I have always been interested in my pursuing Machine Learning when I was in college. However, I was really disappointed in the quality of teachers in my undergraduate college. I grew disillusioned in what was being taught and decided to pursue my own interests in college; I researched topics by myself, made projects, learned stuff from the internet. Eventually, I was able to secure a pretty good internship as well because of my efforts. But my academics did suffer because I invested my efforts elsewhere. Now I want to apply for a master's in the specialization for ML. If possible, I will also like to pursue research opportunities in this field.
No matter how passionate I describe myself in my SOP, the admissions committee is going to be skeptical of my commitment because of my low grades.
I may be wrong about this, but I think it will improve my chances if I acknowledge my poor academics in my SOP, but I don't want it to overshadow my accomplishments or the hard work I put in to follow my interests. People who have faced this problem before ( or actually, anyone who has experience with these things) what would be the best way to address it in my SOP? How should I phrase/word it? Any examples are of course appreciated. Anything I should be careful of/steer clear of?
Thanks
