I currently have a 3.2 and on my way to completing my Associates. How worried should I be? I know that grades are very important and I have recently gotten back on my feet after some personal struggles but if I happen to meet a lot of people that can contribute to my success and end with a 3.0+ GPA. What are my chances of being accepted into a decent Grad. Program? How important is the program I enter? Will it increase my number of job offers?
When you say Grad program, what do you mean? An Associates is a 2 year degree…you will need to transfer to a 4-year program and get your Bachelor’s degree (another 2 years)…Then if you want to go to Graduate school you need to have minimum of 3.0 but you want as high as possible to go to grad school!
You mean what’s the lowest GPA.
tagging @juillet
Depends on the kind of grad program. I’ve shared that I had a 3.4 when I got into my PhD program in psychology and a couple MPH programs, but I had a lot of other outstanding things that balanced out my rather mediocre-ish GPA (including the fact that my major GPA was much higher - a 3.67).
A student with a GPA in the 3.0-3.3 or so ish range needs to have an otherwise outstanding application in pretty much every other area that really makes the department overlook the lower GPA. So if you had a 3.1 but then spent three years working at RAND as a research associate and had 3 first-authored publications, plus a really well-defined research area and some excellent recommendations…they’re not going to care so much about the 3.1, general.
In the 3.4-3.5-ish range you’re a bit safer but still need to be quite a strong student in other ways, with some accomplishments that are truly excellent in the context of the application pool.
I’d say a 3.6+ is the range that feels “safe” in terms of not really needing to worry about GPA too much relative to everything else.
So at a 3.2, I’d be concentrating on raising that GPA as much as you possibly can, but make sure you get involved in other kinds of activities that will prepare you for applying for programs.
And note that I am referencing generalities for PhD programs…obviously if you are trying to get into master’s programs in some other field, then the requirements are a bit lower in general. With a 3.2 I’d still say the rest of your packet needs to be tight, but a 3.2 isn’t quite as low relative to the pool for, say, an MPH or MPA program as it would be for a PhD.