Hi everyone,
I just wanted to update everybody. I posted earlier in this thread! I came from a poor uGPA (~2.7), that was not reflective of who I could be. However, it happened, and there was nothing I could do. I was very lucky to find a Masters Program in my field that was willing to take a chance on me. During my ~two years, I was able to excel and achieve close to a 3.9 GPA. I took the GRE and was only able to do slightly above average (my combined percentiles were 70th.) I went ahead and applied to 6 schools and was rejected by 3, accepted by one outright, and had two interviews. I was informed last Friday that I was accepted to a program that I had my hopes for us, that was very highly ranked in the field!
I want to give some advice for people who are in the same predicament reading this thread. If you want to go Ph.D. and have a super low GPA, a Masters is the way to go. You will read online people say that a uGPA will also trump a Masters GPA, but for a Ph.D., I have found this not to be the case. Sure, some universities will reject you off the bat, but I got generally good responses from schools. In fact, out of the three schools, I applied, NONE mentioned my undergraduate GPA. That's right. NONE OF THEM DID! That tells you something. In fact, I didn't even mention my low GPA in my SOP (however, that doesn't mean you shouldn't even mention it, but I'm just letting you know that I did not.)
Furthermore, make sure to apply broadly. One thing that worried me was when I got two rejections in a row and thought that I was on the path of having to reapply. If you have a low GPA, apply to as many schools as you can afford. I wish I would've applied to around 10, but was lucky that I found acceptances.
A low undergraduate GPA is NOT the end! You can overcome it!
