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[bjlong]

So I'm working on Grad School applications right now, and I was wondering how other people are doing to their various applications to places of higher learning.

Personally, I'm intensely freaked out by lots of schools asking for 3.7-3.8 GPAs. I have a 3.1, if you round up. Which I think really doesn't reflect my overall understanding of physics--I just somehow don't test as well as I should.

I'm also freaked out that I have to find three professors who have very high opinions of me. I can get two, and there might be a third, but I'm not doing so well in his class right now--he's a poor teacher. I might just ask him anyway, and hope that he pretends that I'm some god of physics when he's not looking at his gradebook.

Anyway, what's everyone else doing with this stuff? Are you feeling the pressure? How many schools are you applying to?

[Cthulhu]

I'm in a community college right now (A very good community college, with many prestigious awards, but a community college nonetheless) so I haven't had to worry about stringent entry requirements yet.  I was worried out of my mind in high school though, because I screwed my GPA really badly slacking off.  Now that I've gotten my act together I'm not too incredibly worried, and just hope they look at my college grades and not my high school grades.

I've been told that high school records don't matter once you have college records, though, so that's good.

[bjlong]

Yeah, I haven't touched my HS grades at all since getting into college. What are you looking at doing your graduate degree in?

[Kagus]

I've missed one opportunity to check out schools, we'll see what happens next time... 

I'm thinking about the possibility of going to a college in Norway, thanks to the absolutely incredible support that the Norwegian government provides to students.  And, well, citizens in general.


However, aside from having that lovely citizenship door open for me, I'm rather effed (which is regarded as a real word by Firefox spellchecker). 

I didn't go to high school, I never took any sort of equivalency exam, and I'm quite frankly lagging behind rather significantly in the whole "education" department.  I'm quite fantastically ignorant, in fact.  In ways you might have trouble understanding.

Heck, 'Sandy Fjord' details the only school experience I've had since I took a year of Kindergarten when I was little (I dropped out of Kindergarten.  Does that register on the badassery scale, or is it just weird?).

So, yeah...  There's also the slight possibility that I might forgo college altogether and become self-employed, potentially in the real estate biz.  Looot of stuff going on in that market here in Vegas.


If I had my way, of course, I'd get some big warehouse or something in Norway, convert it into a film studio, and make comedy skits with my school pals.  I've mentioned this dream to a few of them, and they all agree that it would be decidedly epic and awesome...

..all the way until we die of starvation.

[Muz]

I hate grades. In my previous uni, I had straight A's, even for some grades I didn't hand in assignments. Here, I'm lucky to get a B equivalent, and end up only barely passing all my subjects, but even with passing, I learn a hell lot more in one subject I barely pass than 6 subjects where I used to get straight A's. I don't even slack off.. it's just that it takes me an hour of effort to understand a page of stuff (thanks to the lack of foundation knowledge from my previous degree).

So, IMO, fuck grades. I'm applying to wherever with my 60% average. I'll probably get a job first to make my resume look better, though.

BTW, I personally know some people who got into Harvard with only average grades and sloppy references. A friend from my school applied to Stanford just to try and got in, she's considering doing a PhD now. Seriously, graduate school is not that hard to get into. Unis love grad students, and there's not that many of them. Of course, they'd pick a really good one over an average one, or at least a really interesting one.

So, don't worry about it. Just be yourself.

[bjlong]

Yeah, after writing my research experiences down, I felt a lot more confident about my chances. And I know I'll get into at least one of the schools--just not Harvard or Cornell. (Though I'm applying there too. Hooray, waste of time!) Also, the professors I've talked too (including my academic advisor) seem to think I'm good to go on such schools.

I think I just need an acceptance letter at this point to alleviate my worries.

[Mephansteras]

I cheated and got an MBA instead of a real graduate degree. Much easier to get into, much easier to get good grades in, and works wonders for getting high paying jobs.

[Nilocy]

I just started doing a BSc course in Biological Sciences (Microbiology). Its good fun. I'm only in year one, so its basically just re-doing the whole of first year.

I failed all my high school exams (looking good for me already eh?). I basically was too lazy to do anything about them. The only reason I got in was because of this summer school course I did with a city funded organisation. The university accepted me in on those grades. So thank fuck i had that course. And, it basically taught me a valuable lesson: theres always more than 1 way to get into uni.

Check around town/city to see if theres any courses that could help with your application. Doing extra cirrcular stuff is good also. Since i was told universities basically don't want to bring in really boring students... but they still do... it helps.

[Muz]

I cheated and got an MBA instead of a real graduate degree. Much easier to get into, much easier to get good grades in, and works wonders for getting high paying jobs.

Well, the problem with that is that everyone in business has a MBA, lol. Not saying that it's not valuable, just worth a lot less than it used to be. My father thought it wasn't good enough, so he went off and got another graduate degree XD

[Christes]

I'm glad grad school applications are behind me now.  Of course, now I actually have to study, teach and all that.

I don't know how it is where everyone is, but in my experience grades are overrated.  Sure, they're important, but letters of recommendation and all the extras on the resume/CV are what makes the decision in a lot of cases.