Application to Grad School With a BAD Semester

[Rhun]

So here’s the deal. I recently discovered about a semester I “took” nearly 10 years ago. I forgot that I even enrolled for classes because I decided college wasn’t for me at the time (I was just out of high school) and it was my first semester. I wasn’t aware of “officially dropping” your courses so I have three E’s which resulted in a 0.00 GPA for that semester. The classes were intro to psychology course, intro to sociology and intro to writing. 9 credit hours. I didn’t even really take my first semester until I was 22, four years later.

No funny business.. how will grad schools look at that fluke of a semester? I have a 3.7 cumulative GPA now. To be frank, I’m utterly embarrassed about this and don’t really know how to address it as I’ve always been proud of my school work but this is a great mar on my pride. Perhaps I’m overreacting, but I am worried sick.

 

[symbolipoint]

So here’s the deal. I recently discovered about a semester I “took” nearly 10 years ago. I forgot that I even enrolled for classes because I decided college wasn’t for me at the time (I was just out of high school) and it was my first semester. I wasn’t aware of “officially dropping” your courses so I have three E’s which resulted in a 0.00 GPA for that semester. The classes were and intro to psychology course, and intro to sociology and an intro to writing. 9 credit hours. I didn’t even really take my first semester until I was 22, four years later.

No funny business.. how will grad schools look at that fluke of a semester? I have a 3.7 cumulative GPA now. To be frank, I’m utterly embarrassed about this and don’t really know how to address it as I’ve always been proud of my school work but this is a great mar on my pride. Perhaps I’m overreacting, but I am worried sick.

Your bad work as you described among other of your college work, was done very early and then you were fine , even better than "fine" on average for the rest of your college career. Not much problem. You earned an undergrad degree in something right? You have a very good grade average, right? Your first and bad semester will in all best guess, be insignificant.

 

[Dr. Courtney]

I think your application will be just as strong, perhaps even stronger, than most others with a comparable GPA, GRE scores, research, and recommendations.

If one is going to have a tanked semester, the further in the past it is, the better. You can rest easy. Now, getting into top schools may not be a cakewalk, but getting into grad school is likely not a problem.