Grad School

[raf]

Hi,

I am currently doing undergrad at Carleton. I have retaken a few courses and my gpa is not too great. I am currently in second year, I heard something about some universities looking at only the last few years? This info was from arts students however. I guess my question is are students that started off badly but turned things completely around by the time they are about to graduate still screwed? What kind of marks do I need? What are some good schools? I'm basically freaked out because I want to do a Masters but I feel like like I've completely ruined my chances. Any info would be great. Thanks

[Dan]

Most universitys only take the last year, last 20 courses, 4 year courses only, or coures directaly realted to your program in to account. It is up to each university to decied what they look at but it noramly is one of those.

The standard is noramly the minume is a B average or 70 gpa (on a 100 point scale) and your degree should be honours (4 years).

You also have a lot in your gradaute school application then just your grades. They offten want a resume, recomendations from at least 3 profs and a stament of propose (a short essay about why you want to go to grad school and why they should pick you).

As for what is a good school, it is largely up to what you want to research. Diffrent schools have diffrent profs that research diffrent things. For masters you noramly have a supervisor for your thesies and who that supervisor is can largely effect what your thesies is about. So finding what schools to apply to will take a bit of research.

[Prabhakar Ragde]

raf, if it is any consolation, just about every senior student who comes to talk to me about grad school says something similar about their early years at university. While your grad school application includes your whole transcript, it is the overall trend that is important. Upward or steady is good. Downward is not.

Dan's other points are important. References play a major role, more so than marks. Nearly always, acceptance is contingent on a professor agreeing to supervise, so you need to provide a complete picture of yourself, not just numbers on a transcript. --PR

[Brightguy]

Prabhakar Ragde @ Fri Dec 19, 2008 2:36 pm wrote:

raf, if it is any consolation, just about every senior student who comes to talk to me about grad school says something similar about their early years at university.

This surprises me, since my experience was that courses got progressively more demanding. Each year I worked harder and got lower marks.

I got into grad school though. In addition to the things Dan mentioned, they also wanted $75.