What are my chances... for grad school?

<p>Not sure if that should go in this forum, but here goes. Incoming wall o'text...</p>

<p>I finished my undergrad at Stony Brook at the end of last fall (9 total semesters). I doubled majored in Chem & Applied Math and Stats. My total undergrad cum GPA is 2.97, however if you discount my first year when I was having serious personal problems, it's about 3.2. I was on dean's list my final two semesters (A little bit above 3.5), so my GPA trend is always increasing (I only ever had one semester which had a lower GPA than any of my previous ones). My major GPAs follow the same trend (they're a little higher). I hear grad school admissions notice these trends, which I hope is true. I did research with a prof for a year, and I think I did everything he asked me to do well, although he didn't ask for that much. It was all computational, no actual labwork. I did an internship at the NYC department of environmental protection one summer. I got a good employee evaluation. My GRE scores (percentiles) are 97th% verbal, 78th% quant, and 78th% writing (raw scores are 167V/160Q/4.5W). I'm taking the chemistry GRE in a few weeks.</p>

<p>My GPA is a bit of a problem, but I don't think it's low enough to stop me from getting in to at least a halfway decent program. My real problem is letters of rec. I'm definitely getting one from the prof I did research with, but the way things are going, I don't think I'm going to be able to get any more. I've emailed about six professors, only one or two of whom I had even the slightest hope could write me one, but nobody replied. Besides the prof I did research with, I hardly ever talked to anyone, which I sorely regret now... I can't go to campus and ask, it's far and I've moved away. The people I did my internship with are stonewalling me (saying they're too busy, etc) for months and it doesn't look like I'll get anything else. I'm worried that having only one LOR and a mediocre GPA will stop me from getting in to anything at all...</p>

<p>I'm not 100% sure what I want to do, but I think my goal is to get a masters in chemistry and do much better there (I think I can do much better, judging on how much better I did at the end of undergrad than the beginning, and more importantly, I'll network more). This will probably strengthen my eventual PhD app. Is this a common route? Mediocre masters --> do better in masters program to show you're capable --> to PhD?</p>

<p>Anyway, thanks for reading all that stuff, if you did.</p>

<p>I’d suggest you post this in the grad school forum. You’re more likely to find more people with some knowledge about this on that board. </p>

<p>I should add that I live about 45 minutes north of NYC and am hoping to not have to move unless I really need to.</p>