A bad grade vs Top PhD admission

[george_lit]

Hey - I'm wondering if any of you have recovered and gotten into a top PhD program after a really rough start? I finished my year-long elementary language class with a C- and am more worried what it does to my PhD admissions chances than anything. I'm aiming for comparative ancient lit's and this grade is in one of the two literatures I want to compare. I can do better in intermediate and advanced but I'm worried I can't recover from having that mark on my masters transcript.

Edited May 12, 2015 by george_lit

[bsharpe269]

I'm in a different field but keep in mind that PhD programs are looking for evidence that you will be a great researcher. If your application suggests that you will be then one bad grade will not keep them from wanting you. I would focus on figuring out where you went wrong this semester and correcting whatever the problem was... If you fix it then you will be fine.

[qeta]

I agree with bsharpe269. Also, the clear progression of classes in languages should work in your favour. You could try for a higher grade in a more advanced class in the same language and that should balance things out a bit.