My graduate program GPA is only 2.85. Will this affect my admission?

Graduate School
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<p>Dear All:
I have a good grade in undergraduate but a low one in my graduate program(master degree). I focused on my research more than taking courses seriously. Will this affect my chance to apply for PHD program in US? How would you evaluate my chances? I published two papers so I think it is a evidence of my research potential but how could I convince the admission committee of that? I am afraid they wont even spend time on evaluating my research experience and GRE/TOEFL scores or SOP and throw my application away in the garbage can. I search in google but I seldom find similar cases to my situation. Would you please give me any suggestion how to increase my possibilities to apply for PHD programs? I plan to apply for physical PHD program in the ranking TOP 20~50. Am I too optimistic based on my extremely low graduate GPA? Appreciated for your suggestions and advice!</p>

<pre><code> Best Regards
Yen
</code></pre>

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<p>I don’t know much about going to Ph.D from masters but I’ll offer what I can. Firstly, most schools have a 3.0 GPA minimum just to apply. You can get this waved in some circumstances, but it will likely take some collaboration. Can your current PI help you out? Is he/she willing to vouch for your potential? Do they know anyone in a similar field with an opening you can fill? Also, two papers is not that much (I published twice as an undergrad, for example). Were your papers published in highly respected journals? Again, I ask because I’ve seen the GPA requirement waved, but only when there were other outstanding factors to make up for the deficiency.</p>

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<p>Are you kidding me? Not that much? Just because you published 2 in your undergrad doesnt mean it’s typical. Most people I know who are doctoral students at my U came in with 0 publications.</p>

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<p>quality > quantity</p>

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<p>I agree that your graduate GPA will definitely hurt you, so you are really going to have to get as much mileage as you can out of your research to counterbalance that. You will need to really highlight your published papers and get some truly outstanding LORs from your current mentors. </p>

<p>You should also look at a few less selective PhD programs (outside the top 20 - 50).</p>

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<p>many masters students publish their theses, so going from a masters to a PhD with one or two publications isn’t unusual. undergrads being published is fairly uncommon, though.</p>