Schools Getting into grad school with a below 3.0 gpa?

[ONHOLS]

I'm trying to figure out how hard it would be for me to get into grad school. I graduated with a 2.79 and a BA in physics, two and a half years ago. I did publish 3 papers in apj, won 4 research awards, one campus-wide calculus competition, 4 grants (not including the ones I won more than once), and presented posters at AAS meetings. My major gpa was a 3.40 but my overall wasn't but a 2.79. My advisor advised me to go ahead and graduate.

So, I did... One year later I was still unemployable, due to the fairly crappy economy and my lack of real skills of any variety. I applied for high school teaching jobs, but the hiring manager for at least one district, "felt bad" for taking the fee they charge to look at your transcript, because she knew they weren't going to hire anybody. Six months later, she was on cable news saying the district had no idea that the mid semester layoffs would be necessary. I don't apparently have enough chemistry to do lab tech stuff.

So, I decided to go back to school. Now I'm getting a BS in geophysics (read:the oil industry). My gpa is a 3.69 "junior" year, but I really hate the whole field. Spherical coordinates don't mean the same thing as they do in physics or math or in the rest of the world. Lots of the math is middling inconsistent or problematic or something used because their students are mathematically challenged, or it's scarily subjective (answers within +/- 30%). The instructors shy at complexity, and I get "that's a good idea" a lot, followed by some dismissive answer or worse the great idea, that means 'I will pet your ego but no job for you'. My biggest problem is that at the big state name university, I can't get a research job to save my life. I spent last summer waitressing. I'm pretty close to graduating without research/job experience or references beyond my useless advisor. Which I know first-hand, is dangerous.

At this point I'm starting to wonder if it might be a better idea to try to go back on my physics degree and I'm wondering how impossible it'll be to get a masters in it? I never took the GRE. Edited to say: my gpa is an issue because of math.

 

[flyingpig]

Wow I can actually relate. I mean just the "good idea" and coordinate system part. It's usually the chemist who switches phi and theta around, not the physicists

 

[Caramon]

So what exactly did you major in? And why didn't you apply for Grad school? Why didn't you take the GRE?

 

[ONHOLS]

Physics. Math is my worst subject and mostly responsible for my gpa. Because with that GPA, my adviser and I figured there was no point.

 

[revnaknuma]

my BS GPA is 2.52 and now I am a graduate student.

 

[Choppy]

Based on what you've said in the original post, you sound like the kind of "below 3.0" student who has a chance at getting into graduate school. Of course you'll be competing with lots of others with averages well above yours, but if you really want it, you'll likely be able to get in somewhere.

One concern though, is that its generally not a good idea to do graduate school just because you can't find something else. Grad school is a tough hack and can be rather unforgiving. If you don't have the desire to be there you'll find it very difficult and potentially a waste of time.

 

[eri]

I definitely agree with Choppy that grad school should be something you do because you're passionate about it. It can easily take 6-8 years of your life and might leave you in a similar position, unable to find a job in this economy.

And keep in mind that problems with math can translate into failing the qualifying exam after having wasted a few more years, and some schools require you pass the quals even to get a masters.

If you do want to try it, start by contacting your old research advisers. Are any of them at, say, a lower-ranked (in physics) university? I've seen a few people get into physics grad programs on probation, where if they did well the first year, they go to stay. Based on your research, you might have a shot at this, but it helps to have someone in the department to argue for you to be given a chance. Although to be fair, none of the students I saw get into grad school this way finished the program.

 

[ONHOLS]

I loved astronomy. But they were talking a 3.5 for grad school, so I figured there wasn't a chance. I only did the geophysics because, had they offered classes on time, I could get through it in 2 years. The problem is that it’s not the same. I think the thing I miss the most was being with the sort of people who think similarly and got excited about the same things. It's a fairly indescribable high when you go to a meeting and run into you something dreamed up and dismissed as implausible. If I brought something up in class, we'd head off onto some tangent that annoyingly tended to show up on the test. In geophysics, I think that for seismology (basically studying coherent arrays of waves) that straight lines and regular receiver intervals aren't always the most effective way of studying surfaces that aren't straight. If that’s wrong, it'll give you a better understand of the geometries involved; if it's right, it’s a fairly valuable thing to know how to do.

I'm entirely fine with just getting a master's. It would open up some doors. I was taking some chemistry at my local technical college and the department head offered me a job pt teaching 3 labs a week, followed by telling me that he couldn't hire me full time, and that what I should really do is go get a masters. There also was an opening at a planetarium, that I think would have been awesome to have gotten. The program was old and really needed updating, and the person running it had been threatening to retire. (How would your life be different if someone had shown you, to scale, what it looks like to stand on the surface of Mars at age 8?) But, there's no chance that they'd hire me for that position without something a little heftier than a BA. I also wanted a little more of a challenge than kids would provide, and research and meetings would also be nice.

 

[flyingpig]

So what exactly did you major in? And why didn't you apply for Grad school? Why didn't you take the GRE?

Well no I am a freshman right now...

 

[Ryker]

Well no I am a freshman right now...

He wasn't asking you. And even if he was, an answer to which of his questions could possibly be "no"?

 

[hadsed]

Doing a Ph.D in physics without being decent in math sounds like a bad idea to me. I can't think of any fields in physics that don't require you to be useful with mathematics, even experimentalists use math extensively.

This isn't to get you down or anything, but you should really think about this before you try it and possibly waste more time. You can get better with math if you really try, but if you won't try it's going to be much more difficult in graduate school, maybe even impossible.

 

[Jake4]

I don't have much to contribute as far as the grad school situation, but I have to say, I really don't understand being "bad" at mathematics.

I feel like math, above any other subject, relies on practice. It's similar to a language, you need to be immersed in it, solving problems constantly, to really get fluent in it.

I've always had a knack for math, but this semester believe it or not opened my eyes a bit. I've always been able to just skate through, listening in class, doing required homework. This semester was the first one where this just wasn't cutting it. Luckily I found out early on, and I have essentially been spending a couple hours every night, on calculus, and it's becoming easier and easier, as well as much more enjoyable the more time I spend on it.

math is only frustrating when you aren't familiar with the topic.

 

[Simfish]

they were talking a 3.5 for grad school

They want a 3.5 for grad school? I'm sort of confused. There certainly are quite a lot of students who do get in with GPAs below 3.5, although policies may vary from school to school.

Also, what position were you on those 3 ApJ papers? What type of research awards did you win?

And you could just do unpaid research. Unpaid research is the single most important thing anyone can do for grad school (if you can get money through another way, like living with your parents)

 

[cristo]

Physics. Math is my worst subject and mostly responsible for my gpa. Because with that GPA, my adviser and I figured there was no point.

This is the most worrying part of your post. Until you improve your maths, you will likely not succeed in obtaining a graduate degree in physics.