Realistic Chance at Grad School?

[imruined]

Hello,

I am an Aerospace Engineering major looking to get accepted to a Physics Ph.D. program. I aced the Physics GRE (990), but my GPA is 3.05 following an uphill trend - early semesters as low as 1.3 to recent 4.0 (top 10 Aero school if it matters). Research experience is limited - I've gotten one publication in an astronomy field, and my rec. letters should be average.

From what I understand, GPA is a lot more important than GRE scores, and a GPA as low as mine is pretty much fatal. Considering my circumstances, do I have any chance at all?

 

[Choppy]

You may want to consider schools that weight more heavily towards the more recent years in calculating their GPAs. In many cases, a first year where you're still figuring things out can be forgiven. And multiple semesters that demonstrate you're capable of maintaining a 4.0 in challenging upper year courses will be seen positively.

I'd encourage you to apply to graduate schools if that's what you want to do. It's not unreasonable to expect to be accepted somewhere.