[hapanin]

I recommend you apply for the NSF GRFP Fellowship. It's the 16% chance Hail Mary that gets non-traditional hacktivists like you and me into top schools that wouldn't even read our applications without it. I have no masters and a 3.3 undergrad GPA in materials science but in the fall I'll be starting at a damn good ML lab in a damn good school. There's a bunch of reasons you (and you specifically) should apply:

1. It has a 16% acceptance rate compared to top schools ~2%. If you get the GRFP then you can get into many (but certainly not all) top schools regardless of what the official admission criteria says.

2. The NSF has different priorities than university admissions boards (long term potential as a scientist vs. grad school potential publishing papers.) This gives non-traditional candidates an edge since they can make a credible case that their background will support real world impact of their research.

3. The NSF specifically asks for "broader impact" in your past and future work. I think you've got this in spades. I related my political activities during George Floyd protests to the need for equitable, grassroots control of AI. I like to think the NSF does genuinely care about ethics. And if you're on their bad side then it's not like they can reject you twice, so it's a good gamble.

My contact is on my profile; let me help you write the NSF app and maybe even your school ones. Same offer for anyone else out there who's been fighting the good fight.