<p>I go to Carleton College, a top ranked liberal arts school in Minnesota. Coming from a public school, and taking a year off before college, the work was at first harder than I expected. I ended up with a few low grades (including a D in Russian) my freshman and sophomore years. By Junior year, I began to pick it up, and Senior year, I pretty much have it mastered. Since winter term Junior Year, my GPA is 3.47. But my previous 2 years brought my GPA down considerably, so it currently stands at 3.07. I think I can bring it up to at least a 3.1 by the time I graduate. My question is, how will grad schools view my GPA, in light of the fact that my grades have improved substantially over the course of my time here?</p>
<p>Nobody has any thoughts?</p>
<p>It’s good you improved, but they still seem comparatively low, so it’s probably really going to hurt your application</p>
<p>To be frank, even your current grades are low for better grad schools. What type of graduate school are you looking at?</p>
<p>Don’t forget, I do go to Carleton, which is very well respected among grad schools (I believe like 75% of grads with over a 3.0 who applied to med school got in). I am a philosophy major, maybe looking for grad school in journalism or philosophy. I know I may not be able to get into the best grad program, but I think I might stand a chance at some good ones. Does it make a difference to them that I improved my grades over time, and did well in my major, or will they just look at the hard numbers?</p>
<p>If you’re looking for a master’s then you could probably get into somewhere. If you’re looking for a funded PhD then, well, cast a very wide net.</p>