Does graduate admissions take undergrad work experience into consideration?

harvestmoon
Wed, 08 Jun 2016 13:00:42 +0000

Welcome to CC (officially)!

Graduate school admissions are indeed more holistic, but likewise, it’s also more specialized than undergraduate admissions. Grad schools don’t generally care about what a great person you are overall as much as what a great student/worker/researcher you are in your desired field.

Have any of your jobs been related to the kinds of grad programs you’re considering? If so, you could use them to both bolster your personal statement and give some explanation for your GPA (which is lower than most competitive GPAs, but not low enough to keep you out of the running, I would think).

Have you done any research/interesting projects that could help your appeal? The personal statement is one of (if not THE) most important parts of the application because it’s a direct argument about what you’ve been doing and how you can fit in at a school’s program. It’s especially important if you’re trying to make up for a weaker part of the application (like GPA or test scores), so really dig deep and think about how you can write yourself up to be the ideal candidate.

Good luck!