Non genius applicants

red_herring
Fri, 03 Jul 2009 11:59:14 +0000

(sarbrius - post 16) I have to disagree. I could name at least ten people from my current institution who have between 1 and 3 publications, though most of those people do hover around a 3.8 GPA (in chemistry from a mid-tier UC). A few from that group have GPAs above 3.9 both overall and in chemistry. The top schools are not full of applicants with many defects on their application. However, as others have mentioned it is not impossible to be accepted with lower stats. I would still encourage people to apply to the schools they find attractive, but its important to keep a realistic outlook too.

I also wanted to comment on the posts about complaining grad students and the unhappy father. Perhaps I can only speak from observing the grad students at my school, but they all seem to be very happy people. In fact, I found it encouraging to see them so satisfied with their lives. Hopefully others who read this can feel encouraged as well. It may be that the grad students I know are a fluke, or it may be that the aforementioned grad students didn’t choose the right program.