irongoat

Ok. So I did a B.A.Sc from a 2nd tier EE school about eight years ago with really mediocre grades (I think I finished with roughly 2.4). There were mitigating factors, documented issues with severe anxiety and chronic ongoing illnesses, but these are of no consequences to ad-coms, of course. I've been going to a better school taking classes in physics (QM, EM, biophysics etc) with roughly B to B+ in these (though one C, in optics is a blemish). I know this isn't nearly sufficient to undo the damage, but I was hoping it would be a start. My plan was originally to gain a solid foundation in pure science then apply to Engineering again with a better foundation, and re-do lots of core courses (Signals, Random, EM) along with the subject of interest : photonics. As it stands, I am too weak of a student at the school I am at (they pretty much only take the top students for research opportunities, though professors don't say as much). I'm starting to doubt if this course of continual upgrading will ever yield an admission. I'm losing hope, despite having made improvements from earlier bad results. I've read of cases where significant improvement demonstrated can potentially allow a professor to pull for a student, but this seems to be only in rare an exceptional cases. I'm passionate about my subject, and I really don't want to stop making the effort to succeed at it. I genuinely believe the mitigating factors threw my performance in UG (the first time around) and while I've improved, its not good enough. Are my perceptions wrong? I've talked to lots of adcoms/profs/etc and have found that they are often only telling half the story. Some say that proving yourself willing and able is enough, others say meeting the cutoff isn't meeting the "real" cutoff, which is magnitudes higher (B cutoff listed, demand through the roof, A- is the actual cutoff). I have an opportunity to continue upgrading at another quite good school my eng credits. But if the odds are really as bad as I think, it may be futile. The degree is from 8 years ago. I've improved. I continue improving. Is it so unlikely that this is enough? Are there options overseas that would give me a chance? Canadian schools are heavy competition. Anyways, I'd appreciate any thoughts on the matter. Irongoat