Graduate School.. Is it worth it?

[hashem32]

I've been driven to apply to graduate school. As a May 2012 grad from Rutgers school of engineering with a bachelor's in chemical engineering, I've been looking at a variety of programs. The program most appealing to me is one based in Columbia University.

I graduated with a gpa of 2.8 (my last 2 years gpa of a 3.3) and my gre scores are 160-verbal 168-quant and writing 4.5 with no research experience so I'm assuming my LOR will be less than stellar.. My sophomore year, my grades suffered and finally my senior year I seemed to get back on track with a 3.5 gpa for that year. I recently applied to become a non matriculating student to take courses relevant to the program I wish to get into (as of now im considering whether to take graduate courses in cheme or undergraduate courses in biochem, genetics, and microbio). Also, I'm hoping to find a research position for this semester. My plan was to apply for a Masters in Cheme and perhaps find a way to switch to a phd once admitted (I'm sure after I prove myself). I can write an excellent SOP for this program.

After reviewing graduate admissions for a variety of different schools, people, credentials; I'm feeling as though there's little I can do at this point to gain entrance to a program of my choice.. Am I now an academic black sheep? What more can I possibly do? Do you think that I'm taking these classes in vain?

I'm planning on inquiring to Columbia about their program and contacting the professor personally. I would love to hear any suggestions.

Thanks

[ghanada]

You should read all the "low gpa" threads on here, there are a number of them floating around and share many experience from people that got into good grad schools. From my own personal experience in a similar field (biomedical engineering), I can tell you there is hope. But it means stop worrying and feeling sorry for yourself, pick yourself up, and make things happen. It is NOT easy by any means, but you can do it. I had a 2.6 GPA from undergrad at UCLA. I am now doing my PhD in BME at University of Michigan (top 10 school) and was also accepted for a PhD at Columbia (which is where you are shooting for) all with full funding and generous stipend offers.

From the route I went, I personally believe there are 2 main components you will need to spend some time working on. Research and GPA. For research, I spent 5 years (2 during undergrad, 3 years full time after graduation) working as an RA in a lab in my field. I started from the bottom doing grunt work, but eventually became the lab manager and got 2 first author publications + about 10 secondary authorships. This set me up to get into a Masters program at BU. I did 2 years of coursework, got my GPA up to 3.8 and did research in my thesis lab for 1 year full time. So with that, I have a good graduate GPA, many years of research, many publications, strong LORs, and an MS degree under my belt. In my opinion, those are all the types of things that will help you get into a top tier PhD program.

Now, you must understand the reality of it all. This took me 6 years since I finished undergrad to get to my PhD program. So yes, it will take you some time to recover from your undergrad GPA. I am also in a sizable amount of debt from having to do an unfunded Masters. Although luckily I managed to get a generous scholarship, but at an expensive school, so my debt isn't as bad as it could have been. However, I am now in a dream grad program doing research that excites me, and because of my previous Masters and research experience, I am on track to finish this PhD in just 4 years.

As for advice, I would think the best route for you is to try and get into a Masters program (most likely unfunded), do EXCEPTIONALLY well in coursework, spend A LOT OF TIME doing research for a strong thesis doing work that would be relevant to your desired PhD, get 2 LORs from professors in grad courses you do well in, and 1 LOR from your thesis advisor. If you can't gain acceptance to a good Masters program this year, than in the mean-time find an RA job doing research in your field and re-apply in another year or 2.

And really, the IDEAL route would be to try and gain admission to a Masters program in a school that you would want to continue to do your PhD at. In this case, you would probably start as an unfunded Masters student, do 1-2 years of coursework, start volunteering as a grad researcher in a well funded lab, demonstrate to your PI that you are good and desirable, then get that PI to offer to fund you for a PhD. You will most likely still have to re-apply to this same school for the PhD, but with a faculty member that has money for you, wants you, and writes a LOR to vouch for you, gaining admission to said school will be more or less automatic.

Bottom line: If you are driven and passionate about attaining our goals, I fully believe you can do it. It is difficult and will require a bit of luck and connections, but it can happen. It might take a few years to get there, but it is worth it.

[Eigen]

So the thing that stands about your post, to me, is the first line: "I've been driven to apply to graduate school."

To request clarification, what is driving you? Do you really want a graduate degree? Do the jobs you need require a graduate degree? I'm also curious if something changed, since you graduated in May and are now considering graduate school.

Assuming you really want a PhD, the next thing that stands out is the lack of research experience. For engineering, I wouldn't consider a 2.8 GPA an application killer (especially considering your higher last-years GPA and good GRE scores), but the fact that you have no research experience will hurt a lot more. There are a number of success stories of people getting in with sub-3.0 GPAs, but it will depend on the school. Irrespective of the department, some schools as a whole have minimum GPA requirements for admission, and there's very little a department can do to get around them.

For one, it means that you don't really know what graduate school and the careers you'll be looking at with a PhD will be, primarily. With no research experience, it's a lot harder to fully answer the "why do I want a graduate degree" question.

For raising your GPA, you don't really have any options. You already graduated, so you can't go back and raise your BS GPA. Thus, I'd focus on trying to land a research-type position, either academically or in industry.