Chances of getting into a PhD program with 2.9 GPA

juillet
Mon, 07 Oct 2013 22:32:48 +0000

At some places, the cut-off is just a suggestion and an outstanding student may gain admission with a lower GPA - but “outstanding student” means someone who has done something truly outstanding, like publications or many years of research - and usually also has some distance between them and their undergraduate GPA. Since you just graduated, your GPA will be taken by the admissions committee as more salient and reflective of what your performance will be in the graduate program (than, say, if you graduated 5 years ago and worked).

At other places, it truly IS a cut-off and they won’t take anyone below that GPA. It just depends on the program.

MrMom makes a good point. Your 2.9 GPA - is your major GPA higher (as in 3.5+)? Is your GPA for junior and senior year higher? If you have a higher, acceptable GPA in those circumstances AND the rest of your packet is outstanding (including your fit with the departments you are considering and your statement of purpose, which you didn’t mention but also heavily influence admissions) then I would go ahead and apply and see what happens. GRE scores are actually the least important part, and don’t outweigh your GPA.

If all components of your GPA are pretty low, then I recommend pursuing a master’s in engineering. Many master’s programs in engineering, especially those at research institutions focused on research, are funded. It’s entirely possibly for you to get into a funded master’s program, do well, and then move into a PhD program after that.

And no, it’s not to your advantage that you are the first to go to college. In many grad programs, that’s a nice perk - but it doesn’t work like undergrad does. They’re not concerned with increasing opportunity for underrepresented groups so much as they are selecting people who will do great work and make their programs look good.