Admissions PhD Applications with a low GPA (due to depression in my junior year)

[PrinceWalnut]

Hi all,

To be clear, my institution does not allow retaking of courses that are passed. It is a rule that I personally find very annoying (as do many other students in my school), but nonetheless simply retaking the classes is not an option for me.

Since my last post I have visited a psychiatrist who has changed my treatment plan quite a bit (significantly increased dose, possibly adding another medication, meds for chronic insomnia), and although this is relatively recent I do think it will work. I agree with @Vanadium 50 that at the current moment I would not be well-prepared for graduate level work, so I've decided that as soon as I am decently stable I intend to undergo a private study of the junior/senior level physics I missed in large part using the assigned texts (which should be more detailed than my actual classes were anyways) to remedy this, as I'd be uncomfortable attempting to go to graduate school with my current knowledge. If I'm not able to get myself up to speed before it is time to accept any offers (if I get any), then I will decline the offers and take another year to work on my fundamentals, and reapply next year.

I've spoken with professors at my home institution about this and my research advisor seems to think that once I can manage my issues well, I should do fine at catching up on coursework and be an excellent researcher. I am not quite as optimistic, but am choosing to apply on that advice.

 

[Vanadium 50]

Sounds like a good plan.

You might still seek out options about retaking classes. Can you audit them? Can the university grant a waiver? Can you get permission to sit in on all the classes, even if "officially" the university has no record of this?

 

[gimak]

That's not what this program is for.

I know that its for boosting minorities in physics & not for giving people with other issues a chance. However I didn't fit purpose and applied anyway. A masters program from here took me in. Just saying it could be an option after he strengthens his foundation. Although the above program does only admit 10% of people who aren't minorities.

 

[StatGuy2000]

It's very common. What varies is how it impacts your transcript. Most places will not give two units of credit for the same course taken twice. Which grade or grades are included in the GPA varies a lot. But I know of no institution that forbids this. I guess Toronto is just special.

But more importantly, plowing ahead before you have mastered the earlier material is not a recipe for success.

I believe the situation that I described above (i.e. inability to retake courses if passed) is quite common in most Canadian universities (although I do agree that Toronto is special. )

 

[Dr. Courtney]

Sure...but two years of them? (retaking undergrad courses in grad school)

Agreed, hoping to retake two full years of undergrad courses in grad school would be excessive. But no one blinked when I chose to retake one full year of undergrad courses in grad school. All my advisors agreed with my priority of passing the general exams and ensuring I was prepared for the core graduate level courses (E&M, Quantum Mechanics, and Stat Mech).

My read on the OP is that he had done poorly in two semesters with 2.x type GPAs. This ground can usually be made up in graduate school with a similar approach to what I did. Poor outcomes in more than two semesters is much harder to make up in graduate school, and greater efforts should be made either to prevent it in the first place, or to make up the ground before enrolling in grad school.

Self-study is a hard sell when applying to grad schools, but I bet there are some admissions committees willing to buy it in the case of significant improvements in the PGRE score in subsequent attempts. "My school would not let me retake undergraduate physics courses, but I bridged the gap trough self-study ..." is much more convincing if one can point to "...and consequently, my Physics GRE score improved from 700 to 940 ..."

 

[mathwonk]

one technique i used for getting into a phd program the second time around was this: first i took a job teaching undergrad, and learned the background material i lacked by teaching it, i.e. essentially self study. i also studied further graduate material over the summer. then when i was ready to apply again to grad school, i just showed up and (with permission) took and passed their phd qualifying exams, thus demonstrating that i was at least as good as their current graduate students. at this point no one cared about my previous gpa. this got me accepted to the math dept at the Univ of Washington, although I decided to go elsewhere for a better offer. The point is that if you are qualified, you should be able to demonstrate that fact. If not, you don't want to get yourself in the program.

 

[binbagsss]

People saying If you can't handle undergrad school you can't handle post grad school, it has nothing to do with that. Mental illness is not likely caused by his inability to handle the course. Or stress. Keeps fighting ignore them.

 

[rwm4768]

Before anything, controlling your depression is the most important thing. The problem with depression and similar conditions is that they never truly go away. After I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, I had to take three full years off from school before I felt ready to handle it again. And I wasn't even going for a graduate degree. I went back for an engineering undergrad degree.