How much will a few REALLY bad grades hurt?

Graduate School
1

<p>I'm applying to electrical engineering PhD. I have good research experiences and a couple publications under review. Unfortunately I have a 3.4 GPA. Basically I had a terrible freshman year, lots of B's, B+'s, and a mixed sophomore year with a few A's, a couple of B's, and a C in math (differential equations/linear algebra). I finally figured out school and maintained a 3.8 my junior year. </p>

<p>Will my grades raise a red flag? I'm especially worried about my C because diffeq and linal are kind of important subjects. OTOH by jr year I was comfortable enough with the material, which was used a lot in my classes, and got good grades. </p>

<p>It's too late now because my grades are in the past and I already submitted most of my apps but I'm just wondering. I applied to 3 top 10, 2 in the middle, and 3 ranked in the 30's. I come from a top 10 school so my education is legit but it's not that well-known for engineering...</p>

2

<p>I think it the important thing is that you improved and cleaned up your act. I’ve been told that is impressive. I have a few C’s myself but averaged 3.7+ my last 2 years.</p>

3

<p>I had a few C’s freshman 2nd semester, then sucked in my first EE course sophomore year, but have had 3.67+ every semester since despite working part time and helping care for my father through chemo. I hope that upward trends count…</p>