3.4 GPAs

[Dazree]

Winter quarter is here! Meaning Interviews/Acceptances/Rejections are among us.

I would love to hear some motivational 3.4 overall or less GPA stories to get me/us through this tough time.

Edited February 2, 2016 by Dazree

[MrsH]

Hi @Dazree -- with you, would love to hear some as well! Good luck! 

[thespeechblog.com]

On 2/2/2016 at 11:58 PM, Dazree said:

Winter quarter is here! Meaning Interviews/Acceptances/Rejections are among us.

I would love to hear some motivational 3.4 overall or less GPA stories to get me/us through this tough time.

Hey Dazree, I just spoke with a now SLP Treasyri and how she got into grad school with a 3.2 - it took her several application cycles and a LOT of work, but she did it. There's a post about it on my blog or you can google her blog: TheSpeechMentor 

[hopefulspeechie16]

I'd like to believe that there are some schools out there who see their applicants as people and not decimals and percentiles. The truth is when you become an SLP your clients want to know how you can help them not your GRE scores and last 60 GPA. To those with lower stats, please don't give up.

[Gingiestrong]

An old thread, but I found a lot of the stories on here to be very uplifting. 

[Arcanelady27]

3 hours ago, mcamp said:

Hey Dazree, I just spoke with a now SLP Treasyri and how she got into grad school with a 3.2 - it took her several application cycles and a LOT of work, but she did it. There's a post about it on my blog or you can google her blog: TheSpeechMentor 

I would love to know which school she was accepted. 

[slpfall14]

I got into grad school with a cumulative gpa of 3.3.  I'll be finishing in May. The key, look for graduate programs that calculate your gpa by looking at only the last 60 units or only the classes related to the field. This will take some research to find out what schools those are, you'll have to talk to grad advisors and department chairs. It can be done.  Stay away from schools that solely care about GRE and cumulative undergrad GPA only, or keep those schools on a short list. Good luck!

Edited February 10, 2016 by slpfall14

[Lunalulu2]

I do not have any inspirational stories to share but wanted to join the conversation.  I have a CSD GPA of 4.0 but an overall GPA of 3.3 and applied to 11 schools for the fall.  The wait is agonizing! Best of luck to all of us! 

[thespeechblog.com]

18 hours ago, Arcanelady27 said:

I would love to know which school she was accepted. 

I'm not sure if it made it into the post, but it is probably on her blog somewhere - thespeechmentor. 

[MangoSmoothie]

There's actually a lot of folk on this forum that fit this criteria, so don't give up! I had a 3.25 in my undergrad, although my post-bacc was a 4.0, and I had a few years between my undergraduate and post-bacc. I got in in my first application cycle and just finished my first semester of graduate school. I had great GRE scores for this field, great experiences (living abroad for a few years, work with individuals with special needs, etc), an excellent statement of purpose that I had looked over by multiple people and writers, and stellar letters of reference. You do have to work hard to make up for that low GPA, but it's possible. Take control of the parts of your application that you still can.

I'll be frank. I think it's a lot harder to get an acceptance as a current senior in a com dis program with a low GPA. If your last 60 is much higher or your major GPA is much higher than your overall, that's better than having a low GPA across the board. But if you have a low GPA in any area, you need something to show that you're a person who can succeed in grad school, and that you're a person who changed from the person who got that low GPA. Often, this might take time. It might be a year or two related experience and retaking the GRE to get excellent scores. Telling a graduate program "I can do well in your program" is not enough; you need something to show them you can do well and succeed, and that is what a lot of successful applicants who have low GPAs have. It can be that high last 60 GPA, that high post-bacc GPA, an SOP that is colored by your year(s) of experience in the field, great letters of recommendation, or anything. But I think we all had something that shows growth.

No applicant has the same story, even if they have the same numbers. If you don't get in this cycle, don't be discouraged. There are countless ways your can improve your application and show programs you're a person who is passionate about being an SLP and who will do well in graduate school. It may take some time, but it can and will happen.

In my experience, most schools are not that secretive about their admissions process, too. If you ask the program director (usually in person), they might just tell you! A few schools I talked to use GPA and GRE to screen applicants and establish cutoff points, then consider from there. One program I talked to gave me their criteria down to percentages (20% is overall GPA, 20% is GRE, 20% is major GPA, 10% is extracurricular and so on).

Good luck! I'm sorry if this wasn't the most optimistic or motivational. I don't know your story, but I want you to know it is possible to get in with a low GPA! 

[Lunalulu2]

I just received an acceptance offer for university of Oregon. I really didn't think I would get in anywhere because of my cum GPA

[ToshaSLP]

I got accepted with an overall gpa of 2.99, but my CSD gpa is 3.83. My first degree was in vocal-performance, and I have experience working with children with autism. I got accepted at the university I'm currently taking online post-bacc classes at. It's an online grad program as well. I think I got admitted because I'm currently successful in their post-bacc program, and I had good LOR's and a good SOP (I had it looked over by a writing center). I honestly thought I would get rejected because of my overall gpa, but that's not all they look at. I focused on making all other areas of my app really great. Oh, and I had GRE scores of V:157 Q:151, so not amazing, but definitely acceptable. Good Luck!!