<p>Hello…</p>
<p>My D is going into her Junior year at a top 10 engineering school. She’s a ECE major with a Computer Science minor. The school offers no plus and minuses on courses (so now you figured where she is studying perhaps) …she manages to earn many 88 and 89 averages-- which means with all the B+ performance behind her-- she’s still earning Bs for those 88/89 averages). Her GPA is now only a 3.1 after two years. ( unfortunately Two Cs in freshman fall semester-- took on more than she should have by enrolling in two higher level classes)</p>
<p>She’s a female URM, at a top school, worked for Google one summer (in a great project) , NASA this summer and doing research on campus with world renowned faculty member last year - continuing when she returns to campus in fall. She came in with loads of APs so has been taking essentially upper level courses and electives for the first two years-- no excuses-- but a low GPA at this point.</p>
<p>She wants to apply to a doctoral program at Stanford or MIT.
I think she has no chance at Stanford, MIT or anything closee …with only a 3.1… even if she earned all As moving forward, she would not be over a 3.5 until perhaps second semester senior year…applications would go in fall senior year-- so even a straight 4.0 next year isn’t going to make a noticeable dent in that GPA. Forget Stanford, I don’t even think she can gain an offer anywhere with her low GPA.</p>
<p>But I ask-- does she have a chance given she’s studying in a top engineering program, has great research experience and she’s a URM-female – ?</p>
<p>Or is she toast… </p>
<p>Please-- let’s not turn this into an anti URM thread— …thanks</p>
<p>Guidance?</p>
<p>I’m not sure how this can turn into an anti-URM thread. What do you mean by that? Are you just being paranoid, or do you seriously think that the CC community is some hate group? It’s only an issue at all because minority status is usually a plus for college admissions, especially in borderline cases such as your D’s.</p>
<p>I think she has a chance at top PHD school. She isn’t doomed, going off the stats you’ve posted. Google, during undergrad?! And then NASA?! Clearly, she has potential to do work beyond the undergraduate curriculum. I think you know this, and I hope you know that the admission committees will know this. (whew) In addition, I’d like to offer the following advice.</p>
<p>1.Shore up the grades, obviously. I don’t care what the final GPA is (OK, if it’s a 2.0 or something crap she’s toast). If she can finish her Senior year with mostly As in those high-level engineering classes, she clearly has her **** together. The admissions committee will see this.
2. Research! Graduate schools live off of research. If she can make progress with any kind of problem that is outside of regular coursework, admissions committees will see that she has maturity to do work without being told to do it.
3. If PHD at MIT/Stanford is out of reach, seriously consider applying for their Master’s program, which is less ambitious. The master’s degree can be seen as a stepping stone for PHD at top school.</p>
<p>Thanks dajohnson</p>
<p>Regarding the urm stuff…not paranoid-- I like CC – been of great value for under info for both my children…sometimes the undergrad CC population gets pretty cruel to posters who seemingly “took away my spot”…my D is actually bi-racial-- never has mattered before-- her high school record was solid getting her the undergrad spot…which led to the opportunities thus far…that said, I imagine with the shortage of women and minorities in STEM fields, this can help her–.</p>
<p>Yep Google-- her ECE/CS combo landed her an internship after freshman year. Many of her peers got hired at google, FB, Microsoft…the school does very well in placing students. From there she managed to get on board a project at school in her second year and then landed the NASA internship for this summer at JPL r…so she’s done fine with research.<br>
I suspect she bites off too much and ends up just a hair below an A every semester-- but without the B+ option, she keeps getting Bs for 88/89 results-- hence the terrible GPA – it is terrible, I cannot seem to sugar coat it— 3.1 is terrible-- it’s not even average for the phd programs she’s interested in== same for masters…</p>
<p>can you expand on your experience that leads to your conclusion that she’s not toast… </p>
<p>From reading results threads of people with 3.7+ gpas…still doesn’t seem possible.</p>
<p>Anyone else want to share examples that are encouraging…</p>
<p>I don’t see why going to work after the undergrad yearswould matter- she already has great internships…it’s the grades that are at issue</p>
<p>Finally- anyone? Does the top school and difficulty of their curriculum counter the lower gpa…</p>
<p>Two reasons why I believe she isn’t toast.</p>
<p>-First it’s wishful thinking. I’m currently in a situation roughly similar to your D’s. Although her application is much better than mine, I’m looking at grad schools (just not top-notch) I’m also taking on crazy course loads (17-21 hours) and paying the price in GPA. It is my hope that an adcom will see that I’m more interested in learning than playing the grade game.</p>
<p>-Second: It’s so rare for URM females to show up in a top-notch STEM program, and perform decently, AND do good research, that I really do think her application will be given a serious look. </p>
<p>If you ignore the GPA, which as you grant might be distorted by factors <em>besides</em> her academic potential (namely, course load and difficulty), her application is…remarkable. Throw in a very good GRE, and ask yourself, what is missing? Nothing, really.</p>
<p>I don’t know how much PhD programs look at URM status. For undergrad, internships, jobs, being URM helps more than any other thing possibly could, but I doubt that URM status plays any role in PhD program admissions. It seems like she goes to a good school, so a 3.5+ could get her into a master’s program at MIT/Stanford, and honestly, I don’t think there is any way she could get into MIT/Stanford for a PhD. Just my 2 cents though.</p>
<p>Do they simply not give +/- or do those grades not get the increase/decrease in GPA? All of my schools asked me to recalculate my GPA into major only and last two years only, and if she was actually given a B+ that only counted for a B at her school, if she recalculates her GPA it would be higher. But obviously this won’t work if she was only given A/B/C grades…</p>