Before I ask my question, I need to provide some context.
I’m a senior undergraduate in psychology and my GPA is 2.89. It would be higher if I hadn’t screwed myself over during the first two years of college out of pure laziness and arrogance. Before I transferred to psychology, I had a 1.8 ish GPA, but I performed pretty well in psych and pulled my GPA up, but I’m still not above a 3.0. My psychology GPA is actually decent (above a 3.6 as of the end of the summer 2015 term). I have this semester and the Spring 2016 semester (and if I can find work and take classes part-time, until December 2016) to pull my GPA up before graduating. I believe I can do it.
However, I’m worried, my parents are worried, I can tell my friends and family are getting disappointed in me and my lifestyle (and so am I), and I’m developing a lot of anxiety. I don’t want to be stuck doing some dead-end job unrelated to PSYC when I know I have potential to do some good work in PSYC if I try harder.
I didn’t apply to grad schools because right now my GPA is too low, and I’m wondering what to do afterwards. I’m searching for jobs in Chicago and the Champaign-Urbana area and I want to support myself for a year before applying to grad schools. Right now, I’m interning at a boys’ group home as part of the PSYC 340/341 program, so I’m going to apply for a job there. I know I need job experience related to PSYC before applying to graduate programs in that field, so that’s what I’m focused on trying to obtain after I graduate.
Are there other people in my position? I know this is an uphill battle and that the good PSYC graduate schools are actually really competitive, and I’ve read a lot of other people’s posts on this website that are similar to mine. Does anyone have any advice? I took the GRE but got a 4/6 on the essay, and mid- to high 150’s on the other tests. I have a lot of work ahead of me, and I’m writing this because I don’t know enough about the world to trust only the knowledge that I have. I need someone else to give me some insight.
What should I do to increase my chances for grad school?