Turnader

I'll be honest, your uGPA jumps out a bit. Your biggest draw is that your research experience is extensive--and the fact you were in a "high-prestige" lab may be an important shoe in the door. My GPA was not particularly strong either, but the fact I worked with big names in my sub-field threw things in my favor more than once. How do your grades breakdown? Did you do particularly poorly in some subjects, like physics or English, while doing well in biology classes? My uGPA was a 3.2, while I realize not quite as dire as your situation, is on the lower end when it comes to applicants. However, one could clearly see from my transcripts that organic chemistry was the culprit (4 freaking semesters), as I maintained relatively high grades in the life sciences. A little trick I used in the first draft of my SOP was calculating my "life sciences" GPA (biology, public health, and bioanthropology classes). That....was a 3.8. In the end, I ignored it--because most departments cares more about research than petty scores.

Thanks for the replies! I really am feeling quite better about the whole thing. It's just gonna take some getting used to, my primary undergraduate research mentor was a very supportive and helpful--but wouldn't refrain from criticism, he just always had a knack of putting things gently. Even when I messed up bad, correction was always in a "I know you'll do better next time" tone.

Hi, just discovered these forums, and boy am I glad! I desperately need to vent! So I am just about to start my PhD program in biology at a school that I chose not because of any faculty member in particular, but because is a strong academic community for the sub-field I'm interested in. Because my interests tend to be more theoretical, and not limited to specific species, I'm allowing our required lab rotations to help me make a decision on an adviser. I contacted a professor that was particularly appealing because much of their research has applied health uses, and got a positive response with a question about what specifically I wanted to work on. In an attempt to impress him, I looked at recent publications and tried to take the "next step" theoretically, and sent a skeleton proposal of something I could investigate while in his lab. That was a mistake. You see, while I have extensive knowledge in evolutionary theory, my knowledge is not specialized in too many specific species (his lab has things that I've never worked on before and am vaguely familiar with).This ended up making my proposal sound pretty awful, and the prof didn't pull any punches in explaining that to me. While not particularly rude in his response, the tone of his message was clearly very annoyed, as if i was just wasting his time. He suggests just throwing me on an ongoing project (which is just what I wanted in the first place). Now I feel like I screwed up an opportunity with a potential adviser (out of the the faculty I could see myself working with, he ranked no.1) and I can't help but get this panicky feeling that I messed up a big opportunity. Anyone have similar bad impressions, but turned out all right? Could really use a couple stories like that right about now.