<p>My 0.02:</p>
<p>A 3.2 gpa from a top three engineering school isn’t horrible.</p>
<p>You shouldn’t necessarily limit yourself to top 20 graduate schools. It’s better to go to a graduate school that can serve your personal research needs than a name school.</p>
<p>I disagree with G.P. Burdell. GPA is a measure of relative performance on what was tested, not absolute ability.</p>
<p>Like what InPursuit said, I think that you should be focusing a lot more on why you got the 3.2. Don’t just say that people are “miles ahead” of you just because they got a better GPA. They might have known some secret methods/strategies that you didn’t. And even if they are supposedly “smarter,” you should remember that your thinking skills can always be improved. Heck, even intelligence can be improved if you really make the effort (as recent research has concluded). </p>
<p>What I suggest is to have an open-mind. You already know that you’re not the best (contrary to some people who will always have this arrogance); now you just need to know how to improve. Talk to as many people about your true feelings and consult as many sources as possible. Perhaps you will have a different perspective on graduate school admissions once you do this.</p>