CaliforniaDreaming

Hey everyone! I'm kind of in a pickle. I'm looking to apply to grad school in the fall, but I have a horrendous GPA. I battled depression and had some family issues throughout my undergraduate career, and so balancing everything was difficult for me. But I have always been super passionate about my research and have excelled in that arena, at the least. I entered college wanting to go to MIT or Stanford for graduate school, but now I don't even want to apply because I don't think any place will accept me. Anything helps thank you. Major: EECS GPA: 2.4 Gender: Female GRE: Have not taken it yet, trying to get it up to perfect. Research Experience: I have 3.5 years of research experience with a pretty famous professor in the field of devices (I worked on wearable sensors) and I have a really good rapport with my two professors, who I would be getting recs from. Publications: I have SEVEN publications as an undergraduate in pretty good journals (ACS Nano, ACS Sensors, Advanced Materials, etc.) Including one first author and an acknowledgment in a Nature paper. Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Regents Scholar, some EECS department awards for my research Research Interests: Electrochemical Sensors, Wearables, Drug Delivery, Nanomedicine Thanks for any thoughts! I was considering getting a masters first, then applying to higher-ranked PhD programs would be of any use? Also, if anyone has experience spinning low GPAs in the application process, I'd love to hear about what you did.