Admission into Anthropology higher education with low GPA

[Addario]

Hello all, if you could take the time to give me some advice it would really be greatly appreciated.

I am a college graduate with a poor GPA. A cumulative of a 2.5, in fact, with a 3.2 in my major of interest. I won't bore you with excuses of extenuating circumstances and family matters, all I'll say is that the factors that contributed to this poor GPA aren't relevant in my life anymore and I am very eager and ready to go to graduate school for cultural anthropology. I know if I'm accepted into a program the factors that brought my undergraduate performance down won't interfere with my graduate studies in the slightest.

I don't suffer any delusions that applying for Grad School will be an uphill battle now. Many of the programs I've looked at have a cutoff GPA of a 3.0. However, if you'll excuse my lack of modesty, I have a lot of other things going for me. I can get three stellar letters of recommendation from professors, two of them coming from the head of social sciences departments. I have completed a fall internship - and have already been accepted into a spring internship - for the anthropology department of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. The spring internship pertains to what I want to go to grad school for. I'm applying for a summer internship to work at the Smithsonian's research center on-site, in the very region I wish to study later on, and given the feedback I've been getting from my email correspondence with those in charge of admissions, my chances of getting in are better than not. Because these internships are unpaid, I'm also applying myself to non-profit opportunities in the D.C. area. So far I haven't heard back from many, but given the number of openings i've applied to, I'm bound to get something.

Here is my problem. I have all this experience, letters of recommendation, and I am 100% determined to dominate the GRE. But how do I get the graduate programs to actually look at my application long enough to consider this? I'm afraid they'll take one look at my GPA and simply scrap the entire application. Is my GPA a crippling factor in my application, or is it a flat-out death sentence? What universities would actually take the time to consider me?

It was frustrating for my undergraduate grades to be hurt by lousy experiences. I don't want them to do further harm by hurting my chances for grad school!

Thanks again for hearing me out and I appreciate all the advice you have to offer!

[NinjaMermaid]

You're right that it will be a steep uphill battle. My best advice - contact faculty that you would like to have as advisors. Build up a rapport with them and have them help you plead your case. The sooner you email them the better. I would even suggest a face to face meeting. You may not get funding but from what I understand if a faculty member wants you - then you can usually get admitted.

[AKJen]

MermaidNiki is right. If you can find someone who wants to work with you on the right type of project and it's their year to admit a student, often a iffy gpa can be overlooked. But that 3.0 minimum is often the related to funding and/or the minimums for the graduate school as a whole. Sometimes they can be pretty firm. I'd make sure you investigate that fully at each school you apply to.

I don't know that I'd be banking that much on the Smithsonian cachet helping you get into school for cultural anthropology, unless you plan on doing material culture studies/museum anthropology. Don't get me wrong, the Smithsonian is great and their faculty does really interesting work! I was there this summer; but they do a pretty specific type of anthropology that is not necessarily translatable into what academic departments might think of as cultural anthropology.

Have you thought about a masters? There are some funded programs that can be a good stepping stone to a PhD program.

[Addario]

Thanks all, I appreciate your helpful advice. I'll definitely look into getting in touch with advisors.

Caffeinated, I have thought about a masters, but to be honest I'm kind of in the dark about what's out there given my situation (I also thought that everyone has to get a masters as the next rung on the ladder) . Half the reason I posted this question was to hopefully hear some name drops of universities and about alternative paths I could take. Funding is a whole other issue I'll deal with, right now I want to just do whatever it takes to get my foot in the door. My main concern isn't whether or not I'm capable; again, excuse my lack of modesty but I've TAed advanced undergraduate cultural comparison classes and have written a 100+ page cultural anthropology thesis that I'm looking into getting published (the 100 page aspect of it makes that a difficult endeavor as well...alas). The only reason I'm even considering further education with my undergraduate GPA is that I know it is not a representation of my overall ability (that is not to excuse the elements that contributed to the poor grades). I want to know what schools will look at my application package overall, rather than do what most schools do when they see a low GPA: toss the entire thing without considering anything else. I'm not saying that they'll immediately accept me if they look beyond my GPA, but I'll at least stand a better chance.

I am a little bit confused about your Smithsonian diagnosis though. Don't get me wrong, I agree; Internships with the Smithsonian isn't a ticket into Grad School, but if you look at their project listing for the fall, there are a wide variety of anthropology project listings. Yes, a lot of them are museum related for obvious reasons, but the ones that require you to travel aren't so much. Maybe the project listing was different last summer?

