snk24

Okay, so I'm not sure how often this comes up, but I have a unique situation. One of the POIs at a school I'm interested in applying to next fall is related to me, although I've only met her a few times. She's actually the wife of my cousin. Although I don't keep in touch with her and have only met her a few times in my life, she does know my parents pretty well. Is there anything unethical about pursuing potential POIs with relatives? Should I not bother to contact her about this?

Thanks, I'll certainly do that. Would it be best to contact the department or the graduate studies office?

Thanks! The psych degree is second.

I forgot to mention a rather particular peculiarity of my situation. I actually have two BAs. The first B.A is the one with a chronically low GPA from one school. The second BA, in psychology and from a different school, contains a much higher GPA that borders around 3.8 (calculated on all my coursework from that institution as well as the credits that transferred from my first B.A). Consequently, all of my bad grades are contained in the first degree. The 2.8 I quoted in the original post was my own attempt at forming a cumulative average based on the two degrees. How is this normally handled? Was I correct in averaging the two together? I know I have to report transcripts from all institutions attended. I just don't know how they handle it on their end in a case like this. More accurate picture: Psychology degree (Summa Cum Laude distinction, ironically): 3.8 Psychology major: 3.9 Last 60 credits: 3.8 Average of first degree + psychology degree: 2.8 Both universities are regionally accredited brick and mortar institutions.

I do think that's a good idea, the only caveat being that I no longer live in the town where I went to university and the schools that are local private liberal arts universities. I'm not sure how many opportunities would exist in those places, haha. Maybe if I shoot an email to a few faculty at those schools and offer to do it for free they'd be willing, but I'm not even sure exactly how much extensive research is undertaken in these types of institutions. Thanks for all the advice so far!

I, like so many others, didn't really take my studies seriously at first. When I first started my degree, I majored in something I had absolutely no interest in because I thought it would land me a good job. I hated every minute of it and it showed in my GPA. After 3 years of struggling, my GPA was ABYSMAL. After changing my major to psychology and discovering how much I loved it and how interesting it was to me, my GPA rose. This puts me in the following spot: Cumulative GPA: 2.86 Psychology GPA: 3.91 I don't have research experience or publications, so I know I have virtually zero shot of getting into a clinical doctorate at this point. However, I graduated university debt free and am not adverse to doing an unfunded master's degree (though, I'd prefer a funded one!) Is this the best course of action, to focus solely on master's programs? I've not taken the GRE, so I can't speculate on what my score might be, though I do have plenty of time to dedicate to study. Would it help if I took the psychology GRE subject test? I'm guessing it wouldn't make a difference since I have a breadth of upper-division psychology courses on my transcript and my psychology GPA is quite high.