Epic story time:
My GPA is not very good my GRE was just acceptable and I only have 9 months or so of research experience. One of my LOR was a mixed review and the other two were from the same lab. One was a big name in the field, one was a moderate name (mixed reviewer) and last was a new name. I’m also a double minority, if that helps or not.
I went to a community college there were no internships and so on. When I transferred to a 4-yr, none of the professors I wanted to work with wished to take me in claiming that I didn't have enough experience. I was caught in this catch-22 until senior year when someone finally gave up and let me in. I knew I wanted a PhD going into college so that sucked and I graduated feeling pretty ticked off at the world.
To make things even better, I had untreated bipolar throughout my college years which really acted up junior year partially led to me retaking some courses (and finally seeking treatment) at the dawn of senior year. I didn’t mention this to anyone anywhere since I doubt it’s something for their consideration.
At my lone interview there were a lot of MS students and super qualified students (one student had a near perfect gpa, 3 household names in the field wrote LORs, nice undergrad institution, etc). No one spoke much and it was weird. I got asked a few times about my limited research experience which made me feel self-conscious but I tried my best to spin my experiences as profound and useful.
One of the grad students went to my alma matter and understood my case, but I’m sure the rest, including faculty, thought I was a stupid slacker that barely realized grad school existed. Even the college seniors applying had years more research experience than I and that was disheartening.