English MA Program Admission

[Izzie2104]

Greetings. 

I am currently an undergraduate student majoring in Literature. I have a 2.817 major GPA and a cumulative GPA of 2.555; and a 2.67 GPA in the last 60 units of upper-division coursework.  

My question is: How do I get admitted into the MA program at my school (or other MA programs) with the kinds of GPA I have? I have one semester left of coursework left before I graduate, and I was told that the best thing for me to do was to get the best grades possible this last semester. I am not sure if I can muster straight A's or anything like that in one semester to boost up the minimum GPA requirements. My school (CSUDH) requires a 3.0 in the last 60 units of coursework to be admitted. 

I am really nervous because I only majored in Literature to go to graduate school and one day pursue a PhD (with me already knowing what I want to specialize in already). 

What should I do this last term I have before graduating? I will be applying for my program, despite GPA deficiencies, but I am still nervous that I might not make the cut. My school really isn't that competitive when it comes to admitting students, and I am lucky to even have been able to be a student at this university. Even if this is the case, I am still not certain I will be admitted given that I do not have the GPA.

 

Any advice appreciated! 

 

 

[BrownChocolate]

My first advice to you is that you cannot change the past and no amount of grieving over the past is going to fix the past. And no amount of worrying is going to change the future, rather studying on the left over courses will benefit you greatly.

 

That being said: what are your circumstances?
Do you have enough money to apply? If so, apply to grad school. Do you not have that much money and are in debt? Well then, consider working in your field perhaps and then applying to grad school later in life?

 

What is the point of a PhD? or any grad degree? Or undergraduate degree?

The point of education is to apply that knowledge to real life application, or further construction of knowledge or benefiting society etc. You can have a PhD and do nothing with it and not benefit yourself nor others, nor anything. You can benefit anyone with hard work regardless of PhD or undergraduate degree.

You cannot change the past, and you can change your future. You know your past, but you don't know your future and you know deep inside you are capable of acheiving well. If you work hard in the final courses, you will acheive good things and you will be content, because whatever hard work you put in, you will see benefit of it, even if you don't acheive post-doc, you will still get somewhere. 

[thepeeps]

Do you mind if I ask why your GPA is so low?

I switched majors late in my college degree, from something that I hated (computer science) to something I loved (English).  Despite the fact my cum GPA wasn't super high like my peers because of my CS background, my GPA is my major is def pretty good.  Point is, I had a reason for my cum GPA not being high because I had engineering/math/hard science courses bringing it down.  When I applied for my MA I had to prove that I could handle upperclassmen level English courses.

I'm pretty sure most grad schools won't accept anything less than a 3.0 anyways, mostly from what I've heard so they can determine whether or not you're actually ready for graduate level work.  Especially because at least from the GPA scale at my school, you were only achieving C+'s in your undergrad English courses.  Some graduate schools consider a B- failure in a course.

Not trying to be judgmental at all, and if you do have a good reason that's another story.  But if you're struggling this much and believe you won't be able to achieve straight A's, or hell, B+'s, than you should ask yourself why you want to do graduate school in the first place.  It only becomes harder from here on out.

[Izzie2104]

Well, to answer your question, I was diagnosed with a chronic health issue (not diving into it, because it is a bit complicated). I had to drop out of school for a semester (in which I dropped out without record of classes) and I also had dropped a semester as well with a medical withdrawal; both these alongside remediation English and Math practically made me start from the bottom. 

Now, I have taken a graduate class and had received an A- in that class along with two semesters worth of major classes at 3.1 (both semesters added together and totaled). This was a good indicator that I could succeed in a graduate level course, but these past two semesters, due to medical reasons, I have not done so well in my classes due to my health problems. Now, I am at a point where my medical stuff isn't all that bad, and I think I can do well in graduate school. I am aware that it gets more intense in terms of course load and writing seminar papers every term, since that was the structure of the graduate seminar I took, but I did get an A- in that class. If I could perhaps mention these things in a statement of purpose for the school I am trying to go into for the MA, they probably could admit me (conditionally perhaps?) under the condition that I maintain a gpa above a 3.0? I am not sure if this is possible, but I do know that some schools do allow this if the applicant has shown potential. @thepeeps

[thepeeps]

16 minutes ago, igonzalez83 said:

Well, to answer your question, I was diagnosed with a chronic health issue (not diving into it, because it is a bit complicated). I had to drop out of school for a semester (in which I dropped out without record of classes) and I also had dropped a semester as well with a medical withdrawal; both these alongside remediation English and Math practically made me start from the bottom. 

Now, I have taken a graduate class and had received an A- in that class along with two semesters worth of major classes at 3.1 (both semesters added together and totaled). This was a good indicator that I could succeed in a graduate level course, but these past two semesters, due to medical reasons, I have not done so well in my classes due to my health problems. Now, I am at a point where my medical stuff isn't all that bad, and I think I can do well in graduate school. I am aware that it gets more intense in terms of course load and writing seminar papers every term, since that was the structure of the graduate seminar I took, but I did get an A- in that class. If I could perhaps mention these things in a statement of purpose for the school I am trying to go into for the MA, they probably could admit me (conditionally perhaps?) under the condition that I maintain a gpa above a 3.0? I am not sure if this is possible, but I do know that some schools do allow this if the applicant has shown potential. @thepeeps

I'm pretty sure that when health/personal issues have attributed to low grades, you would express that in your Personal Statement for sure when you apply.  So that's no problem.

Of course, I'm not sure how much admission committees would overlook things, but explaining these things in your PS would be ideal.  Very sorry about your health issues  I struggled with severe depression and basically pushed myself tooth and nail to be somewhat on top.  It's tough and I express my sympathies to you.  I would also suggest if you have the time or money, to perhaps retake courses you didn't do so hot in either at your school or a CC.  That way you can kind of be like "I was really sick  and didn't do so great at first, but I went back and retook the same courses and did way better" that could help improve your application.  

[Izzie2104]

@thepeeps Thank you for your sympathy (,: I appreciate the gesture by your part, and I also am sorry to hear that you have gone through severe depression. It isn't easy to navigate academia when facing personal things like depression, or illness... 

So as to a personal statement, it is not required in my program. The only minimum requirement they have to be admitted to the MA is a 3.0 in the last 60 units of undergrad. That being said, I will be writing a statement of purpose and a personal statement for the department chair and see if he will make a decision to be admitted into the program. The question is, how do I mention my illness? I have medical documentation to support my claims, but I am not sure if this will be enough. Even so, I still have a semester of coursework left. I only have one more semester of funding (at the moment) which means I am able to only take some extra classes to graduate in the Fall. I will do my BEST this last term I have and see if I can get into the MA. Lastly, I think I can get at least two letters of recommendation from professors I have worked with before, maybe that along with the SOP and PS might help vouch me into the MA despite having GPA shortage. 

Hopefully this all pays off. ?