Chances for PhD programs in biomedical engineering (specifically tissue engineering)

Graduate School
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<p>Junior at University of Maryland-College Park
Major: materials Engineering, with a biomaterials specialization
Caucasian, male/transgendered
GPA: 3.2 (mostly due to fall semester sophomore year in which I got two C's and a D--dad got diagnosed with multiple sclerosis+trigeminal neuralgia that semester. been on honor roll every semester since then, before that was averaging around a 3.2 GPA each semester)
Research: research in a biophysics lab starting spring semester freshman year, up until the end of this past summer, one semester of experience in a nanotechnology lab my freshman year, will be starting to do tissue engineering research within the next few weeks which will hopefully continue for the rest of college, including this coming summer. unsure if I will get published before I apply to grad schools though. no papers from the other labs)
Scholarships: National Merit Finalist scholarship, another general academic scholarship from university
Member of several materials engineering professional societies, proficient with several software programs including AutoCAD programs. not so good with matlab. trained in using a variety of machines/equipment
GRE-unknown, on practice tests I've been averaging ~700 on verbal, ~750 on quantitative
extracurrics: Resident Assistant for junior year+senior year (will be the head RA senior year), treasurer of materials engineering society, will be a TA senior year for an introductory level engineering class, always held at least 2 part-time jobs to put myself through school, will be a supervisor with a university organization over the summer</p>

<p>It's my GPA that's really killing me. I really want to go straight for my PhD and research tissue engineering. My advisor told me that I can forget any of the upper level schools, and that I should be looking more at the Rutgers-level. Just wondering what my chances would be at:</p>

<p>University of Maryland-College Park (would prefer not to, but...)
Rutgers
University of Rochester
Wake Forest
UCLA
USC
Penn State (advisor said this was probably out of my league)
SUNY-Stony Brook
UC-Irvine
University of Pittsburgh
WUSTL
UMich-Ann Arbor
and the reach...UPenn</p>

<p>I would also love it if anyone had any suggestions for other schools I should consider and last-minute ways I could boost my appeal as a straight-to-PhD candidate. Thanks in advance!!!</p>

<p>Edit: Letters of rec will be very good, but not stellar. I have been told rough drafts of my statement of purpose are also very good. Basically, they won't hold me back, although they won't make my application either</p>

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<p>Have you looked at the research at each of these schools to see if they match up? I can tell you off the top of my head that USC does not have any tissue engineering labs, they are mainly focused on the EE side of BME.</p>

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<p>I have to confess I have not. I was pulling schools I liked off of a biomedical engineering phd program list to see what general range I could fall into. I’ll look at their particular research areas more closely; thanks for the heads up about USC!</p>

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<p>My biggest advice would be to closely go through each school’s websites and look at each individual faculty and the research they are conducting. I applied to BME grad schools this year and my initial list of schools that I wanted to apply to was completely different to the schools I ended up applying to. A lot of the schools that I thought I wanted to go to just didn’t have the research that I wanted so it would have been pointless to apply to since a big part of the admissions process is based on how well you would fit into their research.</p>