Low GPA, but have had sickness through college
Posted: Sun May 24, 2015 8:54 pm
Hi everyone! I've looked through so many useful threads, but thought I'd add my situation in. I'll list out the details:
-I'm a female at a top private university for undergrad
-I'm double majoring in math and physics, also have taken many CS classes. My overall GPA is about 3.45, but my physics GPA is a 3.0 and my math GPA is a 3.2.
-I have been doing research straight through since the fall of my sophomore year (I am going to be a senior in August) in experimental condensed matter, and I'm expecting to have 1 or 2 publications done by the time I graduate, first author on both. I've already given a talk at an APS conference. I know advanced nanofabrication techniques and various forms of microscopy and spectroscopy (AFM, Raman, SEM, etc.)
- I have had a mental/physical illness through my college career (an eating disorder, which led me to near hospitalization at the start of my sophomore year and has also led to a broken hip and many medical complications), while dealing with being a first generation college student from a rather unstable familial background, and having come into college with no physics preparation.
-My grades have been on the upswing since freshman year...for the most part. I was about to clinch a much better junior year, then I pulled in a C+ in an upper level physics courses, while pulling in A's and A-'s in everything else. I feel like that C+ is the nail in the coffin.
-I'm spending my summer living in the lab, mentoring a younger female physics major, taking the general GRE next month and I'm going to spend a few months studying for the physics GRE, hard.
I'm not looking to get into a top 10 school. But I'd love to be able to go somewhere like the Colorado School of Mines or the University of Oregon. If I kick ass on the standardized tests, can I pull it off? how much should I divulge about my disease to admission boards? It explains a lot of my mediocre performance in classes, but I understand how it's a red flag as well.
I want to pursue experimental condensed matter physics and do it for as long as I can. I'm crazy passionate about it. But given my poor grades, should I not even try- and opt for something like engineering or materials science, or get a masters first? Or should I go for it with realistic tier grad school options?
Thanks for your time!
-I'm a female at a top private university for undergrad
-I'm double majoring in math and physics, also have taken many CS classes. My overall GPA is about 3.45, but my physics GPA is a 3.0 and my math GPA is a 3.2.
-I have been doing research straight through since the fall of my sophomore year (I am going to be a senior in August) in experimental condensed matter, and I'm expecting to have 1 or 2 publications done by the time I graduate, first author on both. I've already given a talk at an APS conference. I know advanced nanofabrication techniques and various forms of microscopy and spectroscopy (AFM, Raman, SEM, etc.)
- I have had a mental/physical illness through my college career (an eating disorder, which led me to near hospitalization at the start of my sophomore year and has also led to a broken hip and many medical complications), while dealing with being a first generation college student from a rather unstable familial background, and having come into college with no physics preparation.
-My grades have been on the upswing since freshman year...for the most part. I was about to clinch a much better junior year, then I pulled in a C+ in an upper level physics courses, while pulling in A's and A-'s in everything else. I feel like that C+ is the nail in the coffin.
-I'm spending my summer living in the lab, mentoring a younger female physics major, taking the general GRE next month and I'm going to spend a few months studying for the physics GRE, hard.
I'm not looking to get into a top 10 school. But I'd love to be able to go somewhere like the Colorado School of Mines or the University of Oregon. If I kick ass on the standardized tests, can I pull it off? how much should I divulge about my disease to admission boards? It explains a lot of my mediocre performance in classes, but I understand how it's a red flag as well.
I want to pursue experimental condensed matter physics and do it for as long as I can. I'm crazy passionate about it. But given my poor grades, should I not even try- and opt for something like engineering or materials science, or get a masters first? Or should I go for it with realistic tier grad school options?
Thanks for your time!