Low GPA's and Grad School

ticklemepink
Tue, 17 Aug 2010 20:11:31 +0000

I think you’re fine and sounds like you’ll be highly competitive given that my app is, in some ways, similar to yours. Definitely be at the conference and stick with your adviser as to give him/her an excuse to introduce you to a potential adviser… and try to ask a legit question at the panel! Networking is definitely the key.

If that is your excuse for a low GPA, then do NOT mention anything. If the rest of your app is strong, they might presume that you were very busy doing something like… working that prevented you from doing really well. (For me, it was heavy involvement in student ECs in undergrad and working in grad…I had too much of good time :)). But they’ll see from my LORs and writing sample that my research took priority over anything else, including classes.

There are no hard-and-fast cut-offs in PhD programs. The numbers might indicate your place on the waitlist if department politics get in the way and there’s no other way to settle applicants’ places. Professors do seriously read each and every application, starting with the SOP and the LORs, which don’t take them more than 3-5 minutes tops to decide whether to read the rest of your app or not. It has been suggested, however, that departments who do actually put GRE averages on their websites do care a bit and use it in some way- we just don’t know exactly where in the process they actually take a look at it. It could be the first round. It could be down to the last 25 applications, we don’t know.

Don’t worry about including Turkish on purpose- the adcoms will see it in your transcript and decide for themselves if you have enough proficient. For many, it will be fine.

I’d rather not say exactly what field and my background as there aren’t too many people like me on the boards. But I’ll be applying either for US or European (modern Germany) history, depending on the group of professors I want to work with.