA? My major was foreign language although I did premed which is what messed up my gpa my major gpa is above 3.5</p>
<p>any advice?
I want to apply to grad school in that foreign language....</p>
<p>thanks!!!</p>
<p>Can you apply and earn a masters and prove you have learned from your UG mistakes. If you can get in and earn a masters with high grades and research/conference experiences you can show a PhD programme that you are well prepared and ready to work</p>
<p>Do you think that grad schools though, will let me in? I can show them that I am very well qualified in my field…but my gpa is my gpa
I’ve heard that grad schools are money making machines and that it’s not difficult to get in, but I don’t know
I’m worried about applying
Thanks for your reply!!</p>
<p>Graduate programs will look at your transcript and see which classes you did well/poorly in. Your major GPA is good, so you should be able to get in somewhere.</p>
<p>can you define ‘top school’? it really relates to specific field</p>
<p>georgetown…</p>
<p>it’s the #2 program in the country for my major</p>
<p>You probably won’t get into a top 15 program…</p>
<p>First, graduate schools, particularly in the humanities, are most definitely not “money machines”. Except for a handful of wealthy universities, humanities grad students tend to depend on teaching assistant-ships and the like for funding. Competition for admission is intense and in many fields it is nearly impossible to go directly from undergrad to a PhD program. Grad schools are looking for every opportunity to cut the applicant pool down and with a 2.9 GPA, the sad fact is that the rest of your application may not even be read. </p>
<p>As somemom indicated, your best bet is probably going to be a masters program (which may well be unfunded) to prove you can handle graduate level work. You’re going to want to sit down with your academic and/or departmental advisor and LOR writers to find out what the norm is in your field and to discuss your options. </p>
<p>The good news is that “feeder MA” programs (along with “past-bac” years in fields like Classics) are becoming the norm for many humanities PhD programs. Your LOR writers and other advisors will be able to point you in the right direction.</p>
<p>Have you taken the GRE yet?</p>
<p>Good Luck!</p>
<p>I’m afraid the Georgetown brand name wont make up the low GPA</p>
<p>Georgetown may rank high on particular field but still it’s not H/Y/S, so it doesn’t have that special magical aura over it. Unfortunately for grad school they look at GPA very heavily, if you do plan to apply, make sure to not limit yourself to top 15 programs. Really rank 15 is not much different to rank 30.</p>
<p>Best of luck.</p>
<p>what is H/Y/S?
and what is a good website to find the ranking of programs?
I have not yet taken the GRE…</p>
<p>oh harvard yale stanford? got it</p>
<p>Although US News does rank some programs, the usefulness of that ranking lies more in publicity for the university than as a way of choosing a program to attend. That said, in any given field there are typically 3 or 4 programs that “everyone” acknowledges as “best” which is often defined as highly productive faculty (a relatively large number of publications per professor) and the ability to find jobs for their newly minted PhDs. Your advisors and LOR writers will be able to list them for you instantly.</p>
<p>You can get an idea of productivity here:
[The</a> Chronicle: Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index](<a href=“http://chronicle.com/stats/productivity/page.php?year=2007&institution=26&byinst=Go]The”>http://chronicle.com/stats/productivity/page.php?year=2007&institution=26&byinst=Go)</p>
<p>What will really matter <em>to you</em> is finding programs and professsors within programs who are interested in the same area(s) as you are. You can learn that by, again, asking your advisors and also by looking over the authors of papers and books you’ve found particularly interesting or relevant to your interests. Then go to their programs’ websites and try to determine which ones fit your interests. You’ll also want to look into the size of the program, time to PhD, graduation rates (some programs are notorious for admitting a large number of students in order to fill TA spots and then using ridiculously difficult quals to flunk out most of them before they advance to the PhD level), and of course job placement rates.</p>
<p>Schedule the GRE ASAP - you want to have time for a do-over in case ETS screws up or you choke or some other disaster intervenes.</p>
<p>Good Luck!</p>
<p>You can find some of the info that WilliamC described on the website [PhDs.org:</a> Jobs for PhDs, graduate school rankings, and career resources for scientists and engineers](<a href=“http://www.phds.org/]PhDs.org:”>http://www.phds.org/).</p>
<p>IF you have a poor UG GPA and you want to get into a masters situation, you will probably not be funded and will probably be admitted on probation, but the way to actually get in is to show a prof at a school you choose is to prove yourself.</p>
<p>If you are in science you would do volunteer research with a prof at the school in your specialty field, proving you have grown up and proving you can do the work and then that prof would support your app.</p>
<p>This is a commitment of your time & energy for a school year and it has you not in school at that time, so you have to work and support yourself.</p>
<p>The person I am thinking of found a prof in their area of special interest at a uni close enough to the home of a family member, worked as a volunteer in the research lab and was supported on the masters applicaiton.</p>
<p>I don’t know what the profs do in a foreign language situation, but that is what you need to pursue to prove to them that you are ready to work and are a good risk</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice everyone.
Ok, I will register for the GRE.
What about graduate level certificate programs? What about study abroad for a year? What about continuing education classes? Would those be helpful in anyway? Any advice on any of those options?
I will search for professors that might want to hire me as an unpaid research assistant…Maybe something positive will come out of that.</p>
<p>Just a question: everyone takes the computer based GRE these days right?</p>
<p>Unless you’re in Zambia.</p>
<p>hamisa, your posts show that you really did not do enough research about graduate school, which leads to a very important question: is grad school really for you?</p>
<p>You are asking massive questions on basic/fundamental issues such as the form of GRE test, which a student should have known long before graduation (esp. for someone interested in grad school). If you do not even know grad school well–how do you know you will like it? Just because you want a higher degree or to be a “doctor”?</p>
<p>I highly recommend you start talking to your friends/classmates who have prepared for grad school. Or just talk to any grad student even professors about it, you will get much better idea about this route, doing master+PhD is a LOT of time investment, be sure it is what you want.</p>
<p>To tell the truth I didn’t think I was going to graduate school until very recently. Since I was very advanced in my field though, I had the opportunity to take a lot of graduate level classes in my major. So I interacted with many graduate students because in my senior year, many of my classes were with them. In retrospect, I should have tried to do a 5 year thing so I wouldn’t have to worry about the GRE. But I didn’t have enough courses and I needed a break from academia.Before I graduated, I was applying to programs that didn’t require a GRE. So I do know about grad school, but I know next to nothing about the GRE. I have asked my classmates questions about the GRE and studying for it and they gave me helpful answers.
I’m sure I want a Phd. I know what field I want it in and I know all of the requirements it has as well as all the schools I would like to go to for it. I’ve been blessed with having great advisors in this regard, both professors and friends that are taking a similar path.</p>
<p>But I know I have to get a masters, get research experience/get published before I can even think about a Phd. But I’m sure I want to to do it. I’m passionate about my field.
I’m sorry if I seem really clueless, but I’m really not that clueless. lol
Thanks for all your advice.</p>
<p>“I had the opportunity to take a lot of graduate level classes in my major.”</p>
<p>Do these show as grad level on your transcript and what kind of grades did you earn in them? Are those professors the ones advising you in your college search and writing your LORs?</p>
<p>“In retrospect, I should have tried to do a 5 year thing so I wouldn’t have to worry about the GRE. But I didn’t have enough courses and I needed a break from academia.”</p>
<p>How difficult would it be for you to return to that university and finish your M.A. there given your track record in the grad courses that you took already? If I were you, I’d email the department on Monday.</p>
<p>Wishing you all the best.</p>