What's a good GPA?

[Kareen]

I am a Jamaican applying for a PhD in Industrial Organizational Psychology. I've looked at many different schools, however, most only accept 3 students per year, and require extremely high GPAs. What are my prospects with an overall GPA of 3.45, a (Psychology) major GPA of 3.54 and a GPA of 3.88 for my final 2 years? I graduated from Macalester College in 2011, and have been working in Jamaica as a teacher since then. Also, could you recommend any schools that I can apply to?

[BeingThere]

Kareen,

Are you familiar with SIOP?  You can search through I/O programs here:

 

http://www.siop.org/gtp/gtplookup.asp

 

I have read on many program websites that GPA is only one of the many factors considered.  The difficulty of your coursework (e.g. organic chemistry versus basket-weaving) is sometimes considered with GPA.  If you have read through programs' websites, I'm sure you've seen that some schools give more consideration to the last 60 hours of GPA.  If you rock the GRE and have great references and research experience, then you could still be in the running for many PhD programs.

 

You should spend some time figuring out  what your research interests are and then look for schools with faculty that have similar interests or are doing research you'd like to be a part of.  Research fit is a huge factor in whether you would be accepted, even if you had stellar grades and every other factor working in your favor.

 

You might want to consider also applying to some master's programs as they are usually a bit less competitive than PhD programs.  Many students get a master's first and then apply to PhD programs from there.  You can search for master's programs or PhD programs through the link above.

[Lisa44201]

Your stats are pretty good; have you taken the GRE? Ditto what Bren2014 said w/r/t Master's programs, too; the career prospects for someone with a Master's in I/O are very, very good. I will send you a PM, too.