MIT Bioengineering Cut-off

[Dubblebubble898]

I am UC Berkeley undergraduate looking to apply to MIT for bioengineering PhD and I saw on this page: http://be.mit.edu/academic-programs/prospective-graduate/graduate-faq that they say: 

What are the minimum requirements?
Students are encouraged to include both biochemistry and cell biology in their undergraduate curriculums. Minimum requirements to qualify for the visitation weekend vary every year with the applicant pool, however, one can expect cutoffs around:
GRE Quantitative: 160
GRE Verbal: 156

GPA: 3.8/4.0

[nugget]

If you really want to go there, apply and see what happens. It's worth the money and peace of mind, even if it doesn't work out, so you don't always wonder what might have happened if you'd tried.

[Crucial BBQ]

 

I have around a 3.7 GPA now (hope it would go up to around 3.77 by the end of this semester) so I am below the cutoff.  My question is how strict is the 3.8 GPA cutoff?  Will the admissions board look at the rest of my application once they see that my GPA is below 3.8?

 

I think a 3.8/4.0 is quite a high number for a cutoff, I hope that they will at least look at my whole application package instead of wasting my money for something to never be read.

 

 

The cutoff is not strict.  Instead it is a signal that of the applicant pool a 3.8 undergrad GPA is on the low end.  It is a way for the program to help ensure that only those with high GPAs apply even though the program itself does not have a minimum GPA requirement.  

 

If you feel that you have a competitive application overall, I suggest that you still apply.   You can also email students in the program to see what they think of your chances with a 3.7 uGPA if you don't want to risk it.