Looking for Master's program

[ksamps1]

Hey I'm a senior at a school in Baltimore, Maryland. My major is Biology with a concentration in cell and molecular biology. I had a hard time acclimating college and my GPA suffered. This is my last semester of my undergraduate career and I'm retaking some classes but my GPA is a 2.7. I am scheduled to take my GREs next week. I am currently interested in Immunology and Microbiology sciences. Are there any master programs that dont have GPA admission requirements above a 2.7 and still are taking applications? Also, many master programs dont provide tutition waivers and stipends like PhD programs but I would definetely need to those (I would need atleast enough to live). I have about a year and a half of research experience and have strong letter of reccomendations

[biotechie]

ksamps, it is pretty late in the application season. I think you're going to find that a lot of the MS programs have deadlines prior to February 28, particularly the funded ones, so you might have to wait until next school year to get in or find some schools that allow admission for Spring 2015. There will be a few, but not many, still accepting applications or that have rolling applications.

 

Funded MS degrees are few and far between. I was lucky enough to be funded by staying on with my undegrad PI's lab. I would look into that option if I were you. Otherwise, you might have to either take on the debt or work for a few years to build up some revenue so you can run through a MS or post-bacc program. You might struggle a little to get into a MS, but I think your research experience will really help you. In my opinion, a MS is better than a post-bacc for those wanting to go on for a PhD. If you're wanting to go to med school, I would probably avoid a MS. My experience is a professors tend to be not so crazy about pre-med MS students, so getting into a lab might be a challenge, and that type of student is also far less productive as far as research goes.

 

What exactly are you wanting to accomplish with a MS? That will determine the type of MS program you apply to (thesis or non-thesis) and also will determine which types of schools still have open applications. If you're wanting to do a PhD later on, you definitely need to do a thesis-based MS.

 

You said you had trouble acclimating to college. Graduate school is like college^cubed. Please make sure that you're prepared for a graduate education, especially in the sciences. Take some time to really consider it and to talk to current MS and PhD students. I regularly spent more than 14 hours at school in the lab per day and I spent most weekends in the lab. It isn't like that all the time, but you're going to have to really push yourself. You're going to be balancing 40-60 hours of research per week + classes and probably teaching. It is very hard work and very different from undergraduate. I'm not trying to discourage you, but I've seen too many people burn out and lose their love of science, and that's the last thing we need to have happen. The decision to go to grad school is a big one.