- #1
Lanza52
- 63
- 0
I'm in a rather weird scenario. My first four years of college, I wasn't interested in studying or macadamia in general. I was a finance major and realized that I was learning an extraordinary larger amount at work then I was in class. I'd go to work and learn how to analyze investments using techniques that were taught seldom in graduate school. So I didn't focus on school and slid through with a 3.0.
After working in finance for a bit I realized that I wasn't enjoying it; I'm more interested in how the finance worked and the fundamentals, where as all the jobs I was finding were sales positions... more or less. So I switched to physics, as that is what I was interested in all along but wasn't sure I could actually maintain the grades necessary.
A year and a half into Physics, I've gotten straight As with most overall grades being in the 130% A or higher range. Just for a quick example, I just finished an EM final today where the course required 825 points for an A and I'll finish the course with about an 1100. I should have done better, but this class wasn't very high on my priority list. I won all the awards offered to physics students and I'm the top of my class by quite a bit. My professors gave me high assurance that their recommendation letters will bare more weight then my rather poor and non-representative GPA. I'm studying at Florida Atlantic University, if the name bares any recognition to you.
I haven't taken the GRE yet, but I'm an exceptional test taker. I'm pretty confident I'll score very high.
My question is this: what does this chaotic background due for my potential grad school search? I'm entirely confident in my ability to perform well at the highest of schools so I'm interested in applying for them. Yet, I have very low confidence in my track record. 6.5 years of college with a 3.1 sounds awful. Two years of beyond perfect grades in physics sounds wonderful. Will colleges that I apply for have enough students of my caliber in physics to not take the risk on my poor track record?
If any of you have experience with admissions and weird backgrounds of this sort, please let me know your opinion. Thanks!
After working in finance for a bit I realized that I wasn't enjoying it; I'm more interested in how the finance worked and the fundamentals, where as all the jobs I was finding were sales positions... more or less. So I switched to physics, as that is what I was interested in all along but wasn't sure I could actually maintain the grades necessary.
A year and a half into Physics, I've gotten straight As with most overall grades being in the 130% A or higher range. Just for a quick example, I just finished an EM final today where the course required 825 points for an A and I'll finish the course with about an 1100. I should have done better, but this class wasn't very high on my priority list. I won all the awards offered to physics students and I'm the top of my class by quite a bit. My professors gave me high assurance that their recommendation letters will bare more weight then my rather poor and non-representative GPA. I'm studying at Florida Atlantic University, if the name bares any recognition to you.
I haven't taken the GRE yet, but I'm an exceptional test taker. I'm pretty confident I'll score very high.
My question is this: what does this chaotic background due for my potential grad school search? I'm entirely confident in my ability to perform well at the highest of schools so I'm interested in applying for them. Yet, I have very low confidence in my track record. 6.5 years of college with a 3.1 sounds awful. Two years of beyond perfect grades in physics sounds wonderful. Will colleges that I apply for have enough students of my caliber in physics to not take the risk on my poor track record?
If any of you have experience with admissions and weird backgrounds of this sort, please let me know your opinion. Thanks!