Physics GRE Discussion Forums

Hello everyone, I'm new to this forum and I need your help.
I'm now an undergraduate student majored in optics, and I'm going to apply for a 2008 fall graduate program.A trouble frustrated me often is my self-positioning: I have a relatively strong research background, I began my research since my junior and have posted several journal papers, 3 of them are of SCI(2nd author), but so poor is my academic record that I only got an average GPA, and some of the important curriculum like physics experiments are just C. My question is, with my background, is there any chance for me to get into a"top" ranked graduate programs?I'm going to take physics GRE this Nov., if I got a high grade(like above 900), will this compensate those poor grades?
Thanks for your help.

If you have a strong research background and are considering staying in optics, you would be the kind of person who absolutely needs to utilize your networks you've developed through your research to help get you in touch with specific researchers at specific schools with whom you'd be interested in working. If there's someone doing quantum optics at, I don't know, MIT who'd you be interested in working with, see if you can get in touch with them and arrange to talk about your research background and your goals. Ok, MIT may not be the best example because they really hammer the paper credentials hard. The point is, though, that you need to talk with the professors you've worked with and see where they'd recommend you go and who they'd recommend you work with...odds are they know the researcher personally and can get you in touch with that scientist, who very well could shepherd you into the program and sway the admissions committee into overlooking your average academic record. Talk to your professors.

ok,I think the best solution for my trouble,as you said,is to personal contact with the professors who are doing exactly what I interested in. But as a foreign applicant, a realistic way for me is to write to professors and ask them if I am a suitable applyer.
i will try ;and , many thanks for your help: )