Desperate For Advice 2015: "Unofficially Accepted"

[aherne]

In August, I had an interview at my target school with my person of interest who, at the end of the day, had told me he was willing to accept me with full funding and a stipend. (PhD program straight out of undergrad - my GPA and GRE scores were not competitive, but I have a ton of research experience... I guess enough to justify both the low GPA and GRE). 

What concerns me is that I had previously applied to a school in Canada, had an interview, was encouraged to apply, and was immediately turned down by the general graduate department because my GPA was lower than the minimum required for entrance. I told my person of interest this, and he insisted that this would not happen here, and "it must have just been a Canada thing". 

I am afraid to send in my application to the general graduate school because I am paranoid that I will be rejected almost immediately again, even though the head of the biology graduate department, my advisor, and other graduate students I had met had told me that this would not happen. 

As the biology department and the general graduate department do not seem to interact that closely (in my opinion), and the graduate students who I had met with had all been in the program for at least 4 years, I am worried that the graduate school has changed its ways and I will be automatically rejected again. 

Does anyone have absolutely any advice to offer on this? It is eating at my soul, so really, anything will help! 

[Eigen]

There's really no way to tell. 

You don't have any other options- you have to send in your application if you want it to succeed. 

You have a PI that's behind you and willing to fund you, and they say it won't be a problem. Take them at face value and move forward.

[TakeruK]

Just to be clear, what happened in Canada is not what is happening here in the US, unless you are leaving out some details.  You said that in Canada, you had an interview and then you were encouraged to apply, and then the graduate department rejected you because you did not meet University requirements. In Canada (and I believe in the United States too), being (strongly) encouraged to apply after an interview does not meet anything in terms of your chances of acceptance. All candidates in which a professor is interested in would be encouraged to apply.

Usually, in Canada, if a candidate is supported by the department and the faculty member, then the department often can make a case for you and the graduate office will grant an exception to their university minimums. But, this generally requires the department to demonstrate that you are a better candidate than everyone else who met the minimums. It could be possible that the Canadian school felt you were a strong candidate when they talked to you but then when it was time to make the decisions, there were other candidates and they could no longer make a strong case for an exception for you. After all, they didn't say that you would be accepted, only encouraged you to apply!

But in any case, my advice for this specific situation is that why not apply? You don't have anything to lose and you won't know what the result will be unless you do it. It sounds like you have a good opportunity here and so go ahead and do your best!

[fuzzylogician]

I don't think you have any choice other than to submit your application to the graduate school. In all schools I know of, the admissions process necessarily goes through the graduate school and there is no way to circumvent that. There may be some official cutoffs, and you may not meet them. In that case, the department will usually be able to intervene and fight on your behalf. There is no way to tell how that will turn out as it depends on all kinds of factors like how much below the cutoffs you are, what other aspects your application has that the department can use to argue for your acceptance, perhaps how many other cases the department has argued for this year or in the past and how they have turned out. If the department says your low scores will not be a problem, you have to trust them that either there are no cutoffs, you meet the cutoffs, or they have the power to intervene on your behalf even though you don't meet the cutoffs. 

This all said, since there is no way to avoid this, my best advice is to simply submit the application. Let the people who told you they'd accept you know that you've done so. You could mention that you would appreciate it if they could follow up with the graduate school to make sure nothing goes wrong, because you worry about how things will be handled there. Then you will just have to wait and see how this plays out and take if from there.

[GeoDUDE!]

How will you get in if you don't apply. 

[kaykaykay]

i talked the grad school person once from my school(in the US). she said they sometimes have concerns about a candidate that a department recommends (actually they are afraid that low undergrad GPA= struggling in grad school too) . In that case they discuss the issue with the department and either make an offer as it is or make a conditional offer (to finish certain classes in time etc). She also said that this is not undergrad so they really try to make no decisions, only raise concerns about GPA and GRE with the department. Long story short- if the department is behind you, you will be most probably fine. I think it is good that you clarified this issue with your POI so it will not be a surprise to them.

[aherne]

All fabulous responses! Thanks everyone! You helped chill me out quite a bit!