UC Berkeley Grad (B.A. + 2.7 GPA) I want an M.A. or M.S. related to Education. Recommendations?

Graduate School
1

Firstly here’s some particularly relevant information (hopefully):

-I’m 30 years old, and I graduated last semester with a BA in Anthropology
-I was a community college transfer with a nearly flawless lower division transcript (3.9)
-My upper division work is peppered with As, Bs, Fs, some Cs, and some Ps and NPs.

  • I didn’t form any close relationships with my Berkeley professors. At least not any that I
    believe would recommend me with a high degree of confidence.
  • I may have some lower division community college professors that could recommend me.
  • I haven’t taken the GRE.
  • I’m currently working abroad in ESL but the majority of my job experience before college was unrelated to Education.

I graduated Cal last semester. I want to pursue a Master’s degree somewhere in the field of Education. Vague, I know, but my options at this point are limited.

Preferably I could apply somewhere that has a tandem licensure program.

Can I still apply with somewhere to a Masters program with a relatively high chance of being accepted? If so, where?

I’d really prefer to stay away from for profit / private schools but I’ll take any suggestions at this point.

   When I got to Cal I had a very rocky start that never really seemed to balance out. There were legitimate reasons: such as depression,  a lack of a support network, administrative and service problems, family tragedies, balancing a part time job to offset my cost of living. I’m not here to make excuses, but at the very least I want to say that I wasn’t partying and skipping class. I’m passionate about Education and very invested in working and doing research in Education.

One of the difficult things for me about this situation is that Berkeley is known for grade deflation. If I’d chosen a less “prestigious” school I might have performed better in GPA and been able to be closer to my preferred career path. I realize no one is going to cut me extra slack because I went to a particular school, especially when others went there and fared much better it’s just difficult fact to think past.

Outside of purely master’s work, could anyone recommend universities, programs, or avenues to postgraduate work that I could take to build toward a career in Education (Teaching and Research)

2

Many CSUs have post bachelor’s teacher credential programs.

3

Ah yeah. Seen those.

I’ve seen that they all require a minimum 3.0 GPA (disheartening) unless I missed something.

I’m trying to also pursue a Masters, not just a teachers credential.

Cheers for the reply.

4

Some of the less competitive schools or CSU might make adjustments to count certain classes and not count others to get you to the 3.0 GPA. For example, if you have a lot of courses taken at the undergraduate level, a school might not count some of the “excess” classes, especially the low grade classes and recomputed your GPA for admission to the school.

5

Thank you.

I realized that if I averaged my community college grades with my CAL grades, it’s a 3.2. Do you know if grad schools will read my Undegraduate GPA as my UCB grades or the full scope of my education?

6

Grad schools want to see all grades that comprise your BA/BS, so yes, cumulative GPA counts. Some programs also look at major grades separately.

btw: Berkeley does not have grade deflation. Are the lower division STEM classes competitive? Absolutely. But upper division classes are generally much more generous with A’s. (And that would include Anthro.)

7

It seems like some relevant experience could help balance out your weaker academic record. Have you been volunteering in schools, for example, working as a reading tutor in an elem school? Or working for pay in an after-school program?

8

As it is too late to edit my comment above, I’ll add here that the typical MS.Ed degree isn’t going to prepare you for both teaching and research, especially if you haven’t taught before.