Any chance of going to grad school with a 2.4 GPA?

wasssup

Diamond Member
Nov 28, 2000
3,142
0
0
Yeah, so I completely screwed up my first two years in college as an engineer, then switched majors to comp sci and got myself on track (though I could only do so much with my crappy GPA).

Though it took a while (2 years) I landed a great job, one that would've actually paid for my masters degree had I had a gpa of 2.5 or higher. My "major gpa" was higher, a ~3.0 i think? While i'm no longer irresponsible like I was my first two years of college (and it shows in later semesters of my transcript) I'm not sure too many graduate schools care..I dunno.

For those of you that know, do colleges consider individuals with crappy GPA's like mine or am I SOL for the most part?
 

Flyback

Golden Member
Sep 20, 2006
1,303
0
0
Some stuff you can do:

- Get AWESOME letters of reference. Find some professors that liked you for this.
- Get AWESOME letters of reference from your EMPLOYER. This may mean doing things that you don't get paid for--staying a bit late (undocumented) here or there, bringing in snacks to the office. Whatever. Your job is to kiss ass.
- Work and also volunteer. Show that your poor performance in school was because of something else.
- Write an exceptional letter to admissions--spend many many hours crafting it, and give a brief description of why your GPA is low.
- Take a few extra courses, perhaps, or take courses over again to boost your GPA. Perhaps via night school since you're already working. This is a real pain in the ass, but if you can somehow knock it up to 3.0 that'd be awesome.
- Score really high on the entry tests for grad school (if there are any to take). Study day and night in advance.
- Apply to some grad schools of your choice, but also some lesser (read: easier to get in) schools.

If you can't get into the school you want, but get into a less-than-preferable school, it might be worth it to wait it out and work a year or two first. Take a few night school classes, don't submit your request to graduate, and boost your GPA up with some liberal studies/electives courses to boost your overall degree.

Just some random thoughts.
 

esun

Platinum Member
Nov 12, 2001
2,214
0
0
Some grad schools only consider the 3rd and 4th year grades for GPA, which might save you. Look into it.
 

Scarpozzi

Lifer
Jun 13, 2000
26,389
1,778
126
The Grad school program I went into took your GPA and multiplied it by a bunch of numbers...then added that number to your GMAT score. If your total score isn't above a certain number, you don't get in.