Lost College Junior!

[collegestudent13]

Hello all,

I am new to the forum!

I am a political science junior at a large public university. I am considering graduate school.

I had a horrible first year of college... My grades were mediocre and I did not like my major. I transferred to my current university and later changed my major. I fell in love with political science and my grades have increased significantly.

My freshman GPA (or my GPA from my other university) is a 3.0, my current GPA is a 3.7. Last semester was my first official semester in my new major, and I made a 4.0.

I have not taken the GRE yet, but I plan to study for it over the summer.

Is my first year going to affect my chances of getting into a decent grad school? I really had no idea how to make good grades when I started my ungraduate career. I had poor study skills... I even made a C in one of the core political science courses during my freshman year. I have made nothing but A's in all my political science courses since..

Thank you for your advice!

[rockhopper]

I'm in Biology, so I'm unfamiliar with your field. But if you continue to raise your grades, study for and get a solid GRE score, and find professors to write you strong letters of recommendation, you should be in good shape! Poor grades early in college can be tough to shake off, but if you work hard to raise your GPA I think you'll be fine! An internship wouldn't hurt either!

[Quantum Buckyball]

You will be fine as long as you maintain a competitive GPA at your current school. Make sure you have some other extracurricular activities related to your field to boost up your application.

I've had 1.6 GPA for one semester (4 Ds, 1 C, and 1 A) back in undergraduate..

[OregonGal]

I actually had a very similar experience to you! My freshman year was TERRIBLE and I ended up transferring b/c the school was not at all a good fit for me. Let's just say that I had worse than a 3.0 from that year I did have poor grades in at least one major-specific course (I was an IR major) but overall pulled my GPA up to 3.2 overall, with a 3.5 in my major. There, you're already way ahead of me in compensating for freshman year

The schools I ended up applying to all want work experience, because I want a 'professional' degree (MIA is the IR equivalent of MPA/MPP). So, the fact that I had 2+ years of relevant work experience to write about in my SOPs helped. I also did well (not excellent, but well) on my GREs. I was accepted at a decent (strong in Asia/Pacific, decent but not amazing rep overall) school and wait-listed at Johns Hopkins SAIS (top 10, some say top 5 school).

Long story short... you may have dug yourself a bit of a hole your freshman year but it sounds like you've completely recovered academically. Graduate programs generally pay more attention to your major/upper-div/last two years courses to see how you do once you've settled into your track. If you're going for a theoretical degree vs a professional degree, I'd say you just need to keep on doing as you do and make sure to cultivate good relationships with your professors for those upcoming LORs.