<p>Well, its not ideal. It depends on the school, if they’re part of rolling admissions, then you will definitely get looked at once the grade does come in, but might have missed out on space. If the college accepts all applications and begins looking at them 1 month later, then you’re fine.</p>
<p>I graduated from an early college high school in North Carolina. That means I went to High School on a community college campus, and graduated from high school after four years with an AA degree from the community college and 66 transfer credits. My community college used a 7 point grading scale, not a 10 point one. This means I will be graduating with a BS at age 19. I want to go on to get a masters degree in my major. I just took the GRE on Aug 1 and the estimated range of scores were great for my field. My GPA would look much better if my community college grades were recalculated on a 10 point scale. They are not horrible, but I was a 15 - 17 year old kid when I earned most of them.</p>
<p>Any ideas on how programs will look at me?</p>
<p>Your age will be irrelevant to grad schools. Since you said your grades are “not horrible” and your GRE scores are “great,” apply and see what happens.</p>
<p>Do grad schools even care that I worked to finance living expenses during the four years? I’m graduating a quarter and a half early while taking the extra classes in prospective field (genetics major, pursuing immunology). I still kept a 3.47 cum GPA, but should I mention that I was working the whole time too in statement of purpose (ie as side note, not part of thesis).</p>
<p>Or will they just be like “boo hoo for the girl that wouldn’t use loans for living expenses… REJECT!”</p>
<p>I think they might consider it, but working while going to school isn’t all that unusual.</p>
<p>My son just found out he might have an assistantship that pays all or part of his tuition this year. He had to take out loans earlier not having this in the bag, so to speak. Does anyone know how they deal with that, are they canceled?
He will find out more after paperwork is done, but I was curious.</p>
<p>Cjchris - not sure you’re doing this, but if you are calculating your GPA without rescaling your CC grades, you’re not going to end up with an accurate cumulative GPA.</p>
<p>How important is an upward trend? What if I screwed up really badly freshman and sophomore year (below 3.0 GPA) but then turn it around the next two years? Will admission committees look past the terrible grades the first two years and see that I improved?</p>
<p>If it helps, I’m a Human Physiology major looking to get into Masters and/or PhD programs in biomedical sciences (Pathology, Neuroscience, Molec and Cell Bio, Genetics, etc.)</p>
<p>Yes, an upward trend will definitely help. You need to get your overall GPA above 3.0 to be considered at most graduate programs.</p>
<p>
Back in '09 this guy asked if he would still have a great social life as a premed. Pointing out that his competitors were more concerned about getting into med school than in getting into parties and that he ought to be too earned me a tongue-lashing. So come year end 2010, middle of sophomore year, and and another post by this guy. GPA was around 2.4 and sure enough med school was out of the picture <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/graduate-school/1061812-i-effed-up.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/graduate-school/1061812-i-effed-up.html</a> </p>
<p>But ever the optimist he wrote “I have 5 semesters to raise my GPA… I plan on doing extremely well from now on and raising my GPA to at least a 3.0 by the time I graduate.” </p>
<p>About another year later, and it sounds like the “doing extremely well from now on” he predicted for the remainder of sophomore year didn’t pan out.</p>
<p>So now with 3 semesters left (4 I suppose including this one) he seems to still be banking on a turnaround. Sure hope it happens for him, but might it be time for him to begin looking for a Plan C? One recognizing the reality of his ability to focus on schoolwork and his innate abilities in the sciences?</p>
<p>I’m really interested in reading for a MA in IR and was hoping to get a few questions answered.</p>
<p>I graduated from Oxford in Law and got a solid 3.6GPA. I also have a masters. I worked as a lawyer for 6 months but decided it was not for me. Since then I have been interning extensively (some even prior to the lawyer gig), includes:</p>
<p>6 month internship in Beijing law firm
3 month internship with international IP law firm
3 month strategy consultancy x 2
3 months policy internship - European work but based in London
6 months government internship (economic development)
2 months work in Bosnia</p>
<p>I have 3 internships to come before I matriculate (1 in Berlin, 1 in DC and other in London)</p>
<p>Yet to take the GRE but am optimistic. I test well. Got 171 LSAT when I was thinking of an American JD.</p>
<p>I speak 4 languages fluently and am conversational in Mandarin and German. Learning Arabic as we speak.</p>
<p>2 solid recs and one so-so (prof doesnt seem to want to meet, so am not optimistic about the quality of it) - 1 problem, I have no work experience recommendation (last 3 internships, people I worked for/with have moved on). </p>
<p>Questions:</p>
<p>1) schools I’m aiming for - Yale Jackson, CIR, SAIS, SIPA, Fletcher and Georgetown MSFS - based on your experience and general things you’ve seen and heard, what are my chances?
