Recovering from a bad grad as an undergraduate?

[skip207]

I'm hovering at a 79 in my biopsychology class right now and it's very possible I'll get a B- in the class. As I'm a psych major who wants to go to grad school, this looks especially bad. For top psych programs, how much is this going to hurt me?

I'm just a freshman now and I know I can get better grades than this in the future since I made a 3.5 last semester. The problem is I know it'll feel like I'll be making up for that grade until I graduate.. As grad school applicants, do you guys look back on your undergrad career and agonize about how mistakes like this affect your application?

[Mr. Tea]

I'm hovering at a 79 in my biopsychology class right now and it's very possible I'll get a B- in the class. As I'm a psych major who wants to go to grad school, this looks especially bad. For top psych programs, how much is this going to hurt me?

I'm just a freshman now and I know I can get better grades than this in the future since I made a 3.5 last semester. The problem is I know it'll feel like I'll be making up for that grade until I graduate.. As grad school applicants, do you guys look back on your undergrad career and agonize about how mistakes like this affect your application?

A B- doesn't matter. You're fine. As long as overall your grades are decent, you get a decent scores on the GRE, and you involve yourself in research/other work that is applicable to future studies in psychology then you're fine. Your research and relevant work experiences (and recommendation letters that come from those experiences) matter much more than your grades and GRE score. The latter two will only get your foot in the door, and a B- won't exclude you from consideration at good schools.

[honkycat1]

I'm hovering at a 79 in my biopsychology class right now and it's very possible I'll get a B- in the class. As I'm a psych major who wants to go to grad school, this looks especially bad. For top psych programs, how much is this going to hurt me?

I'm just a freshman now and I know I can get better grades than this in the future since I made a 3.5 last semester. The problem is I know it'll feel like I'll be making up for that grade until I graduate.. As grad school applicants, do you guys look back on your undergrad career and agonize about how mistakes like this affect your application?

lol I barely got a 70 in my social psych program and I did fine (I think... even though if my GPA was higher, I might have better chances.) but in all seriousness, its not gonna kill your chances in a lot of very good programs.

[franks98]

Ha! Prior to interviewing at Arizona, my POI there called up my advisor here at my UG school and said that he really liked my application but had concerns about my B in Social Psych that I got when I was a sophomore! He wanted to get reassurance that I could handle a social psych doctoral program. From then on out, my advisor had it in his head that my GPA was weak... it's 3.9, damnit! It was more funny than anything else.

Bad grades in stats or methods will hurt you. They'd be a red flag to a lot of POIs and adcomms. If you're going into neuroscience or something along those lines, a bad grade in biopsych definitely ain't helping you.

[hello! :)]

Bad grades in stats or methods will hurt you. They'd be a red flag to a lot of POIs and adcomms. If you're going into neuroscience or something along those lines, a bad grade in biopsych definitely ain't helping you.

That's true, but my impression is that if the student later takes additional upper division courses in Behavioral Neuro, Cognitive Neuro, Neuropsych, etc. and gets an A, she/he will likely be fine.

[franks98]

[quote name=hello! ' timestamp='1302367670' post='241903]

That's true, but my impression is that if the student later takes additional upper division courses in Behavioral Neuro, Cognitive Neuro, Neuropsych, etc. and gets an A, she/he will likely be fine.

[Arcadian]

I'm hovering at a 79 in my biopsychology class right now and it's very possible I'll get a B- in the class. As I'm a psych major who wants to go to grad school, this looks especially bad. For top psych programs, how much is this going to hurt me?

I'm just a freshman now and I know I can get better grades than this in the future since I made a 3.5 last semester. The problem is I know it'll feel like I'll be making up for that grade until I graduate.. As grad school applicants, do you guys look back on your undergrad career and agonize about how mistakes like this affect your application?

My freshman year GPA was 1.8. I failed a class, received multiple Cs and Ds, and I was on academic probation for one semester. My sophomore year was a recovery year; I took core requiremenes and got decent grades. In my junior and senior years, I have a 4.0 GPA and have since been accepted into a PhD program (and several honor societies). I believe this illustrates the importance of the last two years relative to the freshman year.

Note: My freshman year was ruined by a misguided choice of major and coursework. I didn't begin with psychology until my third year. I also transferred to a different school to "refresh" my GPA.

If I can do it, you can do it.

Edited April 9, 2011 by Arcadian

[skip207]

I'm hoping to go into social psych. I could potentially take another biopsych course, but there's no guarantee that I'd do any better and I don't think I would find it very enjoyable either.

[honkycat1]

I'm hoping to go into social psych. I could potentially take another biopsych course, but there's no guarantee that I'd do any better and I don't think I would find it very enjoyable either.

biopsych is hardly a necessary field for social psychology where math/stat/method courses are much more heavily weighted.

[carlyhylton]

My freshman year GPA was 1.8. I failed a class, received multiple Cs and Ds, and I was on academic probation for one semester. My sophomore year was a recovery year; I took core requiremenes and got decent grades. In my junior and senior years, I have a 4.0 GPA and have since been accepted into a PhD program (and several honor societies). I believe this illustrates the importance of the last two years relative to the freshman year.

Note: My freshman year was ruined by a misguided choice of major and coursework. I didn't begin with psychology until my third year. I also transferred to a different school to "refresh" my GPA.

If I can do it, you can do it.

Curious, what do you mean by 'refreshing' your gpa?

[Owlie]

Curious, what do you mean by 'refreshing' your gpa?

I'm guessing, but many universities will award a transfer student credit toward graduation (provided you passed with a C or better) for courses taken at the first institution, but it won't count toward the GPA--you start over. At least, that's how my undergrad institution worked...

[Arcadian]

Curious, what do you mean by 'refreshing' your gpa?

Owlie was right. It just means your GPA from previous schools doesn't count toward your graduation GPA at the new school. This is why I am able to graduate summa cum laude despite failing my freshman year; the "new" GPA is 4.0 and the "old" GPA was 2.4.