heronsode

My thanks to both of you for the strategies--taking the subject test does seem like a good way, if done well, to send a more robust signal to the adcoms and relieve concern about my GPA; and I'll definitely make sure to have my LOR's emphasize potential for research. And best of luck to you, footballman2399! For anyone else who comes across this thread with a concern about explaining a hardship-based lowered GPA, the second post in this thread also mentions the importance of the personal statement:

Greetings, I would greatly appreciate it if someone could evaluate my profile info below and give an informed opinion on my competitiveness in applying to stats phd programs, such as CMU and UWashington. Thanks! -------------- Undergraduate institution rank: Around #100 in the US News rankings. Undergraduate majors: Math, Philosophy Minors: Economics and physics Undergraduate GPA, math GPA: 3.66; 3.3. Math courses (not exhaustive, but the most pertinent): Cal I - cal III (A's); differential equations (A); discrete math (A); three terms of linear algebra (A, A, B+); three terms of real analysis (one introductory course, and two advanced courses) (B+, C+,B+); two terms of complex analysis (A's); one course in mathematical statistics (taken pass/fail); and two terms of algebra (C+, B+). Other quantitative courses taken: Error analysis (physics) (A); and two terms of econometrics (A's). GRE (quantitative, verbal, writing): 169, 165, 5.5. Teaching experience: TA for an undergrad/grad course in monetary policy; TA for an undergrad survey of mathematical topics sequence (discrete math, logic). Research experience: Research assistant promoted to research analyst for two years at a federal reserve bank. Employed sophisticated time-series analysis methods for forecasting macroeconomic variables using statistical software. Co-authored a paper regarding a forecasting model I developed. Other experience: Co-founder of forum website that utilizes machine-learning algorithms. My role here has been in coding the back-end portion of the website as well as developing the ML algorithms. Programming languages: Matlab, SAS, Stata, Eviews, VBA, SQL, PHP. LOR (according to previous LOR's from them): From math professors: "Solid student, passionate." From econometrics professors: "Top of the class, one of the best in my experience." Other relevant background: I had two terms of bad grades (C's and B's) that sunk my math GPA. This was a result of my mom dying one term and my father the next. (Are circumstances such as these typically considered in admissions decisions?)