What Do I Do?

Graduate School
1

<p>Hi, I'm completely new to the CC community and at first I wasn't going to turn to an online board like this for help, but now I'm kinda cornered because I just realized I have no idea what I'm doing.</p>

<p>At the moment I'm a sophomore at NYU and right now I am on the track for a triple major for Psychology, Philosophy, and Sociology. I chose these degrees because I found them fascinating and they complemented each other really well (which they do after taking classes in all three fields). I'm enjoying these classes very much, yet I'm facing bigger dilemmas with my GPA due to a number of factors including carelessness, but the point is not to ruminate about what I had done, rather, try to make the best of what I have with what I can do. Which now brings me to my next point.</p>

<p>Because of a terrible suggestion made by my advisor during my first semester, I took a math class I didn't need and did terribly on it during my freshman year (with a C in that class). I also took some other electives which I did poorly on (B for one and B for another). Now I'm faced with a D in a required language course and I will have to repeat it in order to move on to the next level since the minimum requirement to move up in a language is a C-. Since we need 4 semesters of language; up to the intermediate level for graduation). Although I'm only a sophomore, I realized that the bad grades I have received will have a lasting impact on my choices for graduate school and hamper my ability to get internships and the like since I won't be able to attain the high end GPA's of 3.8 and above due to these bad grades.</p>

<p>Which brings me to my next point. My parents want to see this as a worthwhile investment of their time and work and expect me to get into some excellent programs such as Ivy League Schools or the Big Ten Schools. Looking at these schools and looking at my current situation, it looks like I'm not stacking up to the requirements to those schools, nor do my majors shine out really well in terms of hard work (like the hard sciences) or skill sets (like literature and economics). My parents also strongly disagree with my majors asking me what Grad School would accept me and furthermore, what kind of company would hire me?</p>

<p>My current plan was to keep going with my track and get some computer certifications (since I'm handy with computers and understand how to build computers and networks) in order to have some hard degrees to make money and use that either for my own spending or help pay back my parents for what they did (in the sense I'm showing them gratitude rather than paying off a debt), but now as time passes I've come to realize that I would need a solid plan, then follow through with that plan in order to convince my parents to continue to support my endeavours in my studies.</p>

<p>Its a lot of work I know, but giving free time to myself would only lead to me playing endless amounts of games and lurking the internet wasting time. I'd much rather be working that to wallow in my own failures. Which brings me to my questions.</p>

<p>1.) Could I get feedback on how a Grad School Admissions Officer might see me given my current GPA (3.3) and my current majors (sans the situations/LOR/GRE/writing samples, etc.)</p>

<p>2.) Any ideas where I could find internships with the current majors I'm studying?</p>

<p>3.) Any ideas where I could find and apply for scholarships to ease the burden of my parents paying for college (this one is a tough one since my GPA is low and I'm an American-born Korean with an upper-middle class background).</p>

<p>4.) How do I go about explaining to my parents and assure them that everything will work out (or at the very least, I won't be homeless on the street as they put it).</p>

<p>I know this is a huge bucketload of stuff sent you guys, but please...help a poor lost college student out! T_T</p>

2

<p>If I were in your shoes (not majoring in something that will easily lead to a high paying job and have a low GPA), I would re-calibrate my strategy immediately.</p>

3

<p>Care to articulate?</p>

4

<p>Hey, I am also a sophomore in NYC who took a Math class I didn’t need to (actually it was 2 levels above me) and got a D.</p>

<p>I can’t really answer your questions, but I’ve researched and a lot of grad schools ignore your freshman year classes and mostly care for your major grades and the research you did. Plus, an upward trend is always good. I’ve been working hard and now have a 3.38 up from like 2.9 after my first semester freshman year.</p>

<p>Like I said, I don’t know the answers to the rest of your questions so sorry, but I’m just letting you know that you don’t have to let your bad grades from past years stress you out.</p>

5

<p>I seriously don’t get a triple-major in those fields. But that’s besides the point.</p>

<p>What graduate program do you want to get into? The answers to your questions will vary depending on that, and you never said. You don’t need a 3.8 to get into a good graduate school - I go to an Ivy League graduate school (which isn’t always an indicator of quality btw, but in my case it’s also a top 5 school in my field) and I had a 3.42 in undergrad. You seem like you are referring to graduate school in general, but that’s not the way that it really works.</p>

