Hey Julia, I'm a second semester freshman right now but I think eventually I'd like to go to grad school for plant science. While I love my major and generally the classes that go into it, I'm having a really hard time with chem right now. I'm already involved in a couple research projects and extracurriculars but it's a lot to balance and I was wondering: do you think that research and leadership will offset a couple average/bad grades? Or should I focus more on GPA? Thank you <3
Hi Avery!
I think having strong research and leadership experiences can definitely offset some less-than-ideal grades! The grad admissions committee takes every and all parts of your application into consideration, and the GPA is just one component. There are some (if not all) programs that request a minimum GPA, so keep that in mind (usually it’s 3.0 - 3.5 on a 4.0 scale), but that’s not always black & white. I personally know a few students in my PhD program who have undergrad GPAs lower than what was listed as the “requirement” to apply, but they made up for it by having lots of research experience or related (I think one of them was even a teacher for a while).
In my case I got a C in Ochem II and here I am, in grad school! Granted, I didn’t get into like an Ivy League, but I still got into a great program I love. To make up for that lousy grade (and a few other B’s) I stuffed under my belt almost 3 years of research experience as a lab tech (after graduating college) and co-authored some papers during that time.
I think you should still thrive to get the best grades as you can of course, but it’s totally not the end of your grad school dreams if you earn something less than an A! You’re going to be okay <3 <3 <3
