tritium

Ok. I need some quick ideas or affirmation that I'm not a complete dumbass...

I've been out of school since my December 2003 graduation with a BS in Technical Communications with a 2.25 GPA Cumm. My major GPA was a fair amount higher and my cummulative GPA for the past 2 semesters of undergrad was 2.40. Almost the entire time I was an undergrad, I was a fulltime student, 15-18hrs/semester, and held down 2 jobs-- 1 work study and 1 parttime outside of school (roughly 20-25hrs of work per week). I did this in order to pay the bills, keep fed, etc, and I don't regret it, but there's no denying that it lowered my GPA.

I'm coming to the conclusion that the market in my field (Communications/Web Design/Training) is requiring some graduate study, preferably a finished Master's degree. So, I'm low on most GPA requirements, but I need/want to pursue something higher.

I'm paging through some local schools and programs... not finding much that I'd qualify for, given my rather low undergraduate GPA. I did find an ITT (ITT Tech) Master's of Business Administration program that requires a 2.0 cummulative GPA (generally, the minimum to graduate with a Bachelor's) ...

What do you all think of that? Worth pursuing? Will the working-world judge me for attending ITT?

Should I pass that up and raise hell with some of the local schools to see if I can shake something loose? Is is possible to start something at one school and transfer the credit on the graduate level? I'm thinking maybe I need to go down to the minor leagues and earn my way back up the major's?

Let me have it straight.

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Blah.

Glava

Even if ITT is a good school, which it very well may be, the name carries a fair amount of stigma. I think a fairly inexpensive state school would look better.

Lasereth

Yeah, my stepmom is a pretty-high up figure at her job. She says that anyone with an online degree or a degree from places like ITT Tech are basically denied a job immediately. ITT Tech may train you really good (possibly better than universities), but there's no getting around its reputation as being a cheapy cop-out school.

-Lasereth

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bundy

thats a shame. we have similar institutions here called TAFE... which are more geared towards trade skills... but for anything they offer that isn't specifically for tradespeople, they carry the same stigma.

Tritium, have you tried expanding your searches... you say you've looked at local schools, but have you started looking at universities in different states, and even countries.

i have an American friend who is studying postgraduate Dentistry here in Sydney (he has an American college degree) and has actually found it cheaper to move here to complete his graduate study. whats more, when he graduates, he then has the choice of staying here to work, or taking his qualifications back home.

this may be an exteme option, but there can never be anything negative about travel, or study.

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Ohayo!!!

DelayedReaction

Talk with the schools; you always have the opportunity to plead your case and get an exception. I managed to get into an accelerated program despite having a GPA that was lower than what it needed to be by demonstrating my capabilities.

The other option (depending on how things are accepted) is to take classes at a local community college to bolster your GPA. If you focus on classes that complement your field (business, accounting, marketing), then you will look more appealing to both schools and employers.

It never hurts to ask people what would make you look better for future offers. Most of the people I've talked to have been very helpful when it comes to this kind of stuff.

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VTBrian

I am still in undergrad but I have been told they look heavily at your in major gpa as well as your last 60 hours of course work. So sometimes they will except an otherwise underqualified person if they have shown improvement or did well in major. Also if you explain to them about the work situation, and everything they may be willing to make an exception. It never hurts to try.

tritium

lol. Leaving the country to study aboard isn't really an option -- too many issues keeping me right here in good ol' Virginia. I'll keep poking around, but I really think I'm screwed when it comes to the local universities...

My mother seems to think that Virginia Commonwealth University might give me a shot, but I'm dubious. I've had too much rejection in the last month to handle a blow like that... I guess I take these things too personally.

I'll try but if they say "no", it's gonna hurt. My folks are always too damn positive, build me up and then I get slammed onto my face... wrong attitude, I know, but slamming down to earth happens so frequently.

I'll call the university tomorrow and see what I find out. Maybe if I do well on the GRE (Ha!) then they'll say "okay."

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Blah.

Paq

Actually, the GRE can help you immensely. My GRE was good enough for a lot of schools that my gpa didn't reflect, but when talking to admissions officers, i told them i was doing like you and working about 40-45 hrs a week on top of full course loads for most of my college careers and that i actually wouldn't have to do that for graduate school. After i was accepted, i dd very well carrying a 3.9 gpa overall for graduate work.

Talk to them, talk to professionals, study for GRE, do something. a 2.25 or so is a detriment when going for terminal type degrees, however, you may take some graduate courses and prove you are better than your grades reflect.

Goodluck, grad school is a whole different world

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bigoldalphamale

ITT = Degree mill = waste of money

go to a small state school, or really kick the shit out of your GRE. I mean REALLY kick the shit out of it and finish in the top 5 percentile...then you will likely be able to make a case for going to any school you so desire (probably with a little scholarship money to boot). take a few months, study hard for it, take practice tests...LOTS of them. then at the end of what you feel like is more than sufficient study and practice, enroll in a princeton review GRE course and THEN take the exam. I followed a similar overkill study pattern for my GMAT and scored in the top 7 percentile and had pretty much every graduate business school available to me.

the quality of education at the more respected universities and colleges is just so much better than the middle of the pack universities and trade/tech schools.

good luck with whatever you end up doing though.

bigoldalphamale

by the way, dont be discouraged, VA schools are very tough as we arguably have some of the best in country in UVA, JMU, VaTech, William & Mary, Mary Washington and others. DC isnt much easier with GW, Georgetown and my alma mater AU. VCU is a good arts school and well known in the mid atlantic. you could not take that degree far from the region and expect much from it though. Did you try radford or GMU? how about taking courses as a non-matriculated student for a few semesters and make great grades and prove that you can handle what the school can dish out and the apply to matriculate. Scope out Longwood and University of Richmond also...very strong regional schools.

Averett

Or Averett University

Seriously though, it's located in Danville, Virginia but they've got programs all over the state.

Oh wait... Just looked at what you want to take. Averett can't do much for you then. Oh well, I always take time to plug my old stomping grounds

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onetime2

What Paq said. Good scores on standardized tests will help immensely with admissions. GRE, GMAT, LSAT, etc scores and/or professional experience are each revered by many grad schools.

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roachboy

tritium:

first a caveat====computing is not my field...i have a phd in history---so it might be in the following that the game for you is different than it was for me...you should do some research into the way admissions work in your field, if you have not already....

that said:

what seems to underpin the intitial post is that you are worried about your undergrad gpa limiting your options for grad school. and it seems to me that you are conceding an important element of the choice process on account of that worry and before you need to.

1. i think was a good idea for you to take a little time off between undergrad and grad school. for lots of reasons. the main one, however, is:

2. having done so gives you the basis for an admissions application essay about your heightened sense of focus that experience has brought you. that essay--the redemption narrative--works really quite well.
because you end up arguing that subsequent experience--which is an extension of the struggle to balance a day job with school as an undergrad--has brought about a shift in your relation to academic work--something about it has made you want to do something more exclusively directed toward a particular academic end. it is this shift that can enable you to argue your way around the gpa.

in the humanities, the application is much more important than gre scores---the application along with recommendation letters from faculty. i do not know anyplace that uses the gre as a significant screening mechanism on its own (lcats and mcats are different beasts, and the way they get used does not generalize).

i might have other bits of information to relay, but i am not sure because i went straight into a phd program so never had to deal with what was entailed in admissions for a terminal masters. for a phd, the process can also be made more personal in that you choose a program to work with particular people, which enables you to contact them informally to let them know about what you are interested in, etc. before hand. dunno if that would obtain for you.

anyway, there we are.

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