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GPA For Graduate School?


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I'm currently finishing up my last year at UC Berkeley and I'm taking up an interest in graduate schools. My GPA isn't too high and I was just wondering how much of an impact it serves in the application to grad schools. Obviously, I'm not expecting to get into an Ivy League school, state school would even be fine. I want to become a therapist - family/marriage - and if anyone can give me some tips or maybe from their own personal experience - what do these grad schools look for? What is the usual minimum GPA to be able to be qualified for the Master's or PhD programs?

 

Thanks

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It should say on their website what the minimum requirements are. For my program it was 3 or 3.2 out of 4. However, if it's a competitive field, the basic requirements may not be enough to ensure acceptance. For this reason, it is best to apply to as many schools as you can possible afford to. Include schools with top ratings, medium ratings, and low ratings, and see what kinds of offers you get.

 

References are also really important. Since the professors must give honest answers, regardless of how much they like you personally, it's important to pick professors whose classes you achieved high marks in. (and also ones who like you, of course.)

 

Finally, the sooner you apply, the better chances you'll have of acceptance and funding.

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I'm not quite sure how it works in your field, but coming from someone in the business world and having talked with several top tier MBA graduates...it seems that very few people typically get their graduate degree right after college.

 

It doesn't serve any purpose to have all of this education and no experience to back it up. It is best to think of a graduate degree as a compliment to your senior career develpment...not an extension of your undergrad degree.

 

The best schools will probably not admit you without some real world experience or unless you cured cancer, have successfully run your own therapy practice, or have a rich relative that donated piles of money to their school.

 

This is all of course from the perspective of someone pursuing their MBA, I'm not sure how it works for someone that has a different focus such as yourself.

 

I do know some individuals that got into some top tier grad schools, but they had exceptional interviewing skills, work experience, and scored exceptionally well on their entrance exam(s). And if it's anything like an MBA...anything short of the top 8-10 business schools is a waste of time unless you're an educator where a top degree holds some value and prestige.

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I think it'll be kind of hard for the OP to get 'real world experiance'. It was my understanding that you needed a Phd in her field (therapy) to actually counsel people.

 

Not true. My friend is a therapist with only a masters degree. She is currently working as a therapist and pursuing her Phd.

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Yeah, but I mean I'll only have a B.A. and not a Master's so I can't quite counsel people without the grad school experience. I was thinking of volunteering/interning maybe for a psychologist/therapist and putting that on my application as well.

 

And I agree with you about the GRE's.

 

Thank you to everyone who posted here and gave me advice, this is really helping me

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If you are coming from a top-tier school like Berkely, your GPA does not have to be as high as someone coming from a school not a highly regarded. I had a 3.4 GPA from a very nice school and I was accepted at every grad school I applied to. I was even courted by some. So, I would imagine a 3.0 from Berkely is equal to a 3.8 at other schools.

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Your GPA is important.

 

When you apply to grad school, you're competing with other students, from all over the world.

 

Having a strong GPA makes you appear competitive.

 

That said, not having a high GPA should not be a discourage you from applying to grad school.

 

As an aside: MBA programs are slightly different. Generally those programs favor people with experience over applicants fresh out of school.

 

For other professional programs, such as therapist, social work, etc, generally a masters is required.

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I'm not quite sure how it works in your field, but coming from someone in the business world and having talked with several top tier MBA graduates...it seems that very few people typically get their graduate degree right after college.

 

This attitude very much is solely the product of the business stream as opposed to any other academic stream. In business with an MBA, it's a degree teaching you to be an Executive and since nobody really hires a Manager/Executive with no experience straight out of college it is a waste to get an MBA straight after college. I wouldn't even get an MBA unless the company was paying for it.

 

With other academic programs such as social sciences or hard sciences or liberal arts, quite a few students apply directly after obtaining their undergraduate degree. Typically because the aim is to conduct academic research in these types of grad schools so academics and references weighs more heavily then the MBA.

 

Alternatively their are professional graduate schools (Dentistry, Med school, Law school) that aim to certify you to be a member of a certain professional body and so with these types of school's it's also common to apply directly after your undergrad since you can't enter the profession until you've completed your graduate education.

 

MBA is kind of a weird cross between the two. It's very practical as opposed to academic like a liberal arts graduate school, but on the other hand it's not a professional school since you don't have to have an MBA in order to be an Executive the way you need a law degree to be a lawyer.

 

What all this basically boils down to is, if you're planning on getting your MBA it's better to wait and gain experience after college (and hopefully find an employer to pay for your education), but if you're going to graduate school for just about anything other then an MBA it's fine to apply directly afterwards and many people do.

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I agree with thejigsup.

 

I agree with the GRE comment as well.

 

If you find yourself in a position where both your GPA and GRE's are low (which, considering being from Berkley probably won't be a big deal) definitely try to intern somewhere or ask profs if you can volunteer to help them.

 

Being able to say you did undergraduate research and having that prof write reference letters can fix everything! (trust me on this, I know more about this stuff than you think! )

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With other academic programs such as social sciences or hard sciences or liberal arts, quite a few students apply directly after obtaining their undergraduate degree. Typically because the aim is to conduct academic research in these types of grad schools so academics and references weighs more heavily then the MBA.

 

Thanks for pointing this out. I had a feeling it was different. I considered pursuing a PhD in biology once and I know that going from Undergrad - > grad -> phd is pretty much the only route. I had no idea how it worked for being a therapist. Thanks.

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Another thing many graduate programs concern themselves with is the "fit" of the student within the academic culture of the particular department you are applying to. GPA is important--but having at least a 3.0 should qualify you to apply to most schools. You can make up for a slightly lower GPA with good GREs, as others have alluded to, and good extracurricular activities (or work experience should you choose that first) that demonstrate leadership and potential success in graduate school. You may also very well have a face-to-face interview with the department(s) you apply to, which can make huge impression on the faculty, so play up what you find most appealing about that course of study and how it suits you.

 

My program was in the hard sciences, and we turned down people all the time who didn't seem like they would find a good niche in our department in which to do their dissertation research or who didn't communicate well with our faculty during the interview, regardless of their academic record. Personally, I'd rather mentor an enthusiastic student with slightly lower numbers than one with a perfect record who is unhappy in the department and thus unproductive.

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If she attends Berkely, she has the interview skills down. It is next to impossible to get in there, even with a high gpa from high school. You are jumped through many hoops, indeed. She will probably get into any grad school she wishes.

 

Although Berkeley is certainly a great school, she will be competing against other Berkeley applicants, which could make it a lot harder for her to get into grad school! I attend an Ivy League school - and I know getting into a good med school, for example, is just brutal, because of the in-house competition.

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