I’m thinking of adding Stanford, Elliott and UCSD as backups (Stanford only as backup because I’m not optimistic about aid). Speaking of financial aid, how likely do these schools provide aid?</p>
<p>2) Am I disadvantaged having work experience in form of internships and not full-time?</p>
<p>3) Will the lack of W/E recs have an adverse effect?</p>
<p>4) Can I put my future internships (confirmed) into my application to further highlight my candidacy? i.e. on resume</p>
<p>Love to hear your thoughts. Thanks!</p>
<p>@sak09
The upward trend helps, but don’t let it fall for even a semester. Also the explanation about why your first semester was bad will matter. If there is a discernable reason, explain it to the adcom and show through your improved grades that you learned from it. If you jump to a highly competitive level and maintain there, it will be more impressive than a gradual improvement.</p>
<p>@badgolfer. First off, I’m a FEMALE. Secondly, you have NO IDEA why my GPA was low my first two years. You have no clue about the accident that my family was in, or what my living situation was like sophomore year. Are these excuses for a low GPA? Not really, no. But should you actually know the whole story before you judge someone? YES. </p>
<p>While I did ask if it was possible to maintain a social life and get good grades as a pre-med major, that by no means indicates I actually let my grades fall because of partying. I NEVER SAID THAT. So before you actually come to conclusions, GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT. </p>
<p>And another thing, get a life instead of searching through people’s old posts on collegeconfidential.</p>
<p>That is all.</p>
<p>You can juggle grad school and partying. Or you can juggle searching through people’s old college confidential posts and partying. No human, male or FEMALE, can juggle partying, grad school, and searching through people’s old college confidential posts.</p>
<p>
You seem to possess in spades the knack of doing A while you profess belief in or intention of B. Make excuses but deny you’re making excuses. Don’t want to miss parties but intend to study. Same old results in school while you plan to really buckle down and raise those grades. </p>
<p>Given that you go to an expensive private college (which, BTW, you blamed for its supposed grade deflation even as you acknowledge some others are doing well – see pattern referenced above) perhaps you ought to make an appt with a counselor to see what you can salvage from your college career before its too late. Wishful thinking is only going to get you so far. It didn’t get you grades for med school, it didn’t let you do “extremely well”, and its not going to get you into grad school in the sciences. IMHO, anyway.</p>
<p>is a 3.647 by the end of first semester freshman year good? cause im a little disappointed</p>
<p>oh and this is at LSU? i took 17 hours got 2 Bs in biology and physics. My math and chemistry courses were honors courses. i got As in those and an A in computer science.</p>
<p>a 3.647 is a good first semester GPA. depends what you wanna do though. if you are looking to get into a biological sciences graduate program, a 3.647 is great! </p>
<p>for perspective, i got a 3.5 my first semester in college and was able to raise it to a 3.73 by senior year. that’s average or higher than the average incoming GPA at a lot/most of medical schools and definitely above average for most graduate programs. </p>
<p>don’t worry about it too much. your first semester GPA does NOT matter at all, especially since you received good marks.</p>
<p>no worries!</p>
<p>Doing really poorly matters a lot more than not doing quite what you personally thought you were capable of when we are talking about a 3.65. Keep up the good work.</p>
<p>My daughter plans to get her MS in Speech-Language Pathology (SLP). She is nervouse because she knows how competitive the field is currently. Current info on her:</p>
<p>Attending state university (USC - Columbia, SC) with current GPA of 3.77
- straight A’s for last 2 semesters and on track for same this fall.
Senior (one semester to go)
Undergrad Major/Minor: Psychology/Communication Disorders (university does not offer major in COMD or SLP)
GRE score: Verbal Reasoning 161 / Quantitative Reasoning 150 (equivalent to 1250 on old GRE scoring)
Related Extracurriculars: - volunteered summer at Center for disabled children (shadowed a therapist)
- currently has a job as a line therapist for children with ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder)
- currently assisting professor with research in child language disorder
- recently selected as Magellan Scholar - $2500 grant to do research with professor
- biased opinion but I believe her SOP is amazing
- three strong letters of recommendation from professors
Misc info: - most of her pre-college (high school) education was at american schools in other countries (Saudi Arabia, China, Ireland)
- Began college with major in Mass Communication/Journalism before discovering SLP.
- Her current college offers an MS in SLP but is very selective. They only have 35 slots available per year and you must accept within 10 days of offer or you lose your spot.</p>
<p>Schools currently considering:
UNC - Chapel Hill
USC - Columbia, SC (current undergrad school)
UGA - University of Georgia
BU - Boston University</p>
<p>Would appreciate this boards opinion on her stats and chances at the schools under consideration. Also, recommendations to any other schools. Note: funding is an issue and will likely be a factor in her decision.</p>
<p>One more item of note… in her COMD minor, she has taken the pre-req type courses typically required prior to admission to SLP grad program.</p>