GradSchoolProblems

Should I keep in touch/contact each PHD admission director of the program I am? Would that be wise or should I just mentioned it that I am applying and I want to mention this to you guys and explain my situation.

Hello, I am new here and hope you all can help me. I want to apply for a PHD in Health Policy and Management with a focus on Economics, but before I get to the problem, let me explain the situation. I went to transfer to Cornell University as a sophomore and majored in Biology. I graduated with an overall GPA less than 3.0 unfortunately. But my policy analysis courses showed was the courses that clearly showed where my passion was. I excelled in my policy analysis courses with at least a 3.5. But there is a clear boost/increase in my GPA after my sophomore year (but I did struggle a little bit on my science courses). Right now, I am currently a graduate student in a MPH - Health Policy Program and I am excelling in my courses with a 3.9 GPA. After taking more courses and doing research in Health Policy, I love it and I want to pursue a PHD. Along with that, I am also trying to take on as much opportunities as I can to help show that I am genuinely passionate about this subject area. However, one of the PHD programs I want to apply to requires an undergraduate GPA of 3.0. I contacted the admission officer of the PHD program in their health policy department and they said I should mentioned in my personal statement what the situation was. And so I was wondering in my personal statement, why my undergraduate GPA was less than 3.0. The reason for this is because I grew up from a disadvantaged background. My parents were Vietnamese refugees (they never got educated), I grew up in a pretty big family and I was below the federal poverty line, I grew up in an area where the opportunities were very limited and if there was any opportunities, I never had the resources to grab that opportunities because I worked all the time to help support my family, and I went to a public school system that did not prepare at all for college. So when I came to college (I was so blessed to get accepted a great school like Cornell), it really shoved me down on the ground in terms of academics. I didn't know how to study, I didn't know how to search for the resources that Cornell offered (I was able to land a couple of research positions, but they were science related and not policy related), and I just had such a difficult time adjusted because I never was around people who were so well off. I struggle financially when paying for rent, I struggle keeping up with my classmates, I struggle in my intro courses because my high school never prepared me what I should know. All the professors said that you should of known this from high school and it was review, but for me, it was such a struggle trying to pretty much learn a whole new material. And it was just difficult for me. But once I was able to get the flow growing, I learned how to study, my GPA started to rise, I would say rapidly, going from a C student to a B to close to an A- student. So my thing is, will my disadvantage background be a good reason for my low GPA? I don't want to say its an excuse or a reason, but my disadvantage background will always haunt me and I want to show them that I will do whatever it takes to overcome it. I would appreciate all honest responses! Thanks