[GRE Prep: Advice on Vocabulary]

Anyone tried a book by Ch. Meyer "GRE Vocabulary Notebook: 4615 Words for Self-Practice"?

 

[The sub-3.0 GPAs ACCEPTANCE thread]

On 4/2/2018 at 9:48 PM, PublicHealth18 said:

I just read through all of these posts and it made me so happy to see that there are people like me out there. I want to share my own story as well. I graduated from a top private university with a 2.6 GPA. I don't have much of an excuse other than the fact that I wasn't focused and wasn't even into what I was studying. I started off as pre-med, and those weed-out classes killed my GPA. I finally changed my major after realizing medicine was not going to be in my future. By the time my junior and senior year rolled around, I did a little better, but not enough to get my cumulative GPA up by much. I did get awarded some money to do research with a professor and I did present a poster, so I had this going for me, but literally nothing else. 

Luckily, I was able to get a job as a research assistant almost right after graduating, with someone in my field. I worked there for a year and started applying to MPH programs. My GREs were decent but not great (152 V, 158 Q). I was accepted into an MPH program and graduated the MPH with a 3.8 GPA while working full time.

To others that have considered whether addressing your low GPA helps--I did. I just included a paragraph about it. No need to dwell on it, but I think it does help to acknowledge your mistakes. I think doing that, along with my research experience, is probably what got me in. I remember seeing that acceptance letter and re-reading it a bunch of times to make sure I had read correctly.

Now I am looking to apply to PhD programs. My undergrad GPA may still prevent me from getting in but I am going to try. By the time I apply, I'll have 5+ years of research experience, a handful of publications and presentations, as well as really good LORs.

Thanks for your story!

[2019 Applicants]

GRE second attempt. I hope this one the vocab won't destroy me ?

[The sub-3.0 GPAs ACCEPTANCE thread]

Hi, it’s my first post here but I hope not last
I’m an international student who would like to pursue her PhD in Psychology in the US. I have BA and MA in Applied Linguistics from the top tenth university in my country. My GPA is pretty low but I hope to get great GRE and GRE Psychology scores (I plan to apply in 2018 so I still have a few months to prepare).
BA GPA 2.95
MA GPA 3.25 (some unis count my MA as an equivalent of US BA)
Cumulative GPA 3.10
No lab research experience, no publications. I only wrote and defended two theses because it’s the standard procedure in my country required to obtain your degree. In order to write them I had to collect materials, pick up examples and analyze them in writing. And then defend my results in front of the commission. My theses had 60 and 72 pages. (I’m writing about it because perhaps I can use these experiences in my personal statement, can't I?). I’ll get good letters of recommendation from my former uni.
I don’t want to enter clinical/counselling/school PhD. All I want to do is research (eg. cognitive psychology/language psychology). So I guess the uni doesn’t have to be APA certified. Also, I’d like to attend a funded program and of course the uni doesn’t have to be top.
As I’m already in the US and have some time I plan to volunteer at some uni in the neighborhood to get more research experience.
Do I have any chances of getting accepted for a fully FUNDED program (tuition waiver + fellowship/scholarship) or PhD in Psychology is so overcrowded that my GPA will hinder my application leaving me with no admission?