Low GPA, Some Experience & Guidance?

[symbolipoint]

Not naming names but there was a school in southern California which had a program for Master's degree in Physics as that departments highest level degree. No information about "tier".

 

[ZapperZ]

But is DePaul a "lower tier" school that will "that will take just about any grad student with over a 3.0"?

That, I do not know.

Zz.

 

[Vanadium 50]

There are plenty (56 on the AIP list) of schools that have a MS as their highest degree. I'm not doubting that. It's the "lower tier" school that will "that will take just about any grad student with over a 3.0" where I would like to see an example. As I said, "I know a place that will take you but I'm not going to say where" is not so helpful.

 

[Jody]

I would imagine giving names is not always appropriate.

 

[donpacino]

Hey all,

So I just joined this forum, thinking it might be a good source of advice for something.

I'm a Junior year Physics major at a decent state university school, and I have a GPA of 2.87. I had a few internships in High School and a summer/part time coding job for some planetary geologists at Goddard mostly streaming their processing workflows with basic to intermediate scripting and programming, where my mentors emphatically like my work.

I also volunteer to run a major space industry gala annually where I've met folks like Buzz Aldrin, a US Senator, and the likes, and run the campus Astro Club. I'm also a Resident Assistant and am well liked there, and have saxophoned for NFL team marching bands and developed a quirky hobby of learning languages.

I am fairly concerned about getting into Grad school. Since I'm paying for my tuition I'm taking a guilt free 5th year to crank up my GPA, but constantly struggle to understand and perform well in my Physics and Math classes after hours of pain sometimes, and in particular am worrying about getting a first F somewhere this semester despite using office hours and the like.

I breezed through Chemistry and don't really think I'm a hardcore math robot anymore, but can't switch out of Physics and still graduate in 5 years or less. I'm thinking of getting into planetary, geology, or atmospheric, but there is no department or any knowledge of the former 2 at my university, and don't know if they like my GPA or experience. Or maybe I'm wanting to close the Physics door too early?

Any guidance on either surviving both a Physics undergrad and getting into grad school in some of the areas I mentioned earlier? At this point, I'm really craving for my full time place to be one that values me and I value back as much as my original goal to be in space science.

Help.

What is your major GPA?

I was in a situation where I slacked off my freshmen year. As a result my major gpa was MUCH higher than my actual gpa. Also is there a trend when you look at your gpa per semester or per year that you can show?

take the below example.

student A: 3.0 gpa all 4 years
student B: 2.5 gpa first 2 years, 3.5 gpa final 2 years

I would take student B almost every time, even though they both graduate with a 3.0