i’ll give you one more chance, to say we change or part ways

Dear Aska,

I completed my undergraduate degree at St. George in 2013. To be honest, I was a terrible student. I eventually pulled it together enough to graduate (it took 6 years) and thought I wouldn’t have to look back.

Now, I am (a little) more grown up and after working shitty jobs for too long I have found the motivation I have been missing all this time and I want to go to graduate school. This might seem misguided but I am capable, I swear. I realise that especially for me, this will be a long process. I am interested in doing a Masters of Information at U of T and becoming a librarian in the end…so, what should I do?

I am planning on taking some courses to boost my GPA and then eventually applying for graduate school…but how are my chances? My GPA at the moment
renders me irrelevant. Less than irrelevant, even. But, if I take a few 300 and 400 level courses and prove that I can indeed work at the necessary level am I still screwed? Will my really shitty GPA render my admittance to a MI program at U of T totally impossible? Will I have to take a full 5.0 courses to prove my worth or will that be insufficient?

Please help! I am desperate to do this, I must find a way.

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hey there,

*puts on crotchety old man voice* listen here, sonny. in my many decades at this insti-too-shun we call askastudent, i have learned a thing or two. one of those things is that the questions people ask and the stories they tell are subjective. also, get off my lawn.

what i’m getting at is that saying things like “i was a terrible student” and that your GPA is “irrelevant” means close to nothing, because everyone has a different idea of what that means.

without giving me an actual number or some other kind of qualifier, i have no way of telling how reasonable a goal grad school is for you. what i CAN tell you is what uoft says.

iSchool requires that you have a CGPA of at least 3.0 and, ideally, at least a B+ (3.3) in your last year.

so, if you don’t have that 3.0 CGPA – that may be a problem. however, taking some 300- and 400-level courses to boost it, and get a really polished AGPA for your ‘last year’ could help you.

like i said, it kind of depends on what shape your CGPA is in right now. if you want some more nuanced advice, i’d recommend you talk to admissions at iSchool. they can take a look at your transcript and give you the DL on your chances.

try not to feel too desperate! it won’t help you any at bars, ygm?

cheers,

aska

P.S. “ohh aska, where can i find the song whose lyrics you quoted in the title?” i hear you ask plaintively. here you go.