Good afternoon, I recently put hat in the ring to attend Rutgers starting this fall for a master's in Library Science. I am brining to the table a 2.99 GPA(their minimum is 3, but they said in the information that they were willing to work with it), and a combined GRE of 1280(680 Verbal, 600 Quantitative and 5.5 Analytical writing). I have two recommendations from where I was in the honors program at my undergrad college(I have an honors diploma in interdisciplinary studies from the University of Alabama at Birmingham) and one from my current work supervisor. So, from those who have grad school experience, how do my chances look? James Gent Adventurer In Training Is very, very nervous about the whole thing.
I don't really know much about grad school applications, but if you can, apply to more places. It can never hurt to have a backup. What exactly is a library science degree and what careers can you make out of it? It seems a bit of a far reaching step if it's solely for librarians..
I am interested in getting a Master's in Library Science! What did you study for your first four years of college? I guess the field is wide open there, but is there any field that would be particularly good to study before grad school?
I have no idea where the LS program at Rutgers ranks -- so what your competition will look like. I was up against some pretty impressive competition at the few places I wanted to go to, so I got offers really late, obviously after someone had turned down an offer (places that only take as many students as they can fund). On the other hand, I know lots of people who graduated with a gpa comparable to yours and lower gre score (who cares about the math score in the soc sciences, right!) who are in really good grad programs. What have you done since graduation? Are you still in contact with any of your old profs? I highly suggest having at least one of them read & edit your statement of purpose. Ideally, you want someone who works in academia (so don't rely on just mom to look over it, unless she's a prof!) and who is a hard-ass editor. That quite possibly could be the make it or break it factor in your application. Grad school is not like your undergraduate experience. You don't go to grad school unless you know what you want to do as your career. If he wants to be a librarian, a MA in library science will open doors to better jobs. I'm going to grad school in anthropology because I plan to be an anthro professor. There's very little else I could do with that degree without selling my soul to some international marketing department. But it's not a far reaching step because it is the only way I can even be considered for the career I want.
