Want to go to grad school, could use some good advice. Thanks in advance.

Graduate School
1

<p>Due to personal problems, I haven’t performed up to my abilities academically and find myself soon about to graduate with a 2.5 GPA. The graduate schools I want to attend require, at a bare minimum, a 2.5 GPA and the better schools require at least a 3.0 GPA. This is the minimum just to qualify to have my application considered, so I think it will really be a steep uphill climb to get accepted.</p>

<p>My situation is that I’m going to school out-of-state and ultimately intend to go back to my home state to set roots closer to family. Due to my GPA, however, I have not attended my school’s job fair thinking I just would not be competitive or given a chance based on my GPA. It seems a 3.0 is pretty standard, so I would have to hope a recruiter just doesn’t ask me about GPA at one of those job fairs. I also have not yet applied to grad school for next year because I need to complete this summer quarter before I will be able to meet this bare minimum GPA to have my application considered. This means I have no job lined up and no further schooling lined up for the 2007-2008 academic year. Deadlines for applications for 2008-2009 at the grad schools to which I wish to apply are anywhere from this October-February. </p>

<p>So, with the above in mind, I’ve been weighing the pros and cons of the following 2 options:</p>

<li><p>Get my 2.5 GPA bachelor’s degree, go back to my home state, hope to find a job with good pay (or as a last resort go through a temp agency to find some work to keep me afloat), work for about a year to support myself and to make what student loan payments will start to become due, take 2-3 classes during the evening or on weekends at my local state university or community college to slightly bump up my GPA (don’t know how wider doors would be open to me going from a 2.5 to a 2.6x GPA) and to show a quarter or semester of solid performance, and start submitting applications to grad schools around January once grades for those classes I take in hopes of helping my cause. Hope and pray I get into one of the schools that requires
a 2.5 minimum GPA to apply and also offers the program I want, which in my home-state’s city and its neighboring cities will probably be 2 or 3 if, I’m lucky.</p></li>
<li><p>Rather than graduate at the end of summer, stay at my current school through fall quarter to take 3 more courses that can fulfill the requirements needed to complete a minor in econ while also giving my GPA a little bump to a similar degree as option 1 above. As a psych major, my degree won’t be very marketable, and I’m hoping having an econ minor might open a few more doors for me and give me more job options. Hang around shortly after fall quarter ends to attend our school’s job fair and hope for the best with at least a GPA that’s better than it was before the last job fair. Most jobs will probably be in this state, which isn’t where I want to be. I guess if a good opportunity comes to build a resume, it would be worth it to stay in this state for a year or two while looking for job opportunities in my home state with more work experience to show on my resume.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>My preference is to graduate as planned at the end of summer and go back to my home state and hope for some fortunate breaks (get accepted into grad school or find a good job that has potential both for advancement and marketability). But taking another term to complete a minor appeals to me as well, since I’d be able to stick around for the next job fair and it’d give me more time to look for a job. I had a lot of personal things to deal with during a period when I should have started looking for a job, so I just didn’t find myself well-positioned to start my job search. Staying for another term would mean I could avoid having to start paying back student loans (aside from a university loan I took out that’d have to be paid back once I leave the school) and can have a little extra time to look for jobs and interview from a position that’s a little better than it was before, though still not a great position.</p>

<p>On the other hand, I can make a point of taking the aforementioned few extra courses at a bigger school in my home state that has job fairs and get similar opportunities as I’d have at my current school’s job fairs, only the jobs would then most likely be in my home state.</p>

<p>I guess my worries about not landing a good enough job or not getting accepted into grad school makes me feel like staying to get that econ minor would somehow boost my chances and open more doors. I really don’t know if a minor in econ will make any significant difference and if it’s worth staying around for another quarter. I guess this is the main question in my mind.</p>

<p>My other question is whether there might be something I haven’t considered that would make one option clearly the best decision overall.</p>

<p>I’d appreciate it if I could get some input so that I can have other points of views and have more information to make the best decision I can.</p>

<p>Thanks in advance.</p>

2

<p>First - why do you want to go to grad school? (Lack of job opportunities is NOT a reason.) Also, "hope and pray" is not a plan. What field are you interested in? How does your undergraduate major relate to that field? Now...</p>

<p>1) Call those schools that have a 2.5 GPA threshold and find out if anyone at that level has ever actually been admitted. Your situation may be better (or worse) than you think.</p>

<p>2) Most graduate applications will require (in addition to a transcript) LORs, a GRE or other test score, and a statement of purpose. Have you lined those up?</p>

<p>To be honest, your uphill climb is actually more of a vertical wall at this point so plan #2 makes a lot of sense. If you're intent on trying grad school (i.e. you have a passion for the subject and can't imagine doing anything else) you'll want to take the extra year you've given yourself and take classes that will prepare you for advanced study in your field. (NOT to improve your job chances.) You also want to get a 4.0 both semesters. </p>

<p>So your schedule will looks something like:</p>

<p>Fall 2007 - take extra courses that will prepare you for grad school, get 4.0</p>

<p>Spring 2008 - take extra courses that will prepare you for grad school, get 4.0, work every job fair you can find, get LORs from profs in your field.</p>

