Afraid my grades aren't good enough

[Jersey_Steve]

After spending two years out of college and working in various IT positions, I think I took the wrong path out in college. So I'm going to go back and, hopefully, do what I should be doing. Which would be working in psychology. Hopefully doing research.

In college, I studied Human-Computer Interaction, which is little more than CS and Psych classes. My psych grades are all B+ or A, but my CS grades are mostly Cs, which REALLY drags down my GPA.

In hindsight, I should have noticed that, but I was young and stupid and thought I'd get a nice usability job. No luck there.

Every grad program I look at, they all want like minimum GPAs of like 3.5 or better. Thanks to all those CS courses I got a C (and a D or two), my GPA is only a 2.9 overall.

And for all these colleges, they have "checklists" for what to do if you want to go to grad school. These checklists are supposed to be started when you're like a sophomore in your undergrad. :frustrate

So what can I do since going to grad school wasn't a plan 2 years ago? How am I going to get in without that perfect 4.0 all these colleges want?

[cheshrcarol]

I got into grad school with the highly embarrassing gpa of ~2.7. I ended up having to have a dispensation from the graduate school to be allowed in, but in the end they did admit me. And with 2 more classes to go I have a 3.8 gpa, so I'd say they made the right decision :D .

What I did, and what I would suggest is to talk the school(s) you really want to go to and lay everything out on the table and ask them if you have a chance at getting in. I also went to several meet and greet functions at the school so that the people deciding on my application had a face to put with it. And I did ok on my GRE's, getting a decent amount over the minimums.

Another big part of this how is how competitive the school/department is. I do go to a very competitive school, but the department is new and I wasn't vying with 100 people for 10 spots or anything.




As a sidenote, I think it's really funny that your major is the same name as my M.S., and yet my program doesn't include any CS or psych classes.

[crystal_dance]

I also went to several meet and greet functions at the school so that the people deciding on my application had a face to put with it.

VERY solid advice. Makes a big difference in my opinion.

As a sidenote, I think it's really funny that your major is the same name as my M.S., and yet my program doesn't include any CS or psych classes.

I used to do some HCI research and the field is highly CS, industrial design and cognitive behavior based. What sort of stuff do you study?

[cheshrcarol]

I used to do some HCI research and the field is highly CS, industrial design and cognitive behavior based. What sort of stuff do you study?My program is very much based in usability. I've had classes in running research studies, project-based classes where we had to develop new products, and classes where we evaluate the usability of either existing products and suggest improvements, or evaluate our own products, and a class where I had to learn about and develop "electronic coaching systems" - help files, tutorials, documentation, wizards, etc.

You learn to gather user requirements, evaluate usability, run user testing, and analyze data. CS and psych skills can be helpful, but should not be the central roles of a usability engineer, which is what I want to do. I need to be able to read code enough to understand what's going on or understand why people might find something more or less usable.

[marigoldny]

don't be sidetracked by your gpa...if you really want this then it can happen despite a gpa that is lower than a school's listed requirement. since your area of focus in psychology is research i would set aside about a year or 2 dedicated to getting as much research experience possible. apply for full time positions (if you have no research experience at all that may be a bit more difficult so i would also consider volunteer RA positions). you are killing 2 birds with 1 stone by doing this - 1) you are getting the research experience that is required of all grad psychology programs and 2) by working hard and doing a good job you can earn a great letter of rec. another thing you may want to consider is to take some grad courses in statistics and research methods. this will definitely boost your ability to get in. i am in grad school for psych so if you have any other questions feel free to send me a message. :)

[Jersey_Steve]

I used to do some HCI research and the field is highly CS, industrial design and cognitive behavior based. What sort of stuff do you study?

I want to focus more on the cognitive science aspect. I like computers and my CS courses weren't too bad, but I LOVED my psych courses.

So I'd like to see how the brain reacts when it repeatedly uses computers for certain functions. Like if someone loses an arm, that cluster of brain cells that controlled the arm will change their function over time. So with all the time we spend interacting with computers like we do now, I'm interested in how (or if) it affects our cognitive processes. We use calculators for even the most simple of mathematics now, how does that alter our cognition? We don't need to remember as much as we did 20 years ago because we can Google whatever we need, are in incapable of remembering as much?

Topics along those kinds of lines I would interested in studying. Perhaps not computers themselves per se, but definitely the interactions between the two. Though not as much on an usability level.

Though I do like usability, it's fun to watch a user's thought processes play out in front of you as you watch. It really never does get old.

As a sidenote, I think it's really funny that your major is the same name as my M.S., and yet my program doesn't include any CS or psych classes.

Well, HCI was a new major at my school, so they took CS and IT design courses and paired it up with cognitive psychology and experimental stats/processes courses and called it a major.

I think now they're starting to design and develop more HCI-focused courses. But I joke that my degree is a minor of CS and a minor of Psych. I'm actually 3 courses away from a Psych degree and about 5 or 6 away from a CS degree.

[crystal_dance]

Jersey Steve, don't you worry dude. I've seen alot of people get in with grades that are well below what those college web sites ask for. You just need to do your research and play up your psych performance.

When you write your SOP, emphasize your interest in the cognitive aspect of technology. Do some research and try to come up with a research game plan (incase you want to be an RA) or with a career plan on what you intend to study and how you think you can use it in your career.

Like Carol said, go to the dept. info sessions at these universities. Gather more info on HCI career paths. What's your area of interest? UI design, usability engineering, ergonomics, force feedback systems (PHANTOM), etc.?

Worse case scenario - could you go back to school and get a few more CS or psych courses under your belt? That way you could either make your tech focussed HCI applications stronger or you could actually get a psych degree and apply for a masters in psychology.

[winneythepooh7]

My undergrad GPA wasn't awesome either and I got into grad school with no problems. I really think it depends on what school you are applying to, and the level of competitiveness to get in. For my major, they also really, really weighed work experience very heavily, because it showed you were serious about wanting to work in this field. I also really feel that bottom line, grad school is a money-making institution these days, so schools will more readily accept people with less than stellar undergrad GPA.

[cameralady]

My undergrad GPA wasn't awesome either and I got into grad school with no problems. I really think it depends on what school you are applying to, and the level of competitiveness to get in.


Agreed. My ugrad GPA certainly wasn't stellar either. However, I had taken a couple of ugrad classes in nondegree status while I was working at another school and did okay in them. So, I made the case that my undergrad GPA was not really representative of my potential as a graduate student. Plus, for my program, my work experience probably was considered too.


I also really feel that bottom line, grad school is a money-making institution these days, so schools will more readily accept people with less than stellar undergrad GPA.

Winney, you bring up an interesting point of discussion. :evil: