Good point -- Yes, no guarantee No, strong ugrad academic perf is not required. Professors review applicants, you need to identify and win a champion based on

Good point -- Yes, no guarantee No, strong ugrad academic perf is not required. Professors review applicants, you need to identify and win a champion based on your aligned research interest & progress. Eg, research-y side projects and experiences motivating going to a R&D institution to begin with (which is what most professors are primarily there for.) Grades are likely more a university (non-departmental) level screener so less of a mandatory bar. All that said, it's still rough. Prev weak perf does suggest likeliness to fail classes portion & thus a rejection. Professors care more about r&d ability, where reading many papers and self-motivation for getting shit done is an expectation, and a missing or bad history biases most against that. I know great folks against the mold here who successfully got their PhDs, but they are rare applicants to begin with.