Best way to recover from a bad MPH semester if you're looking to go on to PhD programs?

[alexanais22]

Hey everyone,

 

I'm currently an Epidemiology MPH student who just finished up her first year. My last semester didn't go very well grade-wise because of some personal and mental health issues I had to clear up in the middle of the semester. I pulled some B's and C+'s, so I managed to pass, but my GPA is in a pretty rough state.

 

I'm in a better state now, and will be in a better place to bring my grades up next semester. I've also had internship and practicum work beginning my first Fall semester and am working on two research projects currently in the summer.

 

My plan to mitigate my bad semester is to keep getting more research experience that will lead to me being on some publications, and of course, to work to crack out A's in my remaining two semesters. Is there anything else current PhD's suggest to help mitigate this bad semester in my overall PhD application? Am I pretty much dead in the water as far as PhD programs go?

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated so I can plan my next semester accordingly.

 

Thanks!

[FreeRadical]

Hey, the forum is pretty slow now that admissions seasons has died down. I don't have any special knowledge but I thought I'd respond anyway...

 

I'd say cumulative GPA is obviously important, so get that up if you can. From what I understand, though, admissions committees do take into consideration whether you've improved over time in a certain topic. For example, I was a Spanish major in college without much background in statistics. I had a slow start in my biostats courses, but I was able to show consistent improvement over time. By the end I could legitimately claim that statistics is a strength rather than a weakness. If you have any future courses in the same topic in which you got low grades, I'd give them some extra attention.

 

All thing considered, one bad semester isn't going to make or break your application. I think the single best thing you can do is have a coherent plan for your career and be able to show that you're making progress on that plan.