<p>
Well, you should send the scores as soon as possible (i.e., now), but most programs won’t begin handing applications out to readers until the week before Christmas.</p>
<p>Why do you think it’s fruitless? I’m mostly concerned because a lot of apps are asking me to list faculty I’ve corresponded with.</p>
<p>The correspondence is useful only if it’s professional, i.e., you’ve become acquainted with a professor through research, conferences, etc. The correspondence is useless if you’re just e-mailing a professor out of interest during application time. Few professors have time to exchange with applicants who have yet to be admitted to their program, especially when they almost always have no say in the decision.</p>
<p>Having to provide the names of professors you’ve corresponded with is not important. I imagine most applicants submit a blank list.</p>
<p>for contacting professors- it depends on the field and the specific program at each school. Some areas (another poster just mentioned CS in another thread) don’t expect it and may discourage it. However, in clinical psych (a field I’m looking at), most schools admit people to work with a specific researcher. It’s unlikely that a researcher would accept an applicant unless they had corresponded in some way, and so sending emails is essential. </p>
<p>zeeber, if your programs are set up so that you are admitted to the program and do rotations, and only after doing a year or so of rotations do you choose an advisor, then I think it’s less necessary to contact researchers. If the program admits you directly into someone’s lab, then contacting may still be a good idea.
It also depends on how many people at each school you want to work with; if the only person you’re interested in at a place is not accepting students, applying itself is pointless. In that situation, contacting professors is a way to figure out if they are accepting students and if applying is worthwhile.</p>
<p>I’m applying exclusively to programs with rotations; it was one of the first things I looked for when I was researching where I wanted to apply. I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t know a whole lot about the admissions process, or how professors feel about correspondence. A lot of them have ignored my letters, or written back the shortest response possible. It has been informative at times though. Several have told me they will indeed have spots in their lab, and a few wrote me back really nice and helpful responses. One in my area actually invited me to come meet him and tour his lab, which was really interesting and at least fun, if not necessarily fruitful. </p>
<p>However, time’s running out pretty fast for Dec 1st deadlines so I may heed both of your advice and focus on polishing up the SOPs. Thanks for the input!</p>
<p>It seems like this thread has been significantly more active in the past years. I wonder if there are less bioscience applicants or if the students this year are less neurotic?</p>
<p>@cellculture: I was wondering the same thing. This year, there seem to be more engineers and social scientists than bioscientists; in the past two years, the opposite was true. I don’t know whether this reflects a change in the general graduate school applicant population or just College Confidential.</p>
<p>The number of applicants certainly hasn’t gone down. At least in my program, it’s doubled.</p>
<p>which program are you in, Kryptonsa?</p>
<p>I think Kryptonsa36 is in Tetrad at UCSF.</p>
<p>Hi CC and fellow applicants, how’s your UCSD pre app went? I received mine yesterday and my jaws dropped when I saw “We regret to infor…” So I wonder if I really have a shot for US state grad school or is it because of UC budget cutoff thingy? My stat is
Int’l student, 1st class from UK, GRE 700v, 800q, 5a, and research exp 2 years full time, 1 summer research (mere 4 months), and now in preparing my first ever to be manuscript. Just in case for Int’l student, my TOEFL goes for 650 (paper based). </p>
<p>As I don’t have any experience of applying to US grad school, all those makes me think if I’m not competitive enough? This pre-app is the very first reply I received for admission to Fall 2011. </p>
<p>Please give your opinion if I really have a shot or is it just no-one-knows kind of adcom’s decision? </p>
<p>Thank you very much</p>
<p>Hello
Seems like additional +70 viewers have nothing to say or they haven’t submitted pre-app or don’t want to let me down by their pre-achievement? I’m open to all opinions…please</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>I am puzzled that you didn’t get past the pre-app stage. My guess is lack of funding for international students. You might have better outcomes with well endowed private universities.</p>
<p>Just curious genome, when did you submit your pre-app? I saw their deadline for int. students was Nov 5.</p>
<p>^What Imm2010 said, which is unfortunate for you, genome, but you should have a good shot at other schools. UCSD with their preapp…</p>
<p>Hello everyone,</p>
<p>I’m an international student majoring in Molecular Biology & Genetics. I’m applying for PhD’s in the US this year, which is a process I am not really familiar with. It would be great if you could give me some insight about my admission chances considering my stats.</p>
<p>GPA: 3.09 in home university (this has a reason, and is explained in my SoP, which I think is strong and reflects my character).
Also did an exchange program at UW in Seattle for a quarter, cGPA:3.33 (3.7 in Bio class and 3.4 in Genome class)
GRE: 480V/800Q/4.0A - TOEFL:108 (27R, 28L, 23S, 30W)
Experience: 3 short-term internships in my home country, all in sophomore year (but I know those are irrelevant for US admission committees)
Junior year, at a lab in my uni. PI was the instructor for a genetics course I took. Worked on an independent project (screened mutations in a disease gene)
Summer: Sanger Institute in Cambridge. Worked on an independent project (selected and screened candidate genes for a disease)
Then took a semester off after my exchange program and did a 5-month internship at Fred Hutch on meiosis, recombination and DSBs in yeast. Both assisted post-docs and worked on independent project.
I have LoRs from all of them and I’m sure that at least the one from Cambridge is stellar.</p>
<p>I’m applying to;
Aiming high - MIT (Biology), Columbia (Gen.&Dev.), JHU Biology
Maybes - University of Washington MCB, NYU Sackler (Dev. Genetics), Mt Sinai (Genome), UT Southwestern, Northwestern IBiS, SUNY Stoony Brook and maybe Baylor and Brown.</p>
<p>What do you think are my chances at those schools? Should I choose a couple more from lower-ranked programs?</p>
<p>Thanks in advance!!</p>
<p>
yes midwest dad, I hope it’s because of the budget, otherwise it seems I have no shot at all.</p>
<p>
Yes, I submitted my pre-app way too ahead of Nov 5 and have been waiting until I received the reply the day before yesterday.</p>
<p>Thanks gclooney for your hopeful words…</p>
<p>Hello gtugce, seems we’re in the same boat except you have exchange experience in UW which could be a bonus for you. I applied to Columbia genetics and dev as well. Good to know there’s also a fellow international applicant to the same program. We can keep track of their decision for int’l. </p>
<p>it struck my mind gt/ugc except e, is that amino codons you’re referring to? I found valine and cystine overlapped. Anyway just a sidetrack. </p>
<p>Finger-crossed!!</p>
<p>I know! I heard it’s insanely competitive for internationals, but I’ll keep my fingers crossed! I’m still trying to cut my SoP down to 500 words. duh.</p>
<p>Haha, it has nothing to do with aminoacids or whatsoever!! g is my first initial and tugce is my middle name. That was an interesting guess though! :)</p>
<p>@genome what is your gpa? I think something might be weird with your application. I can’t understand why you didn’t pass the pre-screen.</p>