Thank you
P.S. In reality I think I should just stop thinking about it and just work hard, but I do enjoy dreaming and thinking about these things

I wouldn't think of it as a number's game. Masters programs will allow you to (1) pursue more research, (2) prove your intellectual ability and curiousity, and (3) potentially gather another strong recommendation from a different institution (fyi, it's better to leave and go somewhere else). None of this happens on a transcript, but is rather a product of hard work and go-getting. Just a 4.0 in a masters program isn't that useful in applying to a top school, but a glowing recommendation from your QFT instructor about the insightful questions you asked in class, combined with the incredible work you did in compiling your Master's thesis on numerical simulations of CLAS collisions (see the first-author paper on the arxiv, Mr. CalTech admissions man), will do loads.Blinky wrote:My current grades are not the best, perhaps not the worst, maybe around 3.1-3.2 on the 4 scale. While I do realize that any good grades will improve my chances, I'm still gonna ask this: are the graudate level courses weighted more than the undergraduate ones? Considering that they will be the most recent ones as well.