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EvoGen

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  1. I have spent the last two weeks waiting to hear back from my number 1 choice university for graduate school. This was very stressful and completely consumed my thoughts. I spent a great deal of time on this forum checking the posts of others, and looking for some encouraging words from students who had gotten into their top choice with a less than perfect academic record. I did not find many of those posts, so now that I am accepted, I would like to offer some encouragement to people who might be in the same position that I was in, or for people who are considering applying, but are not sure that their GPA's are good enough. Having a sub-optimal GPA (or GRE scores) makes waiting so much worse, because there is the huge worry that you are waiting on a rejection letter. But, know that it is possible to get accepted to your top choice university, with your top professor, with less than perfect grades!! This happened to me this week. Firstly, my undergrad GPA was pretty much terrible (between 3.0 - 3.4). I did not care too much about grades during my undergrad -and honestly, I still do not think that they are all-important; they are not great predictors for your ability to think independently or to do independent research. I have had many peers with stellar GPA's, but who would have been completely lost if they had to work or think too much on their own. They were simply obedient academics; good at following rules and regurgitating answers on exams. In any case, most people reading this will know that their GPA is not a good reflection of their academic ability, but think that they matter for getting into grad school. While I won't say that they are completely irrelevant, they are not as important as you may think. What IS important? (you probably know that these are important, but I think they are more important than your GPA) - at least they apparently were in my case. - your fit with the department, and with the professor's research (i.e your research interests are in line with the research interests of the department and the professor) - your knowledge in the subject in which you want to study (as demonstrated in your statement of purpose) - your academic reference letters From what I have been able to gather from this forum (and from other forums), most people who are applying to grad school take the "shotgun" approach. That is, they apply to several schools that they would love to go to, several safe schools that they could deal with, and several not-so-good schools that they don't care too much about. I do not know how this strategy has worked out for people, but it is not the one that I chose, and is therefore not what I would recommend (although, I have sample size n=1, so maybe take this with a large grain (granule?) of salt). This will probably vary by program as well. I would recommend the "sniper" approach as opposed to the "shotgun" approach. That is, pick one or two schools that you want to go to, and find professors there that you want to work with (and presumably therefore, who you would fit well with). Most schools will not admit you unless a professor has agreed to supervise you, so your priority should therefore be finding a suitable professor to whom you can demonstrate your passion and likelihood of success in doing research. I applied to one school. It helped a lot that the research interests of the department (and especially the professor) was very well aligned with my own interests, and so I did not have to 'tailer' my statement of purpose at all; and I made it very specific. If possible, finding this kind of situation, I think, is better than applying to schools willy-nilly, hoping that one will accept you. Good luck everyone!!!! This acceptance has brought me infinite joy, and I hope that everyone who is waiting or thinking of applying gets the same feeling afterwards!!! If not, keep trying!! Don't give up!!!
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