Taking the time to write a personal statement for grad school applications isn’t easy. The entire process of applying to graduate school can be stressful, especially if your GPA is low. Personal statements should help you stand out from your competition and showcase your skills as a student and a professional. You need to explain why you did poorly in college, but show that you have learned from your experiences. This post provides you with advice on how to explain low gpa to graduate school admissions boards.
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When you are trying to explain a low GPA to graduate school admissions, you will need to focus on the reasons for it. If there was an illness or family emergency in your family that impacted your ability to study or take tests, then you should explain this. Also, if there are extenuating circumstances such as a death in the family, then that too should be explained.
If there were other factors that affected your grades, then they should also be discussed as well. For example, if you had a course load that was too heavy and took away from other classes which had more of an impact on your GPA, then this would be something worth mentioning.
Also consider talking about how your GPA has improved since taking fewer courses or even changing majors entirely! This can help show that you are capable of improving yourself when given the chance.
How to explain low gpa to graduate school
Address the issue upfront
When you explain your low GPA, it’s important to be honest. If you don’t address the issue upfront, people will assume that something more serious happened and get the wrong idea about your academic performance. When someone asks why your GPA is so low, explain that you had some challenges and then move on. Don’t dwell on it; it’s not worth mentioning unless they ask further questions or bring up the subject themselves.
If a potential employer or graduate school official wants to see proof of what happened (for example: “Your transcript shows a 4.0 at another university—what changed?”), be prepared to provide documentation if necessary but don’t go overboard with excuses and explanations (like an illness).
Don’t make excuses
There are a lot of things that can be done to help you get into graduate school, but there is one thing you should never do: making excuses.
Asking for pity from the admissions committee won’t make them more likely to accept your application. Instead, it will make them think less of you and your abilities as an applicant. In fact, many schools explicitly say that they don’t accept applications from students who have made excuses for their academic shortcomings in the past or present.
As an applicant who wants to stand out among hundreds or thousands of other applicants, it’s important not only not to make excuses but also not even appear like someone who would ever consider making an excuse in the first place!
Explain what you learned from your mistake
The most important thing you can do is explain what you learned and how it will affect your future.
- Show them that you’re mature enough to admit your mistakes, but also confident in your ability to learn from them.
- If the mistake was a failure to work hard enough on assignments or tests, then say something like “I know I can work harder.”
- If the mistake was taking too many classes, then say something like: “Next time I’ll be more careful about my course load.”
- If the mistake was asking for help only when it was too late (i.e., after failing an assignment or test), then say something like: “Next time I’ll ask for help sooner.”
no matter what you need to work on your GPA asap
Your GPA is important to you, your future schools, employers and the economy as a whole. If you have a low GPA, it’s likely that you need to work on improving it as soon as possible. A high GPA will help you in many ways throughout your life:
- Graduate school applications: If you’re applying for graduate school (or other professional programs), having a good GPA will make it much easier for the admissions committee to take your application seriously. A low GPA can often be used as an excuse not to accept an applicant into their program—even if they are otherwise qualified for admission—and may cause them not even consider applying at all.
- Jobs: Your current job could also be affected by your GPA if it’s related in some way (for example, if the company does background checks or drug testing). In addition, most employers that require new hires have minimum requirements for credit hours completed by applicants so having fewer than 12 hours may disqualify you from consideration altogether even though there might otherwise be no problems with employment history or references provided during interviews
