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Masters programs for mediocre GPAs?

Posted By: Nathan <feralnostalgia@gmail.com>
Date: Sunday, 12 February 2012, at 12:07 p.m.

Hi there, I'm about to finish my undergraduate degree and my plan is to do EPIK in Korea next fall. From what I've heard that would allow me to pay off student loans and to save for further education over the next few years.

I have 3 semesters (likely 5-6 by graduation) of part time, paid university-level teaching assistant experience in the hard sciences, one semester of paid tutoring, a long history of volunteer tutoring and mentoring of international students, and a brief, semi-formal class on TESOL from a public library. I'm going to take 12 semester hours of TESOL courses and get a state-level ESL endorsement from Arkansas before I graduate (I've actually held off graduating this December so I can take the ESL courses and be better prepared to teach.) My final GPA (I'm dismayed to admit) is likely to be at best around a 3.3, at worst a 2.8 or so. I scored in the 99th percentile on the ACT and anticipate a respectable-to-impressive GRE score.

Are there Masters programs out there in applied linguistics/TESOL that accept people with lower GPAs? I feel like even a 3.0 is damning, and the possibility I might not even end up with *that* worries me I won't get into any MA programs at all. do you know of any schools I should be looking at? I'm not asking for an "easy" degree, I just want to find the best possible program that I can get into and I'm not sure what that's going to look like. I'm an excellent student, I've just had a bit of a bumpy adolescence.

I'd ideally like to end up with a university position that would allow me to continue my own education for free/cheap as a faculty member. (I don't want home equity, I want a second bachelors in geophysics or biochemistry, I want to read Sanskrit and Urdu and understand genetics. I want "my kids", students or my own children, going places like Oxford and the Sorbonne. *that* is wealth.)

but I digress...where do you suggest I look for masters programs? I'm willing to relocate globally, though open-minded places are very much preferred.

Messages In This Thread

Masters programs for mediocre GPAs?
Nathan -- Sunday, 12 February 2012, at 12:07 p.m.

Re: Masters programs for mediocre GPAs?
nomad soul -- Tuesday, 14 February 2012, at 11:05 a.m.

Re: Masters programs for mediocre GPAs?
Anika Reza -- Thursday, 16 February 2012, at 4:07 a.m.

Re: Masters programs for mediocre GPAs?
Stephen -- Friday, 17 February 2012, at 7:19 a.m.

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