<p>I was wondering if anyone had any experience on knowledge about getting into graduate school despite mediocre grades (3.0 and below). My friend is a hard worker and an excellent researcher in biochemsitry (possibly will get a paper our by her junior year) but is having trouble getting her grades up simply because she’s significantly underprepared coming from Nigeria so she’s taking courses and competing with people from privileged backgrounds.</p>
<p>I’m sure she’ll have a consistent upward trend going from 2.5 probably to about 3.0 this semester and maybe 3.3+ later on. She is adamant that if she doesn’t “catch up” by the end of this year, that she’ll simply give up and switch majors because she believes that there is no chance of getting into graduate school with an abysmal record. So, what are some ways around this handicap if she is not able to raise her grades to a satisfactory level by graduate school applications time?</p>