Hey everyone,
Yeah, you can probably see that I'm kinda of worried right now. So I'm currently doing my masters at an OK school and plan on applying for a PhD in some of the top 10 schools after this. My research work has been pretty good and I have a few publications so far. (Nothing exemplary, but reasonably satisfactory, I believe). I've been trying to keep my grades up since my grades during undergrad (which was a different field) were extremely low.
So, of the 7 subjects that I've taken this year, my grades are the following. A, A, A, A-, A, A-, B+
Yes, that B+ at the end is bumming me out. I've heard stories of how top schools simply do not consider your applications unless you're a straight A student or at least have a GPA of 3.9. I'm wondering if I should try and explain the B+ in my application essay. The thing is, the only reason I got the B+ is because while I needed an aggregate % of 86 to get the A-, my score was 85. The professor is quite rigid about his grading and refused to relax it for me. So I'm stuck here.
Should I not apply to top schools anymore? Should I attempt to explain my grade in my essay? Is there really anything that I can do about this? Or is this not really much of an issue at all and am I simply being paranoid for no reason?