Hi, I currently am a junior majoring in data science and financial economics, and recently I started feeling nervous about my upcoming grad school application. Here is my backrground: I am from a univ ranked around 30th, and because I messed up some of my econ and math courses when I am in sophomore, the overall gpa was dragged down to around 3.6. I think after the first semester of senior I could raise up to around 3.67 ( hopefully ). Besides, I am doing research in two labs and finished some competition projects but have no pubs yet(one is on the way but not quite sure if it could be selected). I also have finished several internships including some big names such as EY, but since I am thinking to apply an engineering master so not sure if this matters. Some other backgrounds such as vice president of Data Science club, two patents in high school, some competition awards etc. All in all, I am still worried that my gpa is a little bit low for some top tire schools’ top programs. I wonder what kinds of universities and program is right for me with such background? thanks so much and sorry for the long post.
The first question you need to ask yourself is why do you want to get a graduate degree? Do you have options to get into the kind of job you want with a BS? A better choice might be to work for a while and then decide what Masters degree will best help you advance in your career. After a couple of years of work, your GPA will not be as important and the kinds of programs you mention appreciate industry experience.
You can have a look at the grad cafe website. It has a results section in which people post whether they were accepted or rejected for a Masters or PhD program. Many of the posters include their gpa and GRE scores, and some mention whether they have publications. When I google it, I put a space after “cafe” so that it gives me the choice of clicking on “Results” in the listings. You can experiment with the search words you use to narrow it down to different universities. Sometimes fewer words give a longer list of results for a college.