[AKJen]

It's really based your interests and how they align with the faculty. And every school is different; there's no way to know what they do based on GPA unless you call or email the school and ask. I could tell you what they do at my school, but it wouldn't be representative of all schools (and they just ended the masters program). There aren't really safety schools. It's not hopeless, but you have to be very focused and strategic about your activities in the next year and where you apply. You need people on your side at each school; people who will fight for you.

I'm not saying the Smithsonian isn't a good internship, but it's not like an NSF REU that is affiliated with a major academic institution where you'll work with faculty that will be deciding on your application. Those can be a backdoor into a program. Known entities are less of a risk! Whereas the Smithsonian people can be a good resource for recommendations, but might not have the connection to an academic program or the pull to get you into the program.

[Addario]

Gotcha. Thanks again for all your help! And you're right, NSF REU would be incredibly useful, and I have looked into programs there. It certainly would be hard to get their attention, given the number of applicants they probably get. I'll start looking. Cheers.

[newleaf]

It also depends on your undergrad institution. You can have a pretty shit gpa from a top 10 school and get into a higher-ranked grad program especially if you have letters from celebrity faculty.

In your situation, I'd recommend an MA.

I think I might be walking into a shitstorm by saying this, but there are such things as safety schools depending on your background. I think this is either some public secret in the social sciences or I'm just too blinded by elite institutions, but my feeling if you're an undergrad from NYU with a glowing letter from Appadurai et al, decent grades, and a solid project, Kentucky State is a safety. Unfortuntaely not everyone has that kind of access, which is what expensive masters programs are for.

[NinjaMermaid]

Also if you apply to a school of choice that has both a Masters and PhD program then don't dispair if you only get in to the Masters. If you excel you will most likely get admitted to the PhD and not lose any time from your PhD quest. Just make sure your advisors know your plans up front and well in advance so that you can continue planning for this eventuality.

I can tell you that at my university you would have a difficult time with that GPA, however depending on what your interests are, might squeeze by with backing from an advisor. We have a 15% acceptance rate. Feel free to message me directly if you'd like.

[AKJen]

I think I might be walking into a shitstorm by saying this, but there are such things as safety schools depending on your background. I think this is either some public secret in the social sciences or I'm just too blinded by elite institutions, but my feeling if you're an undergrad from NYU with a glowing letter from Appadurai et al, decent grades, and a solid project, Kentucky State is a safety. Unfortuntaely not everyone has that kind of access, which is what expensive masters programs are for.

I'll admit my bias that I think about safety programs in terms with how employable you'll be in academia after your graduation. there are schools that may be willing to accept you, but it's not quite safe, in that you might struggle to find a job (or struggle more, actually because jobs are so hard to come by) after most likely paying a lot of money for a degree. But even as a write this, I realize people get degrees for different reasons and there are definitely positions outside of the academy for anthropologists; I just think people should go into graduate school with eyes open to the possible uphill battle.

[newleaf]

I'll admit my bias that I think about safety programs in terms with how employable you'll be in academia after your graduation. there are schools that may be willing to accept you, but it's not quite safe, in that you might struggle to find a job (or struggle more, actually because jobs are so hard to come by) after most likely paying a lot of money for a degree. But even as a write this, I realize people get degrees for different reasons and there are definitely positions outside of the academy for anthropologists; I just think people should go into graduate school with eyes open to the possible uphill battle.

Agree wholeheartedly!

[Addario]

Thank you all for your advice and support. I think I will go with the decision to get an MA (down the road), and if I find that I'm good at it and hungry for more, then I'll keep going from there. Thanks for being such an informative forum :-)

[aforman1]

I used to work for graduate admissions at my undergrad school, and usually GPA requirements are a standard of the graduate school, and not necessarily the program/department to which you are applying. I would follow the advice of several posters in this thread and contact some faculty members at the schools you are applying to and have a conversation with them about not only your circumstances, but also about the sort of research that you want to do and why their program is a good fit for you. You will need to conclusively demonstrate with your application that, despite your GPA, you would be a good match for their program.

I agree with newleaf regarding a "safety" program with a MA, which sounds like the direction you're planning on taking. That's what I did; I opted out of a PhD program at a school that I was not really interested in attending for a MA/PhD transition program at UC-Boulder. I did have to pay for one semester, but was able to get the remaining three paid for through TA positions. I had a strong undergrad GPA but received my BA from a program that is not particularly strong and didn't have the scholarly backing to make me a strong candidate for PhD programs during my first round of applications. I was able to complete my MA in just two years, received distinction, and am now a far stronger (in my opinion) candidate for those fully-funded programs I'm now applying to. Also, if things don't work out as I had hoped, I still have the program at Colorado to go back to for my PhD. You can use your MA degree to strengthen yourself as an applicant down the road, and will probably only lose, at most, 1 year compared with entering straight into a PhD program (using course transfers).