hapyr0 Posted February 10, 2014 Posted February 10, 2014 (edited) Hi, I'm currently a senior at a pretty well known school studying applied math with an economics concentration. I have roughly a 3.1 GPA (I know, horrible), but I transferred in with a 3.95 GPA, which should leave me somewhere around the 3.4-3.5 range. I haven't taken my GRE's because I want to work for a year so I can gain experience with computer science/data analytics and then apply for my masters degree at one of the following places: UCLA, USC, Cal Poly SLO, UCI, and of course, Stanford and Berkeley. The problem is, I know with my crap GPA, I probably won't get into a masters program for applied math, cs, or statistics. I wanted to know if you guys had any advice for what I should do to help make myself more competitive to get into one of these top tier programs. I've been reading the forums for a while, and I've noticed that some of you mention post-bac programs. Do you think that's applicable to me? If so, which ones do you think I should be striving for? Do you have any advice for me, or am I doomed? Also, I'm sorry for the abruptness, I've been having panic attacks about this stuff for the past month, and I finally gained enough sense/courage to post here. Thanks, hapyr0 Edited February 10, 2014 by hapyr0
Stat Assistant Professor Posted February 10, 2014 Posted February 10, 2014 You might not be able to get into any top tier MS programs, but I think you could probably get into *some* MS program. Is it possible for you to take some graduate-level or more upper division courses in one of those fields and ace them? You could even take some as a non-degree student after you graduate. You could get some good LORs that way and that would make you more competitive for MS admissions. That is what I did. In my case though, my undergrad degree was not even in math, so I took some upper division and grad level courses in mathematics as a non-degree student and then applied to MS programs in Applied Math. I was successful in getting in because of my performance in these classes.
1535nuke Posted February 14, 2014 Posted February 14, 2014 I definitely second Stat Applicant- the situation is that you don't have concrete proof that you can succeed in high level math cs or statistics classes- you need to get some concrete evidence and what better way than to take a hard one(s) and crush it- but remember you've got to put in the work and get the grade- I did something very similar in a similar situation and I'm very glad that I did it- it just takes a large time commitment to study that hard
hapyr0 Posted March 3, 2014 Author Posted March 3, 2014 I graduate this May and I'm moving back home. My parents want me to find work but I'm sure I may be able to moonlight classes at my local university. Thanks for the advice guys. I really appreciate it.
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