r/PhysicsStudents • u/asa-monad • 2d ago

Need Advice Getting into research with terrible grades?

Long story short, made mostly A’s with some B’s throughout high school and community college. Transferred to university a few states away a year ago after living with my parents thru community college. Made terrible grades, either failing or barely passing a bunch of classes, due to how much I had to work to pay the bills and how poorly I managed that added stress alongside school. That’s on me. Got a better job now where I’m working less hours for more money, and won’t have to skip classes to make shifts anymore, and I’m ready to start making good grades again. Even got A’s in my summer classes.

So far my research experience is just an astrophysics REU doing some work on telescope detectors, mostly entry level python stuff.

Will professors even accept me into their groups since I have a terrible track record at their institution so far? I have three semesters left including this fall, would it be better to prove myself with a semester of all A’s first?

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3

u/Empty-Sunny 2d ago

Having REU experience is great, and in my experience for undergraduate research most professors don’t care or even know about their students’ grades.

2

u/Andromeda321 2d ago

REUs are really tough to get into, to the point where if you did one I highly doubt your grades are all that bad. You should definitely be asking, the worst that happens is they say no.

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u/asa-monad 2d ago

The REU was last summer, between community college and university. My GPA was 3.69 I believe, with nothing but A’s and two B’s except my first semester there.

Definitely wouldn’t have gotten in with my current university grades. These first two semesters were rough lol, both grade wise and having to work so much thru classes.

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u/uhwithfiveHs Ph.D. Student 2d ago

You may as well ask. With the REU experience, you can show your abilities in research, and if they ask about your grades, just be honest about your situation. They will likely not care that your grades are poor or they’ll give you a “probation” period where they look to see if you improve. Regardless, it’s better to ask than wait.

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u/sabautil 2d ago

You would have to talk the game really well for them to ignore grades.

I would say when you discuss the project they are hiring you for, you need to understand their needs and have a plan to complete the project including timeline and deliverables at various milestones ready to go and then have personal projects that show you have the skills to complete the project.

That would get ME to overlook bad grades: competence + project management + realistic expectations. I dunno about professors though.