I'm really worried about my chances of getting accepted....advice?

[alex120020]

Hey everyone! I'm a senior at the University of Illinois. I'm a psychology major but I started off as a biology/pre-med. Right now I'm really interested in clinical psych and would like to apply to a PhD program. Here's the thing though: I screwed up my first 2 years and got 3 C's (general chemistry 1 and 2 as well as pre-calculus), 1 W (calculus), and an F (organic chemistry). To be completely honest I received these grades for mainly 2 reasons. 1) I was pretty depressed throughout my first two years of college and this affected my greatly. To make matters worse I had a death in the family the semester I got an F in organic chem. 2) I hated these "hard" science classes and performed poorly as I lacked motivation to study (both because of the depression and because I wasn't enjoying the material). I kept trying though because it was somewhat expected of me (family) to become a doctor. It took 2 miserable years and an F on my transcript to realize that I was making a huge mistake. After that I changed my major to a psychology - something I have always loved and sought out help for my depression and I have drastically improved. My psychology GPA by the time I plan to apply (Fall 2014) should remain at a 4.0, my gen-ed GPA is a 4.0, and my overall should be around a 3.45. My GPA for my first 60 credit hours was a 2.9 but for my last 60 it's a 3.95. The only classes i have received something lower than a B in are the physical science ones that I mentioned. 

 

As for research and such, I have been doing extensive medical research with an emphasis on patient and health psychology (eg. I've been investigated various psychological and social factors that contribute to patient non-adherence and I have proposed several interventions to address the issues). I have been doing this for 3 years and have received an NIH minority supplement grant to do it. I have presented a poster at 3 conferences (1 national, 1 Regional, and 1 within the University) and have attended several others. I received NIH permission to run another sub-study (under my mentors' larger study) and wrote up a manuscript (first author) which I will try to submit to a medical journal starting next month. I have also had a large hand in the development of a patient education application (Apple store) geared towards individuals with low literacy (first ever from the University). I have two mentors, one is a physician the other is a psychologist and both would be more than willing to write me a great letter of recommendation. In addition to this research I've also been working as a research assistant for a psychology graduate student at school for which I'm received course credit for (directed research).I plan on taking the GRE by the start of next Fall and have already started studying. Lastly, I'm also currently applying to a psychology summer research program at another University so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for that. Anyway, whenever I start thinking about the actual application, I start getting discouraged because of my bad grades. Obviously I wasn't planning on applying to a top tier school but do I have any chance of getting accepted even to a middle or bottom tier program?

 

Also, I was wondering if I should mention anything about my freshman/sophomore difficulties in my personal statement. I sort of want to explain myself without making up excuses but I also don't want to mention my depression...

 

Thanks in advance for all you're input!

Edited November 26, 2013 by alex120020

[kaister]

I wouldn't worry too much about the grades.  You said your overall would be around 3.45 and I think that should be fine, as your other more important aspects of your application (research, potentially GRE) can and will most likely outweigh this.  Focus on finding the right schools/POIs for your applications, that will be crucial. You can mention how you switched from one area to another but I wouldn't mention specifically how your freshman/sophomore years were terrible. That switch in majors can speak for itself in terms of your change in motivation/grades, and they'll see that.

[Lisa44201]

What Kaister said. Aside from the rough start, the rest of it looks good on paper. Provided you write a good SOP and your GRE is good, I wouldn't worry.

 

Don't use space in your SOP to explain the bad grades. Use it to elaborate on why you're a good match for Professor Awesome's lab.