I am planning on applying to PhD programs at UMD, GT, and UIUC, all top schools in my field. My one concern though is my GPA. It’s kind of decent, at a 3.3, but definitely doesn’t stand out (due to a bad first semester and a rough junior year). I have research in the form of an REU at one of the aforementioned schools though and I feel like I can explain how I rebounded from these bad semesters in my SOP. Any advice?
The longer you’re out of school doing research/ working in the field, the less the GPA will hurt you. It will hurt you somewhat but you can mitigate that through–
- real work in the field
- real research in the field – getting a lab position perhaps
- Taking perhaps some classes after college – not necessarily a masters degree but one or two classes. You can pick up classes at community colleges and now with colleges offering certificates and other classes, you can pick up more expensive (but not necessarily any better) classes at many colleges and unis. They use this to make money.
- get an extremely high score on the GRE. This is required. You need to show objectively that you can handle high-level work. Think of the GRE as your friend. Study like crazy, practice the test endlessly, and ace it.
- develop your own ideas in the field before you apply. Even if after you get into a Ph.D. program and you change your ideas – and you probably will – before applying be so familiar with the field that you have developed some of your own ideas. That shows that you’re a serious candidate intellectually for the field.
- know the profs that you’re applying to. Often Ph.D. programs include an interview section. Basically apps come in, they get some basic screening by the admins, then those apps get sent to the profs who mentor Ph.D. students. The relationship is intense and lasts 4-7 years depending on several factors. The mentorship often lasts after you graduate–to help you during your early career. The prof will choose not just by grades but based on how you get along. It’s like a marriage. So know the prof you’re applying to. Download his or her papers and get to know what he/she studies–know it well. This will help you apply from an in-depth, nuanced position. Not just: oh I kind of think I want a Ph.D. and this school will do. You’re applying to work with a professor. If this sounds like a lot of work, well so is getting a Ph.D. and doing research the rest of your life. This is one form of research. In some programs and fields only 1-2 percent of candidates make the cut. One prof may get 100-250 apps in a year and they have 1-2 slots available. They narrow the group to maybe 7 people. Those people get interviews.
Best of luck to you.
This is going to be field dependent, so my answers below relate specifically to my experiences in my own field: engineering.
A 3.3 is not disqualifying, particularly if a big chunk of the problem is early in your undergraduate program. It’s not great, sure, but it’s also not awful. The best mitigating factors are prior research experiences and concomitant reference letter(s).
GRE won’t move the needle much. It can be a red flag if it is bad but it doesn’t really prove anything if it is good.
I would not say that having your own ideas in the field ahead of time is required or will make much of a difference. We don’t expect new graduate students to be expert enough if our field yet to have executable ideas anyway, and it is exceedingly rare for that to happen without some kind of prior experience in that field (see above about research experience).
It would be challenging to get to know professors you hope to work for as a PhD student ahead of time, but it definitely doesn’t hurt to reach out. When I hire a graduate student, GPA is important so that I know they can handle the class workload, but it is not even close to the only factor, and getting to know a student who is interested ahead of time can help give me confidence that they will succeed. If I feel confident in that, I can talk to the admissions committee in the department about said student and ask that they be admitted.
One more anecdote: I had roughly a 3.3 GPA when I applied to graduate schools and was admitted to more than one really great program. I had two years of research experience and related letters and a good GRE and ended up studying in a top 10 program in my research field working for a professor in the National Academy of Engineering. Now I am a faculty member at a different university. Keep working!
@boneh3ad Just curious did you apply for PhD, or did you get a MS first? Also what research did you have beforehand (I had a little at my institution; just over a semesters worth, my REU is going to be the one thing worth noting when asked as far as research experience goes, barring being able to get another position at a lab, rare since my field is CS)? I’m also kind of worried about not having enough research experience to stack up to potential competitors, especially since I started late.
Partly the reason for my low GPA was a bad first semester, but the bigger concern would be a rough junior year (I failed two classes between both rough patches, that I have since retaken, but I have a slew of other classes I barely passed, namely Analysis of Algorithms, as well as other classes that I wouldn’t say are so relevant, but they are a part of my major), although the second semester of freshman year, sophomore year, and senior/super senior semesters would show I got my act together.
I did direct PhD. My applications were a mix of MS and PhD in part because different schools had different requirements.
My undergrad research wasn’t really all that impressive in terms of results. Two separate projects ended while I was working on them (PhD student graduated and funding ran out respectively), but the experience mattered.