Hello everyone! I just wanted to quickly share my academic story so that it hopefully motivates anyone who may be hesitant to apply in future cycles because of their GPA:
As you can probably see in my stats below, I got a 3.2 GPA. This is very low. I struggled a lot during my first few years of college -- I had health issues I had to overcome and a lot of anxiety caused from juggling pre-med life and family life. This eventually led to me being academically dismissed during my 3rd year. I really wanted to stay motivated to go back to school ASAP so I chose to volunteer at a community health center. This was difficult to do because I was also working full-time, but I managed to make it work. 6 months and 3 summer classes later, I gained readmission. I came back, switched my major, and graduated after my 5th year. I even managed to complete a global health study abroad program! During my gap years, I did AmeriCorps and worked as a Quality Improvement Specialist. I'm so happy that I took some gap years because working-full time showed me that what I really wanted is a career in public health.
I applied to MPH programs being fully prepared to have to apply a second time. I thought that all these schools would reject me because of my academic dismissal...but they didn't. I'm incredibly grateful that they gave me a chance and I hope that they do the same for other future applicants with a similar story. We are more than just our GPA and our resilience highlights our potential as great leaders in public health.
School: University of California | Major/Minor: B.A. Spanish Community and Culture w/ Minor in Global Health | GPA: 3.2 | GRE: Didn't take
Applied: Yale, BU, GWU, UCLA, UPitt, Northwestern, OHSU-PSU, CDrewU
Accepted: Yale (3/9), GWU (2/5 +40%), BU (2/20 +25%), UPitt (3/10), Northwestern (2/18 +35%), CDrewU (2/11)
Pending: UCLA, OHSU-PSU
