Applying to Grad School with Low GPA but experience

Graduate School
1

<p>So here's my deal: I graduated from the University of British Columbia in 2009. Due to medical and very personal issues, my junior year grades in the first half of the year were low (C+ average). I knew this was horrible so I decided to move out of my parents' home in the middle of the second semester (this helped with the personal issues) and to also begin volunteering in a bio lab. Side note, UBC is notorious for giving out low grades in intro genetics (1/3 students fail), which is one of the courses I did poorly in. My grades increased in the second semester and my GPA in the next year (senior year) was a 3.54. My overall GPA now stands at just over 3.01 (3.08 for jr and sr years).</p>

<p>Once I began volunteering in the lab, the prof gave me a project which I was able to translate into a senior research project/thesis on which I received a grade of A+. All my research and the paper I wrote on it was integrated into a grad student's research and paper which has been submitted for publication (this means my name is now on a paper). After graduating in 2009, I continued to work in the lab (and still am) as a post-Bac. And now have over two years of experience.</p>

<p>I want to go the grad school, with my top 4 choices being the University of Miami, Washington State University, Louisiana State University, and UC Irvine. My GRE score is a 1320 (Q770) also.</p>

<p>What are my chances of being accepted into their biology programs? Am I competitive in any way? Will my application be tossed out?</p>

<p>Thanks for reading. Any advice would be great!</p>

2

<p>Your app may get tossed out by a program here and there due to the GPA but departments that are sticklers for some minimum arbitrary GPA would probably be sticklers for all kinds of obnoxious things in the future like awful prelims, irrelevant coursework requirements, silly numbers of rotations etc. And I suppose there is nothing you can do about the GPA anyway, so why worry?</p>

<p>For the most part, admission committees are looking at your research and trying to assess how you would fit into their department ie. what can you do for us? Cater to that, and you should be fine, particularly with the caliber of universities you have targeted.</p>

3

<p>Thanks for the advice. I also have some pretty good letters of recommendation, one from a prof who is extremely well known in his field. </p>

<p>Hopefully with my hard work, good GRE scores, excellent letters of recommendation, and a well-written statement of purpose I’ll be able to get into one of those programs.</p>

4

<p>does anyone have anything else to add to this forum?</p>

<p>all ideas are welcome</p>