38: How to Address a GRE, GPA, or other Gap in your Graduate Application

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Hello everyone. Today I figured I would record a bonus episode. I know that right now I've transitioned to recording episodes and publishing them every two weeks, but something came up within the last week that I thought would be helpful for you to hear earlier rather than later. It's related to addressing a gap in your application ,so if you feel like maybe there's a gap with regard to your GPA, maybe you have a low GPA, maybe you have low GRE scores. Maybe there's literally a gap in your transcript on a time that you had to take a leave of absence. What do you do when there's a glaring gap on your application? How do you address that in your apps? So that's what I'm going to talk about. I'm not going to take too long because this is a bonus episode. I don't plan to expand that much on it, but I do want to give you some ideas of how you can address that in your app.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Before I do so, I actually wanted to remind you that I'm actually front loading a lot of my episodes. As I'm gearing up for my maternity leave, I have already started to record some of my next episodes. Just so that you can kind of have a heads up of what's coming u, I just wanted to share with you. Today is Friday the 25th, and let's see. Last week's episode was how to determine if a grad program is the right fit for you. On October 2nd, I will have an episode on the Ford and NSF fellowships. So what are those fellowships? I'll provide tips on how to apply for them. I also have recorded an episode on motivating yourself to write a statement of purpose. So how do you sustain your momentum and your motivation? That one's coming up, and will be published on October 16th. And I still have more episodes to record. If you have other suggestions for topics, let me know. If not, I know I definitely have an episode that I'm going to record on academic burnout. I also have an episode on preparing for qualifying exams. That one is also going to come up sometime, either end of October or early November. All right, so that's just to give you a heads up, a preview of what will be coming up with the future episodes. Again, I'm still going to be doing bi weekly episodes. Depending on how I'm feeling, I may just publish bonus episodes every now and then if things come up and I think it's important for you to know.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Back to the topic of addressing a gap in your application. Other than asking for letters of recommendation, this is probably the next thing that stresses out my students the most, the people that I work with the most. They are worried, they're thinking, I'm not going to get into grad school because of my low GPA. I'm not going to get into grad school because of my low GRE score. Or they might say, I'm not going to get into grad school because there's this glaring gap. There's one or two quarters or semesters that I did really bad, or that I missed school. Or some critical event happened in my life that meant that I couldn't focus on my studies. What do you do then? In my experience, you can address it in one of two ways. Obviously, there are more than two ways. But these are the two most common ways that I've seen students address it, and that I also encourage students to address it.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Well, number one, I should say, if it's a glaring gap, I do think you should mention it in your application. Don't try to ignore it, don't try to hope and pray that they don't notice. You should address it head on, and you can do it in these two ways that I'm going to mention. The first is, you could also always have one of your recommenders mention it in their letters. When you have recommenders, you're providing them with a letter of recommendation packet that includes your Statement of Purpose, personal statement, CV, your grad school list with deadlines, and it can have an extra page that's an about ne page with bullet points of things that you want them to stress about you. Maybe you can say, my major accomplishments and undergrad were, or my major accomplishments since graduating have been. Or it could say, I took these courses with you and got these grades. You can include extracurriculars- I've been involved in these types of leadership experiences.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

And you can also include a bullet point there saying, I took a leave of absence during this term. At the time, I was really struggling with my mental health and so I took a quarter off to prioritize my health. Then I came back, and have since been doing much better. Iave been proactive about maintaining my mental health, or whatever it is. That's one example. Or it could be like, during spring 2019, I had a bicycle accident that led to a concussion, that meant that I had to take a term off from school. After undergoing therapy and healing, I was able to return back to school and continue on with my studies and research the following term, or the following quarter or semester. So you can say those things. It's up to you have how much detail or how comfortable you feel with sharing what were the circumstances behind the reasons why you got the bad grades that quarter, or why you took a quarter or a term or semester off. Up to you how much detail, but you can always have a recommender write about it. That way, you don't have to write about it. That's option one.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Option two, which for me, because I can be a little bit controlling and I very much like to know exactly what is being said about me. I prefer the second option where you write about it yourself in one of your essays. I prefer that you write about it in your personal statement, because of course, it has the word personal in it. Statement of Purpose should be reserved mostly for your research and other accomplishments. In the personal statement, you can include a short paragraph where you address what was going on head on. The question that I get a lot is okay, so now I know that I have to write about it, or that I should write about in my personal statement. How do I explain it? What language do I use? I can understand this, because as a first gen student, I always wanted samples. I always wanted to see, how do people actually word this? Because I know what to do, but I'm stuck. I don't know what words to say to not make myself look bad.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

