Thanks!
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Low GPA - Take Undergraduate or Graduate Courses to improve application?
- Thread starter temp222
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Why not start a graduate certificate in core public health. It would probably have more lax admission standards. And by doing well, it shows you understand the material. On top of that, you may be able to transfer to your MPH when you get accepted.
Just a thought.
Just a thought.
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I think Kevin36's idea is a solid one. There have been several people who have posted on this forum with below a 3.0 who got into very reputable MPH programs, but if you have the time, money, and desire then taking some courses would be a good way to boost your chances and show your dedication. I would say (in my opinion) that the certificate program or grad level courses would be the best way to go. If you take a few more undergrad courses and do well they will be diluted into your undergrad GPA (yes, the school will be able to see that your recent coursework exhibited higher grades, but when they glance at your overall GPA it won't be as apparent since, with 130+ hours a few courses mathematically won't change your average too much). However, if you do it in a separate program (like the certificate or grad classes) then you will have a readily apparent and more recent cumulative average of your recent work. It's just my opinion, but I think if I saw an overall GPA of a 3.05 vs. an undergrad GPA of 2.9 plus a grad class GPA of say 3.85, I would think the second scenario would look better (I just made those averages up since I don't know what your exact GPA is or the number of courses you could feasibly take before applying).
Good luck!
Good luck!
Hi,
I am new to this community and saw this posting. In fact your situation is very similar to mine.
As an undergraduate at UT-Austin, I ended up with a below 2.5 GPA. It wasn't that I partied, actually there were extenuating circumstances which I should have taken a year off.
Anyways, I knew it was a very wrong representation of my true abilities so I work 10x as hard to prove my intentions of graduate school. I worked full time while taking evening classes in statistics, biochemistry etc to boost my science GPA, then held an internship. I knew graduate school would be nearly impossible so I applied for the UT-HSC certificate program. I made a 4.0 my first semester, am into my final semester and..got admitted into the MPH program starting in the Fall.
total time since graduation? 4 years. it's sounds long, but I continuously worked to show my maturity until I was confident in my application.
my advice: take upper division of graduate classes, like statistics. boost GPA. try for the certificate program to prove your capability. Hopefully it wont take as long as me. if I managed the impossible (it seemed) you can too.
good luck!
I am new to this community and saw this posting. In fact your situation is very similar to mine.
As an undergraduate at UT-Austin, I ended up with a below 2.5 GPA. It wasn't that I partied, actually there were extenuating circumstances which I should have taken a year off.
Anyways, I knew it was a very wrong representation of my true abilities so I work 10x as hard to prove my intentions of graduate school. I worked full time while taking evening classes in statistics, biochemistry etc to boost my science GPA, then held an internship. I knew graduate school would be nearly impossible so I applied for the UT-HSC certificate program. I made a 4.0 my first semester, am into my final semester and..got admitted into the MPH program starting in the Fall.
total time since graduation? 4 years. it's sounds long, but I continuously worked to show my maturity until I was confident in my application.
my advice: take upper division of graduate classes, like statistics. boost GPA. try for the certificate program to prove your capability. Hopefully it wont take as long as me. if I managed the impossible (it seemed) you can too.
good luck!
