In August, I had an interview at my target school with my person of interest who, at the end of the day, had told me he was willing to accept me with full funding and a stipend. (PhD program straight out of undergrad - my GPA and GRE scores were not competitive, but I have a ton of research experience... I guess enough to justify both the low GPA and GRE). What concerns me is that I had previously applied to a school in Canada, had an interview, was encouraged to apply, and was immediately turned down by the general graduate department because my GPA was lower than the minimum required for entrance. I told my person of interest this, and he insisted that this would not happen here, and "it must have just been a Canada thing". I am afraid to send in my application to the general graduate school because I am paranoid that I will be rejected almost immediately again, even though the head of the biology graduate department, my advisor, and other graduate students I had met had told me that this would not happen. As the biology department and the general graduate department do not seem to interact that closely (in my opinion), and the graduate students who I had met with had all been in the program for at least 4 years, I am worried that the graduate school has changed its ways and I will be automatically rejected again. Does anyone have absolutely any advice to offer on this? It is eating at my soul, so really, anything will help!