Chances of admission with a low GPA

Graduate School
1

Hi all!

I have been reading a lot of threads about the sub 3.0 GPA issue and I am worried about it, too. So here is a brief summary of my situation.

I am Emre from Turkey, a senior studying Chemistry and doing double major with Chemical and Biological at the highest ranked University in Turkey (according to the Times Higher Edu.). My undergraduate GPA is 2.81 with the grade average of the last two years being 3.04. The reason is that I got very low grades throughout the first two years of my study. The grades from the last four semesters are better. In addition, I am currently taking a few. classes that undergrads and grads can mutually enroll and I am expecting to get very good letter grades based on my assignment grades so far. One of them is closely related to my area of interest

For grad school, I want to study either computational biology or biomaterials (drug delivery). I have worked at four different laboratories so far and two of them are directly related to my future goals. However, I don’t have any publications yet. I also completed a summer internship at the Clinical Trials department of Novartis.

My GRE scores: 154 in verbal, 169 in Q and 4.0 in AW

TOEFL: 112 (got 30 from the listening and the writing parts)

I have two professors and an associate professor who agreed to write me recommendation letters. Two of them are my current or previous research supervisors and the third one is my academic advisor. One of the professors will probably write a game changer recommendation, the other recommendations will be more ordinary (just making a guess here)

I am planning to apply to a lot of programs, here is the list:

I already applied to UDel PhD in Chem Eng.

Planning on applying to

University at Buffalo, PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences,

Stony Brook, PhD in material Sciences and Engineering

Illinois Inst of Tech, PhD in chemical Engineering

MSc in Chemical Engineering or Pharmaceutical Sciences at Waterloo (although it requires me to find a potential supervisor and that is very difficult to achieve as they either completely ignore my e-mails or they lack sufficient funds)

MSc in University of Alberta, Western University, Calgary, Queen’s

Uppsala, Chalmers and Linkoping in Sweden (MSc)

Twente and Groningen in Netherlands.

Obviously I can’t apply to all of them since it is extremely costly. So I would like to know if one or more of these options is far from realistic for my situation, so that I can avoid wasting money on them. Because of my GPA I am constantly being discouraged, telling myself “should I even apply at all?”

I asked about the GPA policy to some of the universities above by e-mail but they simply responded by copy pasting what is already stated on their website.

Overall, I would really appreciate it if you could give me an idea about my chances and possible steps that I can take for the future.

Thanks in advance

2

At Illinois Tech we have a significant familiarity with students from Turkey and how the grading is. I think you have a decent chance of being admitted. If your professors have contact with any faculty here you can ask them to make contact with some of our faculty about you. In general, the fact that you have done better in your last two years should be a plus for your applications. Even if you do not have publications, your research and industry experience should be an advantage.

3

Hi there! You’re in luck that I logged in today!

I’m a student at Linköping University! I believe the chances for the Swedish schools shouldn’t be so low, unless the department you’re applying for is really great in that specific university. Because in Sweden, especially in Linköping, you lots of dumb asians (I’m asian so it’s ok!) coming here studying useless courses which cost a lot. So I think if you just have the money it shouldn’t be any trouble getting accepted!

4

First of all, thanks a lot for the replies :slight_smile:

@xraymancs Well, there is an associate professor at my university who completed her PhD at Illinois Tech. I took 2 required courses and one area elective (the one about my research interests- Tissue Engineering) from her. I got B- and A- from the required courses and most likely will get an A from tissue engineering. She is an awesome instructor but extremely strict and uptight about certain things. I wanted to work at her lab so bad, but she wouldn’t let me join her lab because she didn’t find my GPA high enough (I tried twice). I could try to talk to her about making a contact, but I’m not sure if she would even bother to help. But again, who knows!

@Sviden Hehe you are right, I actually have friend who happens to be applying just because he fell in love with Stockholm in his last visit. Anyways, I applied to Biomedical Engineering. Thing is, I need a scholarship and there is one particularly for students from Turkey. But it is awarded to around 12-15 students each year. So, I don’t know if I can get it or not.

5

In the Physics Department, we have some former Ph.D. students from Turkey who are now faculty and they routinely send us Ph.D. candidates from their universities and they do very well. It is work a try. There is also one faculty member in the Chemical Engineering Department who is originally from Turkey and might be a good point of contact. You can probably figure it out by looking at the department web page.

6

That is very good news! I contacted my associate professor and will meet her next week. I will also try to contact the faculty member you mentioned.

By the way, my current research was actually a 3 credit required are course called Independent Study and I presented my project at the end of the term and just learned that I got an A+. Does this help in compensating for the low GPA since it doesn’t appear in my current transcript? The deadlines are mostly before the new transcript is out.

7

Everything helps particularly if it is mentioned in your recommendation letters.

8

Hi everyone!

So, here are a few updates:

I got a rejection from UDel (expectedly)

My fall 2016 SPA is 3.41 which raised my GPA to 2.88

I started thinking about applying to schools in the UK (at least they don’t charge you for applying :D)
For some reason that I don’t get, the universities in the UK seem to be more welcoming. I know a few friends who got offers from good universities in the UK with “not-so-high” GPAs (near 3.0). Getting a scholarship is still a problem since they are limited, especially to international students.

It also seems like the UK universities mostly don’t give full scholarships even to PhD students and only cover the tuition fee. Does anybody have an idea about which universities possibly give full scholarships to PhD students or are more generous with master scholarships (finance based ones)?

9

Hi guys;

So here is an update about Uppsala University:

This is what it says on my application page:

CONDITIONALLY QUALIFIED
You will be able to compete for a place in this course/programme. If you are offered a place, you will be required to document that you meet the requirements. More information regarding what is required can be found in the description of the course/programme on the university’s website.
-Your general eligibility is conditional: In order to begin your studies you must show that you fulfill the general requirement of a completed academic degree comprising of at least 180 ECTS credits or equivalent. The requirement must be fulfilled and the appropriate credentials presented to the institution when the programme/course starts at the latest.
You compete in the following selection groups:
Alternativt urval (AU)
Your ranking in this selection group is: 999 of a maximum(999)

Does anyone know what this is? I know that a high merit rating is somehow good news, but what is an Alternativt Urval?