Getting into graduate school with a low GPA is not easy – but neither is it impossible. Sure, when you have a low GPA, it’s easy to feel as though your chance has now gone, and that this is the end of the world. But admissions teams do let admit students into graduate school with low GPA – but there are things you’ve got to do first in order to improve your chances.

As a few admissions team members will tell you, GPA is one thing, but if you have a low GPA, determination and persistence is often more revealing than a high GPA score. If the student is dedicated and committed to proving that they deserve a second chance, admissions teams will often see that as being a more tangible asset that the student possesses. Yet this feeling is not universally shared. So let’s take a look at how to choose a graduate school with low GPA.

Apply Only To Schools That Will Consider Your Low GPA Graduate School Application In Full

There are invariably many institutions that use a tried and tested method of filtering out applicants based on low GPA scores. This helps them to separate the wheat from the chaff more quickly, but it really isn’t helpful to you at all. Moreover, it undermines more intangible values, such as persistence and commitment. Further, it doesn’t take into consideration that you may have had extenuating circumstances that prevented you from performing well on your GPA.

We suggest that you don’t apply to a graduate school that eliminates applicants based entirely on a low GPA score. You need to ask yourself whether you really want to be a part of a school where the only things that matter are the numbers, as opposed to things like passion, creativity and determination.

Discuss Your Low GPA Graduate School Grades

If you have a low GPA, you should draft a personal statement that explains why you scored below average. If there were extenuating circumstances, such as family issues, note these down. Your personal statement becomes your weapon if you are trying to getting into graduate school with a low GPA, and it should make clear why you scored lowly, and why this will not happen again at grad school.

The admissions team welcome an open and honest discussion with you, so if you want to explain to them the facts behind your scores, just go for it. It is advised that you don’t complain about your reasons, or that you don’t whine. Just state the facts.

Take A Few Graduate School Low GPA Courses

What we mean by this are a few individual graduate-level courses that sharpen your skills and demonstrate your commitment to getting into grad school. A graduate school low GPA, as you have, is often not enough to get you into graduate school, but there is nothing stopping you from taking a few grad level courses to boost your chances. Indeed, the only thing stopping you is yourself.

Admissions teams will be impressed by your determination, and if you perform excellently it will show that you mean business, and that you have the academic ability required to succeed.

Have low gpa mba and don’t know what to do? Our tips might come in handy then.