Having an A- average in upper division physics course

[IDontHaveAName]

Hello, all I'm a rising senior who's about to apply for grad school. However, this year has been a rough year for me as my overall grade has declined a bit, especially in that I did not do well in 3 core major courses: mechanics B and EM II I got a B and STAT MECH B+(sadly, I thought i deserved much better grades b/c I feel like i know more than my peers who got better grades). My QM, RELATIVITY, WAVE/OPTICS, and EM I(yes this is considered pretty advanced courses at my uni) have straight A's , so no A-. As of now, my GPA stands at a solid 3.7. In the coming fall I will be taking more advanced courses: QM II and atomic physics which I have a strong feeling that i can get A's on(since its back in person and QM is the only course I enjoyed over this year)

The issue with me is that prepandemic my grades looks solid, pretty much stem courses all A's , at worse, A-'s . BUt after pandemic, my motivaiton just went down a deep hill and so I did not put much effort. In fact, I decided to overload my classes(exceeds credit limit) myself at the worst time possible. Never mind my bad decision, I know I will have practically no chance for top-tier, so I'm trying to shoot for mid-tier. Perhaps top 20-40.

With regards to my research, I did got into SULI this summer which I will be performing some data anlaysis and I heard they are in the process of making a paper. But that's really about it, also performing data analysis is a bit underwhealming for me since I came from a strong programming BG. I do not have any other solid research other than doing some independent projects working with lasers. But I do have 2 solid recommendation letter ready , with one of them a leader in the fields of AMO physics that I'm applying to.

I would love to hear some honest feedback.

 

[Choppy]

The pandemic has hit everyone hard. Don't be too hard on yourself. You're not in a bad spot.

Avoid focusing on a graduate school's "tier" and focus more on what you're likely to get out of the program, what project you'll be working on, the people you'll be working with, and how well that school fits in with the lifestyle you enjoy.