Is it possible?

[csgyy]

I'm in EE, going to apply for 2010 Fall PhD.

I got a 3.00 undergrad GPA from Northwestern, a 3.65 M.S. GPA from UCIrvine.

GRE V: 590, Q: 800, AW: 4.0

Two published top conference (ICASSP 2009, Globecom 2008) papers, one submitted 2nd author Journal.

What's the possibility for me to get admission from top programs like Stanford/Berkeley/Princeton, since I've heard of that they care undergrad GPA the most?

Thanks.

[liszt85]

I'm in EE, going to apply for 2010 Fall PhD.

I got a 3.00 undergrad GPA from Northwestern, a 3.65 M.S. GPA from UCIrvine.

GRE V: 590, Q: 800, AW: 4.0

Two published top conference (ICASSP 2009, Globecom 2008) papers, one submitted 2nd author Journal.

What's the possibility for me to get admission from top programs like Stanford/Berkeley/Princeton, since I've heard of that they care undergrad GPA the most?

Thanks.

This is a matter for speculation and its best that we don't engage in it. So go ahead, send 3-4 applications to your dream schools, send another 3-4 applications to mid range schools which you reckon you can get into easily.. and maybe have 2 safety schools. So apply to around 8-10 places and hope for the best. Most importantly, you seem to be focused on rankings of schools. Have you tried looking at faculty research interests? Where do they do the research that you want to be doing? Is it being done at Stanford, Berkeley and Princeton? Research fit is much more important than GPA and this is true for school ranked 1 and school ranked 50. They all want to get good research done, invite more funding, make a name for themselves, etc.. So if you prove to them that you can contribute to their research activities, they will overlook your UG GPA. I know of people with ug GPA of 7.0/10 who have got into MIT and such places but they had amazing research work and publications and great letters of recommendation.

[csgyy]

This is a matter for speculation and its best that we don't engage in it. So go ahead, send 3-4 applications to your dream schools, send another 3-4 applications to mid range schools which you reckon you can get into easily.. and maybe have 2 safety schools. So apply to around 8-10 places and hope for the best. Most importantly, you seem to be focused on rankings of schools. Have you tried looking at faculty research interests? Where do they do the research that you want to be doing? Is it being done at Stanford, Berkeley and Princeton? Research fit is much more important than GPA and this is true for school ranked 1 and school ranked 50. They all want to get good research done, invite more funding, make a name for themselves, etc.. So if you prove to them that you can contribute to their research activities, they will overlook your UG GPA. I know of people with ug GPA of 7.0/10 who have got into MIT and such places but they had amazing research work and publications and great letters of recommendation.

Thanks a lot!