Reflux the Knaaren

I know the stress that a low GPA causes when applying to Ph.D. programs. It feels like a millstone around your neck, forever putting paid to your dreams of graduate study, and ultimately a research career. My undergraduate GPA is just above 3,0, and even worse, is below 3.0 across my junior and senior years. However, I have received an offer of admission from my first choice program and am in the midst of interviewing at several other prominent institutions. I just wanted to share my experiences in striving for a biomedical sciences Ph.D. seat to encourage my fellow applicants with low GPAs not to give up hope. I am an intelligent person, but I became incorrigibly lazy in high school. There, I had quickly discovered that I could cruise along at the top of my class with minimal effort, and unfortunately for me, I carried the same work ethic into college, with rather disastrous consequences. As you would have observed, my undergraduate GPA is rather poor, and most unfortunately for me, exhibited a downward trend. Although I had a strong general GRE score, my low GPA, in conjunction with my lack of research experience, caused me to apply mostly to master's programs, as I thought that getting into a quality Ph.D. program would be too much of a long shot. I saw the master's program as an opportunity for a fresh start, and to prove to admissions committees that I was indeed capable of handling graduate-level coursework and research. The few Ph.D. programs I did apply to rejected me. but to my relief, I was able to get admission into an elite master's program (it must have helped that my transcripts had not been updated with my senior year grades). Within a few weeks of matriculating, I meticulously planned out my course schedule for the two years that I would be in the program and joined a lab where I would end up pursuing my thesis research. Perhaps you can guess the remainder of my narrative – I excelled as a master's student, getting a 4.0 GPA and a couple of first author Nature papers, and forced my way into a Ph.D. program. Wrong. The same malaise that afflicted me as an undergraduate was almost my undoing as a master's student. Again I was apathetic towards my coursework, and my first year was littered with C's, culminating in a 2.76 GPA, atrocious by any standards. It wasn't until my DGS threatened to expel me that I started to take things a little more seriously. Over the course of my last year, I performed very strongly in the courses that I took, ultimately raising my cumulative GPA to above 3.0. As you can imagine, a 3.26 GPA is still far from stellar, and I feared that all the C's that I received in my first year would be unpardonable in the eyes of the Ph.D. admissions committees, even though I had done well in most of my biological sciences courses. However, throughout all the up and downs of my coursework, I had worked assiduously on my thesis research – often I would skip classes or postpone exam preparation to work in the lab (though certainly not at the insistence of my PI, who had advised me not to sacrifice my grades at the altar of research). Despite a year of frustration due to negative results, during my second year I made a very interesting observation regarding the regulation of the gene which I had been studying. Finally I had an intriguing story to share and a thesis I could be satisfied with. In the summer of 2012, I successfully defended my thesis and graduated with my master of science. At this point, the application deadlines for Fall 2012 entry into Ph.D. programs had passed months ago. At the time of the deadlines, I had not yet rescued my GPA back to above 3.0, and was unsure if my thesis research would end up being anything of interest, or if I would even finish my degree (the specter of dismissal still loomed over me). As a result, I decided to apply for Fall 2013 entry. Following my graduation, rather than sitting idly, I joined a lab at another university as a research technician and am continuing to build my research credentials. I also took the subject GRE test in Biology and did well (96th percentile). I received strong letters of recommendation from both of my PIs and a former professor, and decided to apply again. It seems that the strength of my recommendations and my research experience was sufficient to overcome my low GPA in the eyes of the admission committees. Well, not all of them. I did get rejected from half of the fourteen schools to which I applied, but seven interview invitations is seven more than I would have anticipated just one year ago. As I said at the beginning of this post, I have gotten admission into my first-choice program, so regardless of how my remaining interviews go, I am secure in the knowledge that I will have somewhere to go this fall, somewhere where I will be glad to be at. My intent in relating my experience is to encourage those who wish to get into a Ph.D. program, but are despondent over a low GPA, not to despair. Yes, a low GPA hurts your chances of admission, and you might have to apply to more programs than most to compensate (as I did), but it is not the end of the world. There are steps that you can take, such as doing a master's degree (don't screw up like I did), or working as a research assistant or research technician following your undergraduate degree, to show your fitness for graduate-level coursework and research. Make sure to have strong letters of recommendation, because those will make all the difference in the world. I hope that reading my account helps; I tried to provide concrete numbers wherever I could, as far as GPA and GRE scores, to give you a standard to compare to. Good luck with your applications.