GPA Problems

chill_factor

I suggest working retail/fast food to mentally mature yourself. If you cannot even work retail or fast food what hope do you have of doing research? If you cannot even deal with high schoolers wanting a burger, how can you possibly deal with sophisticated professors? I believe that doing a year of work, then going to grad school, will be more beneficial to you in every way than trying to apply now.

Aero51

The fact of the matter is that if you did put in a reasonable amount of time into those classes you would have done better over all, maybe at the expense of an A or 2 in your science classes. In a sense, your statement is like saying:
"Well I took two classes and got A's but when I took 4 I got two A's and two C's, but the C's don't count because they are two more classes than two."
Which is nothing more than an.....excuse.

I knew a girl who had a similar mindset to yours in undergrad. She was very smart, really loved aircraft structures, but was very stubborn and sacrificed her elective classes resulting in a few semesters with bad GPAs. In fact, she actually wasted some time retaking them to get better grades. She didn't go to grad school but she got a good job in industry.

From a more positive standpoint, putting a reasonable amount of time in these classes may turn out to be enjoying. You may also learn a thing or two and improve your creativity - an essential problem solving skill.

It is very unfortunate that you have such a close minded attitude when you are very smart. From my experience, opening your mind will only improve your thinking ability.

spamctor

Not sure if this was said already but for some places (UW), the 3.0 GPA cutoff only applies to the most recent credits.

Mentalist

@spamctor: I am only taking sciences courses now, so I have no more general courses. If I keep on the same streak, I should have a good 4 semesters of mostly A's and a few B's. Thank you for the information! I will look into it.

@Vanadium: I don't think my professors in the sciences would say I am lazy. In fact, I mentioned this before in another thread, my chemistry research professor says I am doing better than expected. I am also doing well in physics research, but I have only been doing that for about 2 months so far.

@chill_factor: I have been doing research.

Just because my attitude for general courses like history is one way does not mean that it is my attitude for things I am not particularly interested in. Some courses in physics I wasn't interested in, but the class was necessary and I viewed it as such. The biology course I did not necessarily need.

You guys are using fallacious reasoning and basically saying I will be a certain way in graduate school where I'd be doing mostly physics courses and nothing related to WWII politics or psychology 101. It is quite wrong to say I will be this and that because I have a "bad" attitude when it concerns the prior mentioned courses. That certainly is not the case.

But this thread can be locked, I have seen some good advice and will be using what MarneMath has said, going the MS route.

micromass

Whether our reasoning is fallacious is irrelevant. We are just telling you what the grad schools might think of your application. Grad schools can only see your GPA transcript, so they will draw conclusions from that. Whether those conclusions are fallacious or not, that doesn't really matter.

Arsenic&Lace

Possibly off topic, but if the view is that you can't even get into a grad school with a 2.8 GPA, what tiers might you find yourself in with a 3.5 (which is where I'm at presently, although with my current grades assuming no funny business on finals I should head north of that :))?

Jorriss

The difference between < 3 and > 3 is night and day. Often, if not everywhere, a GPA less than 3 requires university approval (or something). Otherwise, one can't say much without knowing more than just your GPA. I had a friend get into berkeley with a 3.4 but with some spectacular research.

chill_factor

doesn't matter what reasoning I'm using. A guy that thinks exactly the way I do might be on your admissions committee and then your chances of being admitted drop drastically. There might not be. But who knows? Only a single person needs to dislike you to block your way.

Here's what I think: if someone can't write about psychology 101 how are they going to convince someone that doesn't want to give them money, to give them money, when they're an unproven liability?

MarneMath

This isn't really directed at your Mentalist, but just anyone who happens to read this thread with a similiar mindset and still has a chance to change that mindset.

A lot of students, in all reality, do not know at all what is necessary or not. Yes, there's a good chance that biology will never be used again in your entire life, but to totally disregard it for any ideas or useful information that it may have is completely asinine. I failed to mention that in my earlier post that I have an undergrad degree in Mathematics AND English. Keep in mind, I work in the biononsense field, so what degree do you think helps me more on a daily bases? It's the English degree. Unlike my peers, who double majored in Physics Math, Physics Bio, Math Bio, or any other science combo, I have real experience writing a grant proposal, technical papers, flyers (which I do quite a bit for some odd reason...), and reviews on projects.

I've basically made myself into this little niche position of knowing the technical detail and also knowing how to communicate this information properly. The thing is, during my English degree, I hated every minute of it, but my time in the Army taught me how importance writing is for everything, so I made an effort to just learn about it, and then I ended up with a degree in it.

Before my time in the Army though, I thought like you. Screw electives, screw the 'easy stuff' none of that matters, but it does. Due to all the poetry I know, I was able to make connection with my boss prior to getting this job and network my way in. Odd as it may sound, it's true. So with all that said, the more you know, the better off you'll be!

Bipolarity

Apparently Brown University has no *core* curriculum, except for a single writing class which I believe they recently introduced. You should consider applying there in the next life for all practical purposes.

BiP

Mentalist

So far I am an unproven liability and the best thing I can do after college is to work in the fast food industry. Any more advice or attributions you'd like to insult me with today?

@MarneMath: Yes, I do get that on a more reasonable level. I was thinking today about this particular topic and psychology-sociology and how understanding relationships and how we interact with one another might be of use for all future purposes. Or, for courses like history, instead of doing the weekly papers on what was happening during that time, I could have been more creative and looked at the physics of prior periods that we were studying. Or courses in music, I could have done papers on wave based vibrations, harmonics, etc..., basically connecting my major to every course and broadening my perspective of my field in light of different subjects.

I didn't think in that manner at the time, so I guess I wasted my own time and probably delayed my success. So, yes, looking back, I would more than likely conduct myself in a more reasonable fashion instead of just focusing on a linear path. However, I am not going to beat myself up over it and start regretting. But now, I am just trying to look for a bit of hope.