Can Switching Majors to Applied Mathematics Offset a Low GPA for Grad School?

[nick7s]

Hi, I am a sophomore who was majoring in accounting. I really did not like it and ended up doing poorly. But I did enjoy the math side. I did well in calculus and statistics. I did a bit of research into the required courses and job prospects for an Applied Mathematics major and it sounds good. I talked with the head of the mathematics department at my school and he said I'm on the right track to begin the Applied Math route next semester and I should be able to graduate on time. But if I ever decided to apply to graduate school or to jobs where they look at my gpa I will be at a disadvantage. My gpa is a 2.6. Could doing extremely well in the applied math courses in the next 2-(possibly)3 years establish myself as a viable candidate for graduate school?

 

[Stengah]

There are a couple things to consider here. 1) It's better to do poorly in your early unrelated courses than your upper level major courses. This happens to a lot of people. So the first thing is to make sure you do as well as you can in your upper level courses, and raise your GPA to higher than a 3.0, as high as you possibly can. Assuming you do, maybe you will be fully qualified for graduate school. But 2) graduate schools get a ton of applications, and many will be from students who didn't do poorly early on. So you just need to ask yourself, why should they accept you over someone who started strong and finished strong? Ways you can offset a low GPA are doing research, co-authoring papers, and getting stellar recommendations from professors. If you do this you should be a viable candidate for grad school. I don't know much about jobs though. Good luck!

 

[nick7s]

There are a couple things to consider here. 1) It's better to do poorly in your early unrelated courses than your upper level major courses. This happens to a lot of people. So the first thing is to make sure you do as well as you can in your upper level courses, and raise your GPA to higher than a 3.0, as high as you possibly can. Assuming you do, maybe you will be fully qualified for graduate school. But 2) graduate schools get a ton of applications, and many will be from students who didn't do poorly early on. So you just need to ask yourself, why should they accept you over someone who started strong and finished strong? Ways you can offset a low GPA are doing research, co-authoring papers, and getting stellar recommendations from professors. If you do this you should be a viable candidate for grad school. I don't know much about jobs though. Good luck!

Thank you! I'm just starting my required courses in my new major now. It's not totally a fresh start but it's giving me the chance to do well in a new area.