<p>I’m new here. I would like to do a graduate degree in Environmental Science or GIS or perhaps even an MBA with an IT or environmental focus. I will be moving to Charleston or Columbia, SC, thus I am looking at USC Columbia or either the Citadel or College of Charleston. I have a BS in Environmental Science from URI from three years ago and I got a 3.0 (well, a 2.94, how much does that suck?) I will probably get decent recommendations from professors and work, although I haven’t kept in touch. I have a gut feeling I will get decent but not amazing GRE scores.</p>
<p>So I assume I have a good chance of not getting in. I was wondering if anyone knew about USC or CoC Environmental Science, GIS, and/or MBAs actually.</p>
<p>Here is my plan to “sneak” into getting admitted into grad school despite the above: I take several courses that are required by the respective program (without admission) during a semester and do really well. These professors are my references. Since they are in the program, is this a real leg up, making up for my bad GPA? Will this greatly increase chances of admission? I can specify in detail what I plan to do, whose research I would like to support and work with, why I want to be there, etc. Or is this a nuts idea?</p>
<p>It’s not sneaky. It’s being proactive and showing that you’re serious about graduate school. Just perform well and get good recs to get in a more secure positio during admissions decisions but know that it’s not a guarantee.</p>
<p>I did something like this- as a lab tech I can take free graduate courses. I took several at my university and really enjoyed them. I was offered an unsolicited spot in the graduate program for the coming year. I don’t think it was sneaky but you may find that certain courses require a professor’s consent if you are a “non degree student”</p>
<p>Just be aware that some programs actually have admissions policies to prevent that. Some simply don’t alllow non-degree seeking students at all in grad classes, don’t admit students from such status into certain competitive programs, and/or will not admit previous undergraduate students or lab techs of their own. This could work but you should check with the school whether this is an allowable option for your proposed program. Do your research!</p>
<p>I had a very similar situation. I had an undergrad degree with no business classes (poli sci), and a GPA (2.9) that was under what was required for the MBA program.
I took 3 undergrad courses (2 business, 1 econ) and 1 grad course, got A’s in all of them, and got a very good score on the GMAT. I then re-applied and was admitted into the program.
It might not have worked for a top 25 program, but was sufficient for the University that I currently attend. I have received either an A or A- for every class I have taken so far in my grad program, so my less than stellar undergrad performance is starting to dissipate in importance (since I may go on for my PhD).
There is hope for people who did not do as well as they should have for their undergrad!</p>
<p>My DD was not being sneaky, she wanted to determine if research was of interest to her so she did volunteer research for a university about an hour from home. She did it once a week from fall on. In Jan/Feb that prof told her she needed to apply to his school for grad school and she did, one and only app. This was for a masters, she did not yet have the experience necessary to be ready to choose PhD for sure, but your theory worked- a prof at the school liked what she did and she got in</p>
<p>I’m going to start a masters in the fall, and I decided to take a upper level class to show them i’m serious (during this last semester). Just found out this class won’t count towards my masters and it was hard as ****. Now i need to take even harder classes to fulfill that requirement! ■■■, the class isn’t exactly my favorite topic.</p>