<p>There’s no way to get feedback on how a general “grad school admissions officer” might view a 3.3 - number one, because there is no such thing, and number two, because people who admit to grad programs (sometimes professors and sometimes individual schools’ admissions officers) don’t look at your GPA without context. A 3.3 might be too low for an Ivy League law school (which is very numbers-focused) but it may be just fine for a top MPP program with good GRE scores and relevant work and internship experience (because MPP programs care less about grades and more about your experience). </p>

<p>So what kind of graduate school are you talking about? And if you aren’t talking about any grad/professional school in particular and are just idly wondering because you don’t know what you want to do next, I think you should tell your parents to chill. You’re a sophomore; you don’t have to know what you want to do with the rest of your life yet, and having a 3.3 GPA is not going to doom you for life - I promise. A close friend of mine just finished his PhD here at Columbia. At his toast, he revealed that he had been on academic probation his first year in undergrad.</p>

6

<p>@Juillet has excellent advice. You need to decide what kind of graduate program you are planning on applying to. Once you know that, you can start doing the things that will give you the experience that makes you attractive as a student.</p>

7

<p>Thanks for all the good advice. At the moment I really have no defined goal which I am aiming for, but what you guys told me is assuring and I feel a bit relieved.</p>

<p>I know the subjects I’m studying are the typical bulls*** majors, but I seriously love my classes and fields I’m studying. I don’t plan to change them.</p>

<p>I want to pursue a Masters, but I don’t know what I want to go for. How would I find out more information about graduate programs that would fit me?</p>

8

<p>Graduate programs serve to train you for a job, and if you don’t know what job you want then it will be rather difficult to start looking at program “fit.” Grad school is not a place to explore interests the way you are now in undergrad. I also don’t understand the triple major - you could take elective courses in all three areas, but fulfilling the major requirements for each won’t look more impressive on your applications or resume. If anything, it demonstrates lack of direction. </p>

<p>You need to narrow down a few possible career options in order to begin your search. You don’t need to know which <em>one</em> you want now, but having some direction will help you to straighten out the path you’re on. </p>

<p>What is it about the majors that you enjoy and would want to apply in a job? Do you enjoy working with people, or do you prefer being the brains behind the operation? All three majors provide excellent soft skills that can be applied to numerous fields. For example, I majored in psychology but knew I didn’t want to work with clients - so that crossed off therapy and social work. I liked working with people, but also wanted a fair amount of time to myself. I started looking at office jobs that had a nice balance, and I ended up in human resources. Figuring out broad preferences - such as how social you want your job to be - is a good start. </p>

9

<p>Ah thanks a lot Nova! Really good advice there about narrowing down choices about what I would like to do.</p>

<p>Its very hard for me to explore in college because my parents would like me to have my major declared ASAP and they dislike the idea that I’m “exploring.” They think that’s a waste of money if the classes I take don’t fill some requirements. Although, these majors are not the majors they would like me to go into, they’re at least content with the fact I’ve chosen something instead of nothing at all.</p>

<p>My question for scholarship though is still there. Where can I find scholarships for undergrad, and later stipend and grants for graduate? Are there any sites or directories I can look into? </p>

10

<p>I don’t think your majors are ■■■■■■■■ at all - I myself was a psychology major, and I started out as a sociology major and I’m now in a PhD program that blends sociology and psychology. I just meant that I don’t get the point of a triple major at all.</p>

<p>Usually students find the most success with scholarships at their own colleges. So I would look internally - does your college offer scholarships for continuing students? Other than that, you can try FastWeb, but really the best opportunities for scholarships are as an incoming first-year.</p>

<p>Similarly with graduate school. Again, you can’t really look until you know what you want to do (and you may decide not to go to graduate school). If you do a PhD, you’ll likely be offered a funding package by your department that includes tuition, fees, health insurance and a stipend. If you do a professional degree, most likely you’ll finance that primarily through loans, but there are some limited scholarships. Sometimes they are internal - from the school itself. There are some external ones - like the American Association for University Women offers some for women in fields in which we are underrepresented. Cornell has a database of these, and there’s another website called Fatomei that maintains a pretty comprehensive list.</p>

11

<p>Thanks for the continued response Juillet. It helps me out putting things into perspective. I’ll look into those sites and CC’s boards/info sites as well.</p>

12

<p>You are at NYU which is not known to be generous with financial aid in upper middle class families, hopefully you picked a school you can afford. If you can find scholarships internally fine, otherwise I wouldn’t waste time searching and applying. I don’t think you should worry about repaying your parents as a sophomore in college. One thing NYU is supposed to be very good at is placement in internships and jobs. I would avail myself of the career services office and any department resources. If you can’t get an internship, try research. Maybe you should be doing research instead of internships if you have a desire for grad school.</p>