1580 GRE, 2.8 GPA. Chances?

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1

<p>Hi guys,</p>

<p>I recently received my full GRE scores in the mail: 800V, 780Q, 4.5W. Unfortunately, my undergrad GPA is only 2.8 from Virginia Tech, which isn’t very highly ranked among humanities and foreign language departments.</p>

<p>On the plus side, I speak German fluently, and having worked in Taiwan for four years I also speak Mandarin tolerably well. I would like to get into a linguistics or translator-training program somewhere, but I am completely lost as to where to apply.</p>

<p>Any help?</p>

2

<p>You might have better luck posting this in the Graduate School forum down below.</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/graduate-school/[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/graduate-school/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

3

<p>Take another look at your college transcript. What courses are the ones that gave you that GPA? Did you have say a 4.0 in languages and a 2.0 in math and science? What is your undergraduate major?</p>

<p>Do some research in the library, with faculty in the foreign language departments at your school, and/or on-line about graduate programs in linguistics, and about translator-training programs. Some of the translator programs won’t necessarily be located at a university, for example, I think Berlitz offers this kind of training. When you know the requirements to enter the programs that interest you, you may find it worth your time to go back to college for a semester or two to pick up any coursework that you need. Since you will be headed in a specific direction, you will find it much easier to focus on your goals and to get the grades you need.</p>

<p>FWIW, I had a 2.7 for my undergraduate degree, and GRE scores almost as good as yours. After working for a couple of years, I went back to college at my cheap home state university to change fields, and had a 3.7 in my coursework there after a year and a half. Got into grad school with TA and RA positions that paid for my studies. I fully expect that you can do this sort of thing too.</p>

<p>All the best.</p>

4

<p>Hi,</p>

<p>I thought about going back to take some undergrad courses and bring up my GPA, but at 28 it is highly unlikely that I will get loans and/or parental support for yet another year of college, and I would like to graduate from washing dishes sometime soon.</p>

<p>It has been suggested to me on more than one occasion that I should attend a year of grad school at VT and use that as leverage to get into a higher ranked program later on, so I may do that. Thanks for the advice : )</p>

5

<p>Hi,</p>

<p>sorry for posting in the wrong forum. if the mods would like to delete this thread i would appreciate it.</p>

<p>thanks : )</p>