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Hey everybody, I created my account here on the grad cafe to share my story about being accepted into a fully funded PhD program and assistantship. Hopefully this story will make the sub 3.0'ers more optimistic about their grad school prospects. A little background, I graduated 2 years ago with a BS in chemical engineering. This summer I applied to 15 different grad programs total, all within Ohio, that were a mix of MS and PhD programs, in both the chemistry and chemical engineering. The reason I applied to so many and spent a total of about $400 in the whole application process was to compensate for my qualifications, or lack thereof: -2.72 undergrad cumulative GPA (GPA for engineering specific coursework was even lower) -average GRE scores (151 quantitative, 159 verbal, 4.5 essay) -no master's degree -only 2 years of spotty industry experience (2 internships that lasted between 3-4 months, longest job I worked was the current one I had started working at this past february) -applied way late after the application deadline, during this past summer for this upcoming fall term, because I just wanted to see if I could get into any grad program and get schooling out the way for the rest of my life. Wasn't expecting anything funded at all. Anyway, I just found out last week that I was accepted into one of the PhD programs I applied to in chemistry, in a large university in central Ohio, with a 19k/yr assistantship that I dont even remember applying for. Obviously I took up the offer and now Im moving down to their campus this week to attend orientations and stuff. So yea, even though some of you guys may have low GPA's and still have grad school in mind, just bear in mind that crazy strokes of luck happen and I would highly recommend using the shotgun method (applying to as many programs as possible) to see what comes out of it.