hematomahawk

Apologies if I've accidentally flouted some of the rules for posts here; it's my first time participating in the forum, and I'm in a bit of a rush to get some feedback. I graduated from a top liberal arts college in New Hampshire with a GPA a bit below 3.3. As I've been parsing through some of the average GPAs to the programs I'm considering, I've been feeling pretty anxious about the whole ordeal. I've read a few articles that detail how to deal with a low GPA in a personal statement, but most of them can be summed up as "don't make excuses, but try to explain yourself fully," which comes across as relatively unhelpful. I do believe my circumstances were rather unique; for the majority of college, I was working 30+ hours at the dining hall every week. I have been financially independent of my mother since I left the house to go to school. Even if I hadn't been, there would've been no money for me to ask for. The harsh reality of the price of tuition, textbooks, transportation, and other miscellaneous costs dictated that I really had to work my way through college, and my GPA reflects this. I hate to weaponize my circumstances, but I feel as if this is the only way an adcom would look at my GPA without scoffing. I studied pretty hard to ace the GRE (99th percentile in both sections), but I'm still pretty worried. Has anyone else dealt with a situation like this?