My GPA is not good. It is, in fact, what most people would call "below par". This does not in any way discourage me. In my understanding, it is not being able to regurgitate mathematical formulas that mater to being an engineer. What does matter is the ability to reason and design. It took me about 3 years of college to realize that I am never going to have a good GPA and, more importantly, that it doesn't matter. That very notion is what got me a very well paying REU at the University of Arkansas this summer. It also helped that one of my favorite professors wrote me a glowing recommendation (don't ever underestimate the power of other people). My application to the REU program there was originally thrown out because my GPA was "below par", however with recommendation in hand I made the 30 minute drive to the UofA in order to track down the head of the REU programs. For moral support I took my amazingly loving and ever encouraging girlfriend (She thought we were going to take pictures for one of her classes but really we were there for me). I finally found the head of the REU program, a man by the name of Ken Vickers, tucked away in the physics building. I approached him told him my name and said that I would like to meet with him about reconsidering my application. Mr. Vickers looked me over, thought for a moment, and said "Come to my office tomorrow so we can talk." That was all it took. I went back the next day and we had a great time talking about different REU programs and what they were doing. At the end of the interview he turned to me and said, "Well Chris, I think we can work something out. I will pass your name around to all of the different programs and get you in somewhere". That's how I came to be working in the Chemistry department at the UofA.
I know nothing about chemistry...this was sometimes problematic. But I made it work. I learned a lot about peptides and cytokines and relative recovery of dopamine. I learned a whole lot about being out of your comfort zone. I had a great time. Most importantly I saw that it doesn't matter that thousands of other people from all over the country had better GPAs then me. I was the one who got the job.
So here is the moral of the story. Don't worry if outward appearance initially keeps you from doing what you want. If you want something bad enough then all you need to do is work hard at achieving that and be willing to put in a lot of extra time...and occasionally ask for a really good recommendation.
