Should I take a gap year, or apply right away (PhD programs)?

[tanoushie]

Hi guys! Long story short I am looking to eventually pursue a PhD in HCI (human computer interaction). Unfortunately, I have a terrible undergraduate GPA...My undergraduate GPA is a 3.04 from UIUC in Economics, which I majored in out of confusion and is truly irrelevant to HCI. While in undergrad, I managed to discover the field of HCI and got involved in research, and also had a local UX research internship. My independent research project was accepted as an extended abstract in CHI (a great HCI journal), and I am now pursuing my master's in Human Computer Interaction at IUPUI (Indiana-Purdue). I am heavily involved in research there, and am currently in the middle of a summer user experience research internship at a pretty established tech company. My GPA from master's after my first year is a solid 3.89, and I have retaken the GRE with a score of 163 V 164 Q and 4.5 AWA. I was wondering if it would be a good idea for my to apply in this upcoming fall, or allow myself a gap year so that I have another full year of master's grades and my grad thesis/other potential publications to come into review for the admissions purposes. I think the extra year would really mitigate my terrible undergrad performance, but I also don't know if I should just go ahead and apply.

 

Bonus question: If I were to wait another year and maintained my ~3.9 GPA would I be competitive for a PhD in Information Science/HCI at the following institutions

University of Michigan, Northwestern (MTS PhD), UIUC, UMaryland, UC Irvine, UT Austin, IUPUI, IUB, and UW? What other schools should I add to my list? Thanks!

[Sigaba]

13 hours ago, tanoushie said:

 Economics

...

I was wondering if it would be a good idea for my to apply in this upcoming fall, or allow myself a gap year so that I have another full year of master's grades and my grad thesis/other potential publications to come into review for the admissions purposes. I think the extra year would really mitigate my terrible undergrad performance, but I also don't know if I should just go ahead and apply.

Use your knowledge of the dismal science to project the lifetime costs of your two options.

I recommend a scenario in which you get into Happyland University because of the progress you make during your gap year, a scenario where the gap year makes no difference, and corresponding scenarios for applying now.

For the gap year scenarios, I recommend additional projections for the possibility that a one year gap becomes two, then four, then five (because life happens). Maybe throwing in a job you find that gets you close enough to where you want to go.

FWIW, I don't think that your UG GPA is going to matter as much as your performance as a graduate student. 

[poliscibi]

Take the gap year. You’re hella competitive to get in, but burn out is real. I took a gap year and loved it. Tbh what you do during that time (“projects”) won’t matter as much as the application itself so if you gotta work as a temp for 10 months then do it. It’s worth it in the end. (Also a social scientist so our fields could differ on the last bit of advice.)

[BabyScientist]

My general rule of thumb is to take a gap year. You'll be more prepared for applying AND for succeeding in the program. 

[juilletmercredi]

Yay! I'm a UX researcher, although I studied psychology and not HCI in grad school.

I incessantly tried to find an answer to this question when I was a senior undergraduate and got conflicting information from a variety of sources. My conclusion is that generally, it kind of doesn't matter in terms of admissions (GENERALLY - not including individual circumstances like lower GPAs or the wrong prerequisite classes). It may significantly matter, though, in terms of your own preparedness for graduate school and your career choices.

I think it depends on you. You sound pretty competitive for a doctoral program in HCI right now. I think your mediocre undergraduate performance is kind of irrelevant given your paper, your excellent MS performance, and the internship. Do you want to take a year off? Do you have a desire to work for a year or so and maybe make some money, explore some career options, etc.? Or do you want to plunge right in?

If you want to go to graduate school now, go ahead and apply! If you don't get in anywhere you can always just reapply next year. I think you should only choose not to apply if you are pretty sure you don't want to wait another year. It sounds like the only thing holding you back is uncertainty about whether you're competitive or not, but I think you are AND the only way to find out for sure is to apply.