franticsemantics

I'm 23 and graduated class of 2014 with a cGPA of 3.01 from a solid school, started out neuroscience but dropped to a BS in Psychology with minors in biology and chemistry at the end of my junior year. Basically because of very stupid long-term relationship stuff/I became the legal guardian of my disabled younger brother and my family taking care of my grandfather as he died of alzheimer's, my GPA tanked junior year. My GPA for Psychology is probably a least a 3.5 (due to weird anxiety things I've been too afraid to pull up the numbers and actually look at them). I took the GRE for my first time yesterday and I made a 166v/164q, and I feel decently confident I made about a 5.0 on the writing portion. I also think if I took it again I could add 2-5 points on the quantitative section. I researched in neuroscience for two years, but I wasn't very motivated for those two years and didn't get published and I don't have the best relationship with the PI I worked with. I shadowed physicians for 200 hours, volunteered for children's home literacy programs, was a TA/Program Counselor in a summer 'pre-psychiatry' program where high schoolers earned college credit at my university, and was a clinician working with children with developmental disabilities for the past year. I've also taught high school math (one-on-one and in classrooms) as a private contractor. I know I'm not an abysmal applicant, but I feel very intimidated by going into applications knowing my GPA is lower than I wanted it to be because of a bad five year relationship. It seems pretty obvious that if I try to acknowledge and explain the bad GPA boy troubles should not be mentioned. I also don't know what caliber of program I should be applying to. I'm a Texas resident so I plan on applying to all of the in-state programs. For personal/family reasons applying to schools in Minnesota or close to New York City appeals to me, but I don't know if I'm a good applicant for out of state programs. I'm taking biochemistry in the spring at a local four-year for long-term aspirations, and now that I've sorted/eliminated the major stressors in my life I think I'll do well, but it's probably too late for it to affect my application for fall 2016. ;_______;