<p>If you go full time those 2 semesters, and get a 4.0, that will bring your GPA up to about 2.8 which will give you a shot at those 2.5 minimum schools. It will also show you're a serious person who has corrected his old bad habits. </p>

<p>Rest of 2008 - go home (if there's an economic advantage), work, pay off as much of your loans as you can, and in the fall of 2008 prepare applications. Get them all in WELL before the deadlines. Then you can "hope and pray".</p>

3

<p>I feel for you. I am in the same position with around a 2.5 GPA and no real prospects for the future as far as my specific field is considered. Thus, I feel compelled to help someone avoid some of the mistakes I made why he/she still has a chance.</p>

<p>The biggest mistake you can make at this point is to "hope and pray" without making significant efforts. I am not saying that you aren't. You probably are but this mentality is very destructive towards success. You are now beginning to realize how the "The Real World" works now, aren't you? ;)</p>

<p>The best thing you can do however is to gather as much information as you can to make the best decision for yourself considering your circumstances.</p>

<p>I am in Canada and here, once you get your undergraduate degree, you can't go back to school and retake courses you did bad on. You can, but they don't replace your old marks and you can only do it as a non-degree student. Good marks are ESSENTIAL for admission to Grad school and most employers DO ask your GPA and WILL make decisions based on it alone if you don't stand out from the crowd. This is the cold reality and nothing will change that.</p>

<p>The best option, in my opinion, you have is to repeat a year. I know, it isn't a very exciting prospect but to improve your marks significantly, this is the only possible way for someone at your stage. I don't know exactly how doing a minor would contribute towards improving your GPA but I don't think it would make much difference.</p>

<p>I will even venture out and say that your worst years of undergrad were probably 3rd and 4th, academically. Your best bet would be to repeat an entire year and re-take courses you did bad on and try to get the best possible marks you can in these courses. Yes, that means staying back a year while your friends move on and while it will be somewhat damaging to your self-esteem but in the long run, you will thank yourself for it. Also, when and if you do graduate next year with these better marks, you will have a much better GPA and employers rarely ask things like why you stayed a year longer, your GPA will speak for itself. For someone with this low of a GPA, a LOT of courses need to be retaken to have a significant improvement in the GPA. A few courses here and there would NOT be enough.</p>

<p>I say this because I have been looking at graduate schools for about 4 months now and from what I have found out through my correspondence with these schools is that the actual GPA of students admitted is usually FAR higher than the minimum requirements. It's usually around 3.5 when the minimum is 3.0. Seriously, do you think you stand a chance? It would be foolish to deny the importance of a good GPA but there are other factors as well. </p>

<p>Repeating a year would help you for graduate school whenever you decide to go for it in the future. You will then be able to point it out to them how you took steps to rectify some of the mistakes you made in undergrad and showed a renewed and deep commitment towards academics which is what graduate school really requires of students.</p>

<p>As far as employment is concerned, I really can't say that it depends completely on your credentials. Being successful in an interview is essential for landing a job. But getting that interview is the hard part. For THAT, you need good credentials on your resume (GPA or experience) to even get the interview in the first place. It also depends on the kind of job it is but if it's something that's very relevant to your degree and something that consists of research/design, you can count on the GPA issue rearing its ugly head. I don't know your work history, but if you don't think you have relevant internship/co-op experience, then the GPA thing always comes up. Ultimately, there's a lot of luck involved in landing a job but you can't count on luck alone! </p>

<p>As WilliamC pointed out, the GRE is a MUST for many graduate schools. Look into it and start preparing for it. There's not a lot of preparation you can do really as it's pretty random but you can give it once every month for a total of 5 times in a year and again for someone with a low GPA, you need to do BETTER than most others to stand out.</p>

<p>Staying another year does mean more expenses but one extra year early in your life might go a long way towards a good career. I don't know your economic situation but if you can afford to do it, I would highly, highly recommend it. Again, no one asks or cares why it took you an extra year to graduate. There are a plethora of reasons, just ask any international student and he/she will give you a good excuse. But the end result, i.e. a much improved GPA is a great reward in return.</p>

<p>Whatever you do, be realistic and make preparations. Do the BEST you can to improve your situation and THEN you can hope and pray. The last thing you need now is people who will give you a false sense of hope with generic remarks like "don't worry about it", "you'll make it" ... blah blah blah. They either don't know your situation well enough or are just trying to be nice. Well, life's tough and you would be better off knowing this early in your life!</p>

<p>I don't mean to offend or depress but this is the BEST I can tell you from my findings ever since I graduated last year. I hope this helps.</p>

4

<p>I think you should definitely stay a year and try to improve your GPA. </p>

<p>Having that said, I also am not sure if grad school is actually a viable option for you. I'm not a psych major, but I've heard that psych graduate programs are some of the most competitive programs around. I got the feeling that they're very competitive even in lower ranked school (someone correct me if I'm wrong). We know you have a low GPA. But do you have research experience? Good LORs? If you don't have either of those and have a bad GPA, I doubt you're going to get accepted into any grad school, especially given the very competitive nature of your field.</p>