I am starting to FREAK OUT

hopeful360
Sun, 29 Dec 2013 13:31:19 +0000

Long story short, I graduated college this past May with a cumulative GPA of 2.5. Basically I was dealing with depression on and off throughout so my grades are scattered all over the place. I was also initially pre-med but then switched to public health.

So now I am applying to MPH programs because I am in love with the field, I love epidemiology and research. I am just so scared because my GPA is literally crap.

Experience wise I think I am in good shape—I am currently a clinical research assistant and work in the dept of epidemiology (I have been for about 4 months now) and my boss who is also the PI of the project is writing me a recommendation. She has her PhD in epidemiology as well. I have other research work that I did in college—most notably I worked in a biochemistry lab at Harvard and was a co-author on a paper for our project. Will this help much? I also have lots of volunteer experience including an internship for 6 months at a medical center working in clinical research. I guess another big thing I have is a service trip to India where I worked in a clinic volunteering for a summer.

Oh, and I got a 158 on the quant part of my GRE and 153 on verbal. So I guess that’s like alright?

So I am applying to BU, Drexel, UMass, GW, and Brown (for the hell of it). Not sure if I should apply to more schools—any suggestions? Am I totally out of luck because of my GPA? Now that application time is coming up, it’s all hitting me pretty hard and I’m freaking out.