PhD Applications: Can a good academic record in my master's compensate for a horrible UG academic record? I have a very bad undergraduate academic record -- I failed or didn't attend the end semester exams for many courses (15 courses, to be exact!), and I  had to clear these later on, towards the end of my course. 

Admissions to graduate courses in my country (India) are based on entrance examinations (and not your profile or UG record) -- which I've cleared and I'll be going to one of the best universities in my country. 

I wish to do a PhD, and I want to keep options in the US or UK open. I intend to study well in my masters and get good scores, and, going by what I've done in the past couple of years, I think I'll be a lot more disciplined in my masters. 

My only worry is: will my undergraduate record be a bottleneck no matter how hard I try in my masters? Should I just go into the industry after my masters? I really want to do a PhD! 

My overall undergrad GPA is bad (2.72), with, as I've said, 15 "backlogs" (exams that I didn't attend or failed, and cleared later on). However, during the last 3 semesters, I took no backlogs and I averaged above 3. During the final two semesters, I averaged 3.2 and in the final semester I got a 3.4.
In short:

You need to do some research-type work during your Master's to evaluate if your desire to get a Ph.D. has some foundation.

You certainly would have a chance to get into a Ph.D. program with strong enough application. However, you would have to work hard during your Master's.



There are several things you need to consider:


you have not yet finished (or, I guess, even started) your Master's degree. Therefore, you are planning way ahead.
you certainly want to do a research-based Master's degree with a thesis, as opposed to doing a pure course-based Master's. Doing research during your Master's would allow you to understand if you like doing research in the first place. Also, it would strengthen your potential application for a Ph.D.
a carefully written Letter of Intent would be crucial. 
sometimes, only a GPA in your last two years of the undergraduate program is used for applicants with a Master's degree.
you should make a decision of industry vs academia closer to the time you are finishing your Master's degree. Moreover, even if you get into industry, nothing prevents you from applying to a Ph.D. program several years later if you still have research interests and, especially, if you position at industry had a research component that you were excited about.