sub 3.0 GPAs

[InquilineKea]

[*:21esys8v]You know you have under a 3.0 when someone asks you what your safety schools are and you stare back at them unsure of what those two words together might actually mean.

• [*:21esys8v]You know you have under a 3.0 when you don't meet the minimum requirements for any of the programs you applied to.
  [*:21esys8v]You know you have under a 3.0 when you can't take getting recommended for admission by the department for granted as getting approved by the graduate college can actually present a challenge.
  [*:21esys8v]You know you have under a 3.0 when you describe your transcript as "colorful."
  [*:21esys8v]You know you have under a 3.0 when, in a desperate search for safe schools, you catch yourself wondering if your local community college is a PhD granting institution. (You quickly realize that even if they were they wouldn't have funding for you anyways, thenyou remember they don't even grant four-year degrees.)
  [*:21esys8v]You know you have under a 3.0 when you realize that as much as you'd like to stay in a certain geographic area, all those schools are too hard to get into and so you need to apply more broadly.
  [*:21esys8v]You know you have under a 3.0 when your "what are you going to do now" fantasy simply consists of you walking around for an entire day uttering no words other than the phrase "I did it."
  [*:21esys8v]You know you have under a 3.0 when you know for certain that all of your friends will know exactly what that means.
  [*:21esys8v]You know you have under a 3.0 when you actually start to believe that any acceptance letters you receive are more likely to be mistakes than legitimate offers for admission.
  [*:21esys8v]You know you have under a 3.0 when whenever you tell someone you got accepted somewhere their first words aren't "Congratulations" but "Really?"
  [*:21esys8v]And how could we forget the classic: You know you have under a 3.0 when you wince every time someone online comforts another stressed out applicant by telling them "well at least your GPA is over a three so things won't be that bad."

Hahahaha. This is so hilarious.

Anyways, I managed to get mine above 3.0, but it's still sub-3.5. Thank god astro departments require Physics GREs - those can really get an application looked at.

[OverambitiousNub]

Hi all,

So, I'm looking at chemistry grad schools (Theoretical Chem?), but my GPA is lowish - 3.63 at the moment, and likely to descend further after this term. (3.4 at worst. I made the grossly foolish mistake of thinking that I was some sort of superstar and could take 20 semester credit hours. Ouch.) Got a 640V, 800Q on the GRE.

I should be published by Spring 2012 in my degree mill's (Is U. FL a degree mill???) undergraduate journal (just got the research scholarship award last week, have a topic I'm excited about and an awesome adviser).

My Chem GPA is perfect right now, it's just I have this masochistic tendency to take hard courses outside of my area - will this impact my application super negatively? Oddly enough, despite the perfect quant score, the low grades are all in upper division math courses.

Should I graduate early in 2012 with a lowish GPA, or stick around for the full four years trying to boost things and add accolades?

All these sub 3.0 GPA people seem so much more... Cool, for lack of a better term, so now I'm facing worries on both the robot 4.0 front and the inspirational sub 3.0 group?

Thanks

Edited March 22, 2011 by OverambitiousNub

[starmaker]

*laugh* I was going to be a little bitchy at you for complaining about your "lowish" between-3.4-and-3.63 GPA on the sub-3.0 GPAs thread, but then you said we were cool, so I won't.

Anyway...

- UF is not a degree mill, it's a respected major research university.

- Your GPA is fine. Don't worry about it. Sure, it's not a 4.0, but it's high enough that you're going to be evaluated largely on other parts of your application. Which brings me to the following point...

- Don't stick around for another year just to boost your grades, but you might want to consider sticking around to boost your research experience, research credentials, and letters of recommendation (research supervisors often provide the most valuable recs), if you can afford the tuition. Those are going to be more important than your GPA, and staying for the fourth year will give you a significant advantage on all of them.

Also, since you are a chem major, beware the influence of the premeds, and their worries about anything that's not an A, on how you perceive your own grades. PhD programs don't evaluate applicants with the same weighting of factors that MD programs do.

[kimozabe]

apologies for bumping an ancient thread. was looking for some solace and reaffirmation which was found.

i graduated with a degree in MEng with a GPA of 2.81. the reasons for this were mostly due to incompatibility with the university (received a scholarship upon admission). scored a 159V/163Q/5AW on the GRE and 114 on the TOEFL. applying to 6 universities in the top 25 for aerospace grad. not sure if extra curriculars matter but i also run an improv troupe in my city (worth mentioning?). so i guess what i'm really looking for is assurance that applying to these schools won't be a waste of money :$

[fizzberry2]

Bumping this thread once again.........   

