Because I took a lot of general ed classes in high school, when I started college, I went straight into my major. I started out in Business, but I did very poorly in the classes, resulting in a low GPA and switched to Psychology just this semester. Right now my cumulative GPA is a 2.4, but my major GPA in Psychology is so far a 3.4. Will grad schools for psychology look at my major GPA more than my cumulative GPA or is it a lost cause for grad school at this point. (I have two more years of school left)
That is a pretty low GPA for the more reputable programs. I’d calculate whether you can get it over a 3.0 in the next two years (maybe not apply right out of college so you have that full senior year of grades to include), seek opportunities for research in your field, and assume you will be going to a lower ranked program with less financial support (if you have a PhD in mind).
You need to work very hard between now and when you graduate to pull your GPA up. If you can get two years (this year and next) of nearly all A’s then my guess is that you should be okay for a Master’s, and if you do really well in your Master’s you could go on to a PhD if you want to.
That is very low, especially if you want to go for a Ph.D. A few options: 1.) Work as a research technician and gain experience and papers. The further you get out from graduation, the less your GPA will matter, especially if you have peer-reviewed publications and steller letter of recommendation from your PI. 2.) Do a masters program and excel.
Yeah, I think this is one of those situations in which you should do an MA or at least take some graduate-level classes in psychology to prove you can handle it. A 3.4 isn’t really even so high a major GPA…you’d want a nice solid 3.6+ for a PhD program, I would say, to balance out a lower cumulative GPA (and a good justification for the lower cumulative GPA).
Even for an MA the cumulative is low, but the psych GPA is decent enough that you may be able to find one to admit you.