I am planning to apply to some North American Masters and PhD econ programs this upcoming fall. While I meet all the minimum requirements to be eligible for admission into all the programs, I am pretty nervous about my first and second-year grades: they are horrific. Now, I know that a lot of people say that freshman performance doesn't really count, but my situation is a bit different from the rest.
When I was first enrolled in an undergraduate program at the university, I studied business. Like many other freshmen out of high school, I didn't care about grades. All I wanted to do was pass my courses and get the degree. In my first year, I did pass all my courses, but my average was below the honors program requirement and the academic office issued me a probation warning. Probation warning caused me to panic a little bit, but it still was not enough to make me a better student. In my second year, I failed a couple of core business courses and I was put on probation as a result. Over the course of two years, I did not meet the class average in any of my classes. The University allowed me to come back into the program after I would have taken the year off, but I decided to withdraw from the institution and reapply into a different program at another university.
Fortunately, I was offered admission into one of the English programs at the university in the town where my parents reside. Since I earned some credits from the previous institution, I was registered as a second-year student. This time I performed much better. My average improved drastically, it increased from mid/high 50% to 79%. I scored above class average in every single course with the exception of one. This was also the year, I was taking a calculus course which pushed me to switch from Honors English program to Double Major in Economics and English after an excellent performance. In the previous academic year (2017-2018), I obtained an 87% average (for that year alone) in English and Economics courses. Right now, I am taking math courses in the summer and some advanced ones in the upcoming graduate year.
Based on my recent performance at my current undergraduate university, I think I have decent chances to be accepted into at least one of the graduate problems. But as I mentioned earlier, my performance at my first university is terrible. How much of a problem do you think my two years in business would cause me if at all?
Thanks