So I'll give you an example. Let's say it's your GRE, which I don't think that's going to be the case this year, because so many schools are making the GRE optional this year, or not looking at the GRE at all. But anyway, if you're in a field like econ or physics, where they still care about your GRE score, you need to address it. Also, how do you know they care about your GRE score? They will have a minimum score listed on their websites. When in doubt, you can contact the graduate advisor of whatever department you're applying to grad school for and ask them if they're still requiring the GRE, or if they're still considering the GRE when they're evaluating current applicants. They'll let you know. Okay, so GRE. You can say something along the lines of, I believe that my score does not show my true potential as a scholar, because- and then you list one or more reasons. You can say I suffered from severe test taking anxiety, or I did not have the funds to - well actually no. Maybe not say I did not have the funds, because you can always study with a textbook. But you can say, as a first generation student test taking has been a struggle for me. You can also say- I mean, what you really want to say is that there are other things that are better indicators of the kind of work that you will be doing in graduate school.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

So you feel that your GRE is not the best indicator of your potential, and instead stress the other thing. Say, rather than focusing on my GPA (if your GPA is low) or rather than focusing on my GRE (if your GRE score is low), I believe that my strong research profile, my letters of recommendation from faculty in my field, my leadership experiences or my work experience, are all better indicators of the kind of work I will produce in graduate school. And that's that. It doesn't have to be very long. It's essentially saying, these are the reasons why I didn't do well on the GRE. This is the reason why I got a low grade, or a low GPA a certain quarter. And these are the other things you should really focus on that truly attest to my strengths and my potential.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

If it's the GRE, you can say, maybe English is not your first language. Maybe you suffer from text anxiety. Maybe you're a first gen student and didn't have access to the best resources to prepare. Or if it's GPA or taking a leave of absence, up to you the level of detail you want to share. I did have a student last year who got into multiple programs, and he was gone from our campus for two quarters. This was because he suffered multiple losses. He suffered the loss of a friend- and I know because he has been very, very open about this- of a close friend who died by suicide. He suffered the loss of an immediate family member all around the same time. And so to prioritize his mental health, he took two quarters off, and he wrote about it in the statement. Not in a way to make others feel better, but more in a matter of fact, of these are the circumstances that I was faced with. And to prioritize myself, and my health, I took this time off, and I came back even stronger. It's true, because when he did come back, his research actually did get better. His GPA, if I remember correctly got better. So it made sense. When you looked at the transcripts, you see the gap and then you see all the other things that he accomplished when he came back. It made sense what he was writing about.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

So up to you how much detail, sometimes things happen in our lives that we don't feel comfortable sharing. That I cannot give you advice on, on how much detail is okay. In general, it's how much detail you're okay with sharing. Some people are more open books than others. I always try to land on the site of sharing more, but when you do share about personal circumstances, you want to make sure that you make it clear to your reader, that whatever it is that you are going through, that you either overcame that, or you're actively working on overcoming it. If you're struggling with a mental health disorder, if you're struggling with a physical health issue, in what ways have you been proactive about working on those things? So that you don't have to keep taking multiple leaves of absence in graduate school, so that you don't end up having GPA issues in graduate school. So that it doesn't become something that they're worried about that will be a trend or a habit that comes up when they admit you. I hope that makes sense.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Let me see, anything else I want to say how about addressing a gap? Either have someone address- one of your three recommenders can write about it in their recommendation letter. You can write about it in your personal statement. Sometimes some application portals actually have a section that says, is there anything else you would like the committee to know about you as an applicant, or something along those lines. If that's the case, then you write about it there. Again, short paragraph. It doesn't have to be very, very long. It can be can literally be three lines, one line about what is the gap, two- why the gap exists, and what you've done to address it, and then three- the other parts of your profile, the other parts of your application that do show your strengths and that do show your potential.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

All right. I think that is all I want to say about that. I hope that helps. Having that language is key. Knowing that saying that these other experiences are better indicators of the kind of work you will produce in graduate school, saying that maybe your GPA, or your GRE score does not reflect your true potential. That can help. And that's that. Good luck drafting your statements. I know some of you actually participated in my giveaway. f Iyou follow me on IG, you'll know that I had a giveaway where I gave out prewriting and free writing handouts for each of the three essays you may have to write for grad school- the personal statement, the diversity statement and the statement of purpose. I hope you found that helpful as you start drafting your essays, and hopefully this part two will help you. That way, you know what else to include in your personal statement if you do have a gap to address. Have a good rest of the day and thanks for tuning in.