One year left: how to best improve my phd application?

Graduate School
1

<p>Hey all, I'm an upcoming senior and was wondering if any of you with more experience with applying to grad schools (in science) could give me some advice.</p>

<p>I feel like my GPA could really hurt me in applying at the end of the year. I would appreciate if you could give me any advice on what I could do to improve my application since it's too late to improve my grades.</p>

<p>About me:
- 3.15 GPA (3.35 in major with 3.8 in upper level courses)
- Research in the field I'm applying to since the beginning of freshman year, including summers.
- Will have 3 letters of req. from professors in the field who I've worked with (two of which I've also taken classes with).
- Coauthor on a mid-tier journal article (did all the work and most of the analyses that went into the paper but did not contribute to the write up).
- Coauthor on an oral paper presentation at the major national meeting for my discipline.
- Two (will have 3) poster presentations at undergraduate research sessions and will present a poster at my field's national meeting this year.
- Semester long internship as a scientific/technical consultant.
- I do scientific illustrations for professors on the side (2 currently published, 3 more in articles somewhere in the publication process).
- Guessing I will score about 90% in both sections of the GRE (1570 on SATs).</p>

<p>I also have a 2-3 datasets/experiments that I have yet to write up as first author that could probably go into lower-mid level journals.</p>

<p>I guess what I'm saying is that I've really neglected my GPA in order to get the most research experience possible (for my own sake, not for applying to grad school) and I want to continue doing research at the phd level but I don't feel that confident with admissions tightening up.</p>

<p>I also doubt I could get my own funding from a fellowship with my GPA. </p>

<p>1) Other than trying to get out one or more first author pubs, which aren't guaranteed to be accepted and almost certainly won't be published by the time I apply...is there anything I can do to improve my application? </p>

<p>2) I know it's probably impossible to guess and frowned upon to ask, but what are my honest chances? I know I have some chance but will it be more than luck? And should I limit myself to less competitive schools (I plan on applying to 6-8 and don't want to waste my time or money).</p>

<p>Thanks a lot for looking and taking the time to comment! I appreciate it.</p>

2

<p>It would really help if we knew a bit more about you. Is this a 3.15 from a top-level school, or a no-name state school? What field are you actually in? What schools are you looking at for grad school?</p>

<p>Overall, it sounds like you’ve got very solid research at this point, and grad schools are looking for researchers. It’s too late to do much about the GPA if your programs want applications in December, so I would focus on making sure you do very, very well on the GRE and your SOP. Put your GPA in the positive light in your app (that it allowed you to do more research).</p>

<p>Don’t limit your school choices. Apply to a range of schools and see what happens. You never know how it will turn out, especially since it sounds like your GPA is your only really weak spot. If you don’t try for a few top schools, you’ll always wish you had. If you get in to one, you’ll wonder why you ever doubted yourself.</p>