How to get a scholarship if you have a low CGPA
A CGPA that is below second class upper honor is considered low for a postgraduate or undergraduate degree. However, different countries or universities define the low CGPA in different ways. However, for easy understanding, we will take a CGPA below 3.00 on a 4-grade scale as low. Thousand of students struggle to get a good scholarship or admission to a good university due to this low CGPA. However, there are some ways by which the CGPA issue can be compensated. I am not saying these extra methods will compensate your CGPA fully, but these will enhance your profile to a certain extent that will help you stand out among thousands of candidates for a scholarship or admission to a good university. Let's now discuss How to get a scholarship if you have a low CGPA in depth.
IELTS
and GRE
There is
nothing much to say about IELTS as everyone knows what this is. A good IELTS
score will always enhance your profile. The term “a good IELTS score” means a
score above 7 out of 9 with no band less than 6.5. Most of the universities of
the world accept a score of 6.5 with no band less than 6, but if you have a low
CGPA to stand out you need a good IELTS score.
The
Graduate Record Examination, or GRE, is an important step in the graduate
school or business school application process. The GRE is a multiple-choice,
computer-based, standardized exam that is often required for admission to
graduate programs and graduate business programs (MBA) globally. A good GRE
score will enhance your profile a lot. Especially if you apply to the USA, they put
a lot of weight on the GRE score. For an engineering or science student quant
section is more important than the verbal. A total score of around 310 is
considered very good on GRE.
Publications
For
graduate admission, there is no alternative to publication. Publications can
be journal articles or conference articles. A good journal article published in
a ranked journal is always better. However, it is not always possible for
students to publish journal articles, in that case, conference proceedings are
able to highlight your interest in research. If you are applying for a Research
Assistant position, published articles sometimes put more weight than your CGPA to the admission committee. The below quote from a professor from a renowned university
will help you more to understand the importance of publication.
“Any
paper you publish as an undergraduate is a huge benefit to your application.
Most grad school applicants do not have any publications, let alone five with
some first author ones. You're way ahead of the curve, and it should make a
very substantial positive difference in your application.”
Internship
or work experience
Internships
and work experience also play a vital role in graduate and undergraduate
admission. If you have a low CGPA, a good internship or job in the relevant
field will tell the admission committee that you are passionate about your field
of study and you have practical knowledge about that field. Further, some
scholarships require solid job experience in the relevant field. Therefore, if
you have a low CGPA, try to do an internship or job for a couple of months.
Extra
and Co-curricular activities
Besides,
the above-mentioned criteria, extra and co-curricular activities also increase
a student’s profile. Some extracurricular activities can serve as a tie-breaker
in close cases if they’re relevant to your studies. The value of the
extracurricular activity depends entirely on what it is. For example, If the
extracurricular activity you’re involved in is that you were the
Editor-in-Chief of a small, local newspaper with a circulation of 10,000, and
you’re applying to a postgraduate Journalism program, it’s worth a lot.
We also help students in publishing research articles. For details see our Services page.
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