A question about college & the SATs?

Can I Get Into A Masters or PhD Program After College And If Not How Likely Will I Be Able To Obtain A Job?

• I understand this is an extremely broad question - especially considering the following details I'm going to give. I am a second semester sophomore at Boston University - a relatively good school that is sadly notorious for grade deflation. I am obtaining a dual degree in psychology and public relations from the College of Arts and Sciences and College of Communications, respectively. My current cumulative GPA is a 2.83 and I MIGHT be able to get it up to a 3.0 this semester, but it seems extremely marginal at this point. I realize I have opportunity left to get it up, but I also realize that opportunity might only be during my next two semesters, because most grad school applications are sent in before the end of the first semester of senior year, of which grades won't be received. I am highly confident in the letters of recommendation I will receive - I have established intellectual and personal relationships with many of my professors, whom I meet with in private regularly to converse with and get to know. Obviously I have no real idea as to what GRE scores I'll obtain, but I did decently well on my SATs and am assuming and hoping that my standardized test taking abilities have improved since high school. I am desperate to obtain a masters or PhD in psychology and enter into the field of industrial organizational psychology. I realize I will most likely get a variety of answers on this subject, but I will take whatever people have to offer. I am getting an internship in a neurology lab this summer if that counts for anything here, which will be my first undergraduate internship. If not grad school, then how secure of a job position am I within a field of Public Relations directly out of college based on my university and undergraduate degrees? I appreciate whatever enlightenment people can give me, because as I hope you all can empathize the age of 19 seems quite unsure and I have constantly struggled and stressed over the mentioned questions, which probably are not worth considering at this time since the attention I should be giving to are my academics, but please quench this burden with any answers and solutions you can provide.

• Answer:

  You absolutely must get your GPA over 3.0 before you graduate your undergrad school to get into grad school. Public Relations is considered an easy major and attracts a lot of students because half the high school grads seem to be allergic to math. Because of this, there is a huge over supply of grads for the number of jobs. So really, the answer is that a PR degree is not the best of degree to take for getting a job. However, a BA in PR is slightly more useful that a bachelors in psych (which is totally useless for a job) So really, you MUST do whatever it takes to pull your GPA up because if you callot get into grad school, your chances of getting a job that needs your degree is iffy.