I graduated from a big-name, private school in California with a BA in geology and a minor in Peace and Conflict Studies in 2011 with a 2.9 GPA. I had many wonderful experiences an undergrad (work experience in my field, 3+ years of research, building amazing relationships with professors and community activists) but I was never able to pull my overall GPA up over a 3.0. I was dealing with major depression, burnout, coming out of the closet (oy) and family issues/parental pressure throughout my undergrad...there were some days where I just couldn't find it in myself to fucking get out of bed, and I was always really afraid of getting help (stigmas associated with mental illness is no joke) until well after I graduated. 

I beat myself up for a very long time about what I did and didn't do during undergrad, but I now realize that it was 1) a (majorly expensive) learning experience that has made me a stronger, better, smarter human being and 2) that there are things that I needed to take care of (like taking care of myself and finding out a career path that would allow me to combine my passions for science, EJ, social theory, and cultural studies) before I embark on a fantastic voyage through Graduate School and Academia.

[in retrospect, I wish I'd taken a semester or two off to just chill out and figure out who I was outside of school. If I could have afforded it, I would have loved to have taken a few months to travel/volunteer somewhere and let my brain rest...]

Since then, I've had the privilege of interning at the National Park Service as a GIS tech (and presenting the work that I did there at a huge conference in my field--PM if you're interested in learning more about the program!), working in informal science education (continuing to work in the same programs that I did as an undergrad--I commute to my alma mater a couple of weekends a month) and working at a small environmental nonprofit organization where, despite our tenuous funding situation, I've had some great opportunities to meet amazing people (one of my mentors, a professor at a local college, wrote me a letter of recommendation), doing good work (environmental justice work in MY community, which feels gratifying), and figuring out what it is what I want to do in grad school (in a nutshell, study relationships between human adaptation to climate change + gender + water + human health + community organizing/social movements in urban environments).

I'm mainly interested in applying to programs in geography:

- IU: PhD, geography - after flying out to visit, getting a chance to see the city and meeting with EVERYONE in the department, it's my top choice!)

- UW-Madison: MS, geography - after talking on the phone with the person I wanted to work with--who said that she was impressed with my lab experience--for over an hour, definitely my second choice!

- Clark University: PhD, geography - I've contacted the people I've wanted to work with and read some of their books...they're feminist geographers and I love their work. Tie for second!

- University of Kentucky (PhD, geography - I feel like I didn't have as great of a rapport/feelings as I did about the first three schools, but I love their political ecology program and I'm a good fit for their department. Third choice!

I'm also applying to at least 2 other MS programs in forestry/watershed management/enviro studies/hydrology with later/rolling deadlines (right now, UConn - rolling). While I'm a great fit for those and I know I'd be getting some great skills in those programs (e.g. GIS, water law, biogeochemistry, fundamentals of forestry/social theory/etc. I missed out on as a physical science major)

My GRE scores aren't amazing (v160, q149), but I have:

- strong LoRs from peeps in related fields (geography is so interdisciplinary it doesn't matter that they're not officially "geographers"...technically, though, I guess 2 of them are physical geographers and 1 is a human geographer if geologists = physical geographers and polisci/human rights/cultural researchers = human geographers),
- mostly As and Bs challenging/interesting major and minor classes
-  lots of interesting research & work experience,
- previous, meaningful contact with all researchers at schools that I've applied to.

I'm also an African-American, queer female in the physical/environmental/social sciences and applying to schools where low racial diversity is an issue (2 of my top schools are in small towns/cities in the Midwest). At least one of the schools I'm applying to is aggressively recruiting PoCs to rectify that lack of diversity. I don't really feel comfortable touting my "diverse" background in my application (I didn't at all in my SoP), but I casually inquired about diversity-related funding in my phone interview at UW-Madison and let my other departments know that I was definitely interested in being considered for funding opportunities aimed at increasing diversity in the field.

I guess if I get rejected to all of the schools I've applied to this year, I'll take a break from work to travel, drop $$ on one of those fancy GRE prep courses and maybe complete a GIS graduate certificate at Penn State (does anyone know anything about that program? It sounds interesting.)

So sorry for being long-winded, everyone! I just wanted to get some angst off my chest and share my story...hopefully it'll help someone else out there.

f you've read this post to the end, thank you! Here's to finding success and happiness in the new year!     

Edited January 22, 2014 by fizzberry2