Am I smart enough to go to graduate school?

Transfer Students
1

<p>Hi, I am applying to transfer right now. I only have a few weeks left to turn in my applications and I do not want to (will not) turn them in last minute. </p>

<p>I avoided all majors that required chemistry and calculus. Right now I’m deciding between Health Education, Psychology, and Psychology:Industrial and Organizational. I have a weird situation. In middle school, I got straight A’s and ended up going to a public magnet high school (top 50 in the U.S). While in high school, I developed clinical depression, was mildly suicidal, skipped school, was extremely sleep deprived, and just did not get a very good GPA. </p>

<p>Because I struggled so much in high school, I lost all confidence in my academic abilities and I still do not think I can succeed. I am not aiming to be a doctor or a lawyer. I just want a job that will allow me to make enough money to support myself and live comfortably. I want to get a graduate degree in industrial and organizational psychology. </p>

<p>Should I aim for a masters? I need to know because if I am not, I will pick a major that will allow me to get a job with just a bachelors.
-I estimate my IQ to be roughly 100 based on an online IQ test that seemed somewhat reliable.
-I am at a community college and my GPA is 3.68.
-I want to go to a CSU for a BA in psych and then get a masters in psych.
-I learned practically no math in high school because 1. was extremely sleep deprived (3-6 hours a night),
2. depressed 3. i am not very good at math. adv alg- B/C geo- B/C precalc C/A
calc-C/dropped class. I was getting a B+ in calc but I stopped going to school for a while and my grade dropped. I ended up not taking second semester calc because I wanted to make things easier for myself.Honestly, I don’t remember any high school math except for a little bit of calc and some geometry. I am acing my stats class in community college but this is community college and they watered down the curriculum to increase retention rates.
-lastly, my SAT is 1780. I took it once. </p>

<p>Based on these criteria, do you think I am smart enough to succeed in graduate school. I am aware that this could just be a self confidence issue but I believe I am being realistic about my abilities. I learned from my mistakes. In middle school, I did great and thought I could do anything. High school taught me that I am not smart and I should not overestimate myself. Does anyone have any advice or comments?</p>

2

<p>Graduate school (like everything else) doesn’t require exceptionally smart people. It does require discipline and constant effort.</p>

<p>Stop worrying about how smart you are. It’s not immutable, and it doesn’t define what you’re capable of.</p>

<p>ps: I think most high schools do a terrible job teaching math, so I wouldn’t worry about it.</p>

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<p>You could go to grad school. However, and also being a prospective I-O psychologist (although I plan to focus on academia), I should warn you that the grad school programs for I-O psych require a lot of math and stats courses to prepare us to analyze data and perform research. A masters degree is better if your goals are business oriented, research indicates that PhD holders only have a marginal advantage over M. degree holders. Also, no online IQ test is reliable, and anyway an IQ test is not good for estimating grad school success. Given the information you provided about yourself I’d say that you would be in the lower 20-30% of the I-O Psychs. Nevertheless the acceptance rate for Masters programs in I-O psych hovers around the low 40%, PhD acceptance rates are below 15%. I hope this was useful, good luck!</p>

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<p>You might also want to post your thread on the Graduate School forum and the Parents forum, lots of experienced members there.</p>