Question about: "B average in last two years of undergraduate coursework"

[Jonathan K.]

Good Morning Grad Cafer's..

I recently found a grad program at UC Santa Cruz that is a perfect fit: MA in Social Documentation. After contacting the SocDoc program, they were not familiar with a GPA requirement, they pointed me towards the graduate division admissions office. The graduate admissions were not familiar with a GPA requirement either, but after we got off the phone they emailed me finding this, "and have at least a B average in last two years of undergraduate coursework" -- they also pointed me towards the document where this statement can be found.

Generally speaking my GPA is 2.9.

I finished undergrad almost 2 years ago now, after attending 3 different schools (2 were the same school in a different location). The program I finished was a BFA in Photography, requiring 192 credit hours. I took classes out of sequence and most notably, we were on a quarter system. This was a four year program they setup to take 3 years to complete-- once I returned to college, I finished in under 3. So I'm curious how this requirement for grad school will be calculated, and since no one really knew the answer, how much I should worry about this? Will my application be tossed out immediately?

For further background, I went to a commercial photography school, and was usually making fine art. I applied to 5 NYC MFA programs my last year of undergrad and I was accepted into Pratt. I deferred my acceptance to Pratt and traveled last year, working with non-profits and eventually received a photography education grant with which I taught a month long photography program in Central America. Since back in the states, I decided not to attend Pratt and I've continued to work with non-profits in multiple capacities, and have since began co-coordinating that very grant I received, after reaching out to the foundation with new ideas.

I've been very interested in continuing this direction, and also very interested in heading out to the bay area. I was overjoyed in finding this type of program exists, and the out of state tuition is very reasonable. I don't want to create a sob story, or draw to much attention to my application for barely meeting a minimum requirement, but I don't want to waste time and energy if this is an unobtainable goal.

Any thoughts or advice?

[Sigaba]

What is the significance of your taking courses out of sequence?

Are you saying you took more advance courses first, and took less advanced courses later on and did not do as well in them?

[Jonathan K.]

Yes, that is why I chose to include that piece of information. Since the school phrases it, last 2 years. I didn't know if that was a general reference to your major courses or what they intended.

[Sigaba]

Okay. You might be trying to make a point that can work against you. Does the expectation that an undergraduate will do better in the last two years reflect the view that she will do better work in her major? Or does it also reflect the view that she is maturing as a student and doing better work over all?

[Jonathan K.]

I see your point, but what about everything else I am describing? Rearranging how they calculate might shift me from a 2.93 to a 2.95 or somewhere so I'm still barely meeting a requirement.