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<p>I met a student from China in one of my grad school visits. He did his master’s in China, and his grades were poor enough that the department refused to let him continue with the PhD at the Chinese University. The reason is that he spent all his time on research, and published a paper in a journal with an impact factor of about 10; his paper now has over 100 citations. Based primarily on his research results, he was accepted with funding to the PhD program at least one of the top five schools in his field in the US; it’s also a public school that accepts very few international students (< 20% according to the NRC).</p>
<p>In summary, spend the time on research and publications rather than getting high grades. But make sure your grades are high enough to meet the cutoff, which is often 3.5 for graduate classes.</p>