[SM30]

Hi im applying to grad school right now to a decent amount of the top 10 and some safety schools. I'm applying in the field of Organic. I was wondering what you guys thought my chances were. I have a 3.2 gpa from ucla, 730 quant 600 verb GRE scores, I take the subject GRE soon. I have 5 years of research experience (2 as a technician my first two years, 2 for a professor at UCLA, and one for the biopharm company im working at now). I published two papers on self assembly with the UCLA professor (one in jacs and one in org lett). My recs should be pretty good but obviously I waive my right to see them. My main worry is that my gpa will hold me down. I know the research experience is good but do you guys think those admit committees would look past that and focus straight on the grades? One of the professors i had write a rec said that my grades might force me out of the top 10. I dont know if he was being cautious or very serious though.

[Mitch]

Grades matter, but you seem to be a strong candidate.

[hmx9123]

That's crap.  I had somewhere between a 3.2 and a 3.5 (I honestly don't remember), and I'm at Berkeley.  With your research experience and good letters of rec, you'll be fine.  The big lesson is to get someone who is an alumnus from the school that you're going to for your rec.  Nepotism is rampant, but you might as well use it.

[SM30]

Yeah although they are the top of the line schools, I felt he made it seem like it was much harder to get in to at least one then it might really be. I saw somebody earlier in a different thread post that if you have a science degree and at least some experience you're good for acceptance into most schools out of the top 10. I hear thats probably due to the lack of qualified applicants to a lot of schools. The school I went to was just outside the top 10 and there were plenty of grad students that I talked to that had far weaker applications than I do. I was getting worried that i'd have to add many more safety schools than i wanted to.

[macman104]

The big lesson is to get someone who is an alumnus from the school that you're going to for your rec.  Nepotism is rampant, but you might as well use it.

I've seen this mentioned quite a few times in threads here.  How big of a hindrance is this if this is just not possible for me?