<p>I have a general question. If you are working on undergraduate engineering research that you don’t plan on studying as a grad student, how well graduate schools view that? Do graduate schools accept you based on your specific research or just generally through the larger department? What I mean, is to what extent are you confined to what you specialized in as an undergraduate?</p>
<p>Not to a very great extent. There are many people who switch fields entirely for grad school (mech Es to aero/astro, biology majors to bioengineering), and it’s generally seen as neither worrisome nor unusual. Actually doing undergrad research is the important part; it doesn’t have to be on the topic you want to study for your master’s or PhD. </p>
<p>Some programs will accept through subspecialties rather than for the whole department, but it’s your intended research path, rather than the one you’ve already taken, that they’ll use to determine whether your interests are a good fit with the faculty’s.</p>
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<p>Okay, thanks mollie!</p>
<p>What kind of difference do the types of courses in college play in grad school admissions(and also GPA leeway). For instance, my GPA is basically a 3.6 but my GPA without Chinese it is a 3.9(Chinese is a 5 credit course at my school). Will business schools(and other grad programs like law) like the fact that I can speak some Chinese and will they factor that into the admissions game?</p>
<p>hopefulmom and William C,</p>
<p>Depending upon the humanities discipline, many “terminal MA” feeder programs do indeed offer assistantships which carry full tuition remission as well as a living stipend. </p>
<p>As William C advised, ALWAYS research the programs you’re considering, and contact the Director of Graduate Studies in that department.</p>
<p>(I’m the DGS in my program.)</p>
<p>To expand on professor X’s mention of the terminal MA, I thought I’d mention more specialized terminal Masters degrees such as the M.Arch and MFA. The funding for these programs seems to mostly be much like funding for undergrad: a select few will earn a full ride, many will get partial funding through scholarships, however there are a coveted few of the full ride type assistanceships out there, usually at state schools. For those that are not funded, it is usually acceptable to take a part-time job either at the university or in a professional capacity.</p>
<p>Hey, my undergraduate record isn’t stellar, but I got accepted into a great masters program (1yr) in the UK. I’m going because it’s what I want to do, but will it help at all with my chances of admission?</p>
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Is it the same for sciences as well?</p>
<p>I am also very interested to know more about what ryan2288 mentioned as I am considering continuing my study of Chinese into college.
On a different topic, can any other people with graduate school admissions knowledge alledge to the validity of the orginial poster’s statement that extra-curricular’s are often of no importance?</p>
<p>Vissanik: ECs are important only if they are related to your career goal.</p>
<p>I guess the only reason I’m worried is that alot of schools mention that they require a minimum 3.0 GPA for their Master’s programs. So I’m just wondering if they put that to give credence to their admissions process as being highly competitive or is it that serious. I don’t wanna get in a situation where I can’t get into grad school although my research experience won’t reflect for my less than stellar grades.</p>
<p>It does seem to me that some of your professors in your major in undergraduate school are critical for what you do and where you go. Particularly if you are looking at programs where they earned their PhD’s.</p>
<p>All the learning how to learn must be out of your system (or put another way, wired INTO your system). Graduate school is not a place to start figuring out what you want to do and how to do it. That is what undergraduate school is about. Thus, graduate programs are looking for superior scholarship skills (not just a high gpa and gre score). They want someone who will come in and make a difference, advance the ball, put them on the map, or be able to publish a major work.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>Ummmm… </p>
<p>Yes, they are serious. Depending on the program and school, the effective minimum may be much higher. Your grades are the frontline indicator of your ability to handle academics after all. </p>
<p>Professor X may weigh in with his actual experience in admissions, but personally, I would be be looking for a post-bac program or something like that to bring up my subject GPA if I had an overall GPA under 3.2 or so (and to demonstrate motivation and such).</p>
<p>WillC is right. If you do some post bac work and prove that you can excel academically, you will have a much better shot at being admitted to grad school, even if it is only a few semesters of solid work.</p>
<p>Ummm…</p>
<p>3.0 minimums for admission are routine, and they are indeed adhered to. At many universities, the Graduate School (the administrative office) will not even send on applications to the relevant departments if they do not meet this minimum requirement. At other universities, the Graduate School will send applications that do not meet basic requirements, but they will include a note saying “We recommend denial of admission.” </p>
<p>Applicants routinely exceed the 3.0 minimum cumulative GPA, but it is the GPA in one’s major that is more significant. Expectations are MUCH higher for the major GPA as well.</p>
<p>I hope this helps.</p>
<p>In the 20 or so year history of my program, only one student has been admitted with less than 3.0. He’s in my year, and very successful. However, he had a VERY uphill battle getting in, I heard.</p>
<p>Thanks for the help. It looks like I’ll have to do what I can to raise those grades enough to be considered for admission…I’d hate to get shutout of grad school but since it’s my goal, I’ll just have to keep trying until I get there.</p>
<p>Nicely written (very clear and to the point) and helpful as well.</p>
<p>“You don’t need to start thinking about graduate school in your freshman year of college.”</p>
<p>This made me laugh because just a few days ago I was playing around taking mock GREs.</p>
<p>I want to go into journalism, but I am at a private liberal arts undergrad that doesn’t have a journalism/communications major. I am majoring in English because I am interested in that also. Do most people go to grad school for journalism if they don’t have journalism as an undergrad? Or is it more about connections and grad school isn’t needed as long as you can get an internship or job?</p>
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I think it is, with the caveat that science PhD programs often expect to see long-term commitment to a laboratory, so an internship held for just one summer might not be the best for you because you might not be able to get too much accomplished. But a summer internship or two in addition to research in an academic lab during the year would be more than fine.</p>
<p>(I should add that one of the people interviewing with me last year for biology PhD programs actually didn’t do research during the year – she had only spent one or two summers in internships at another school, since her school didn’t have any research jobs. But she was definitely the odd one out. Most of the people who interview for the top programs have been doing research in a single lab or two labs during term and during the summer for two or three years, or else took a research technician job for a year or two after graduating from college.)</p>