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low general gpa, ok major gpa, should I apply for master or phd?


wanderlust72

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so far, my general gpa is only 2.8:doh:, double major in math and econ. for math I have 3.4 right now, and for economics I have a gpa of 3.5.:hmm:

I know this is a disaster for someone who wants to apply for graduate school. because of my VERY low general gpa (I did really bad in some useless courses during the first 2 years) I am wondering what degree should I apply for right now?:idea: cuz a phd seems impossible for me at this moment, right?

what i think right now is to get into a top 60 (i hope) school's master program and then get into its phd program after I do the master or i can go to another school after that.

just want some advice from anyone who can help me. btw, i'm taking gre before november this year(hope it's not too late.) i'm graduating in may, 2011.

thanks for your even just one glimpse on this~

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Apply to both Masters and PHD. your profile is not as bad as you think. Apply to Canadian masters. And apply to 30-50 range PHDs maybe 20-50. You have nothing to lose anyway, but at any rate you need to talk to your professors and ask about the history of placements in your school.

However i would think you should take the GRE in October. That way you have a second shot at a repeat in November if you don't do well. Sitting for November is risky, unless the schools you are applying to have February deadlines. Start making your list from now and talking to your profs. It's more time consuming than you can imagine.

 

Hope some of this helps.

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thx petecheese! that's almost what my professor told me to do: apply both, mostly phd, about 10 masters, and apply for about 30 schools. I am taking the gre on october cuz I think eactly the same way that you do.some more specific Qs here: which level of schools should I focus more on? any good school's program you want suggest to me? (which can also be suitable for me)

thank you! you are amazing!

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hmmm depends on what your field of interested in.

But generally speaking. PHD wise, i would go for the 30-70 range. (check econphd rankings, or tilburg rankings or USnews rankings and try get a ballpark estimation of what universities are for you).

 

As for masters. Apply to Toronto, UBC, Mcgill, Simon Fraser, Queens. Those are good 5. Maybe York and Montreal if you want also. Also there are some really good European masters programs out there that could suit you. LSE, Cambridge, UCL, Bocconi, Tinbergen, UPF (pompeau fabra).etc.. Again i suggest talking to your professors about SPECIFIC universities in that range that previous students have gone too. You have a lot of research to do and a lot of applications to look at. So i suggest start from today.

 

Good luck and all the best to you

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Although the mean for admitted applicants is above 3.5, University of Colorado - Boulder PhD has a minimum GPA of 2.75, so I would suggest applying there. Pretty much everywhere else has at least a 3.0, and even some mid range state schools require a 3.5 (UC Davis, UIUC).
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It is probably too low to get in the MPhils. (Masters in research). But i think for the MSC the cutoff is like 3.2. Also they are not robots, they do care about concentration GPA more than cumulative. There is always room for judgment. Besides the MSCs in England usually have big classes and not much funding. So they are not as selective as other programs.
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