<p>We are overdue for this thread, so I'll start it. It would be helpful for others if your stats could be posted along with the schools you're applying to.</p>
<p>[Undergrad. University]
[Undergrad. Major(s)]
[Undergrad GPA]
[Years of Research Experience]
[GRE Scores]
[Prospective Graduate Program]</p>
<h2>[Prospective Graduate Schools]</h2>
<p>Undergraduate: UW-Madison
Major: Molecular Biology, Medical Microbiology and Immunology
GPA: 3.35
Research: 2+ years of research in immunology, 1 pub. hopefully by graduation
GRE: 580V 700Q 5.0A</p>
<p>UCSF
Sloan-Kettering
UT-Southwestern
Weill-Cornell
Northwestern University
University of Minnesota
University of Pittsburgh
NYU - Sackler
Mt. Sinai
University of Alabama - Birmingham
University of Iowa
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Boston University
Tufts University
Medical College of Wisconsin
University of Massachusetts
University of Arkansas</p>
<hr>
<p>If anyone could recommend some schools I might have a chance at, please let me know. My stats are far from superb and I am already applying to a lot of reach schools.</p>
<p>I don’t think this thread is helpful until we start seeing acceptances/rejections. Until then, 60+ pages of random stats is practically useless.</p>
<p>BTW, I got roughly the same GRE score as you and noticed most of those schools on your list are also ones I got unsolicited mail from. LOL! Are you actually applying to all of these or are they just ideas?</p>
<p>Last years thread was started in September. Establishing a few pages of stats would be more helpful than listing your stats everytime you post an interview, acceptance, or rejection.</p>
<p>Yes, I am genuinely interested in all schools I am applying to. Graduate school admissions has gotten very competitive because funding is low, and I am choosing to apply to a lot of schools. </p>
<p>The only schools I am applying to because they sent me mail are UAB and U. Arkansas. I researched their faculty members, and I am interested in their programs and I feel I have a shot at getting an interview at them. I have recieved mail from a lot of the other schools on the list, but I knew long before taking the GRE that I would be applying to their programs. </p>
<p>Also, they are sending you solicited mail because you probably chose to receive mail from schools when you took the GRE. ETS wouldn’t have provided your scores and email to any school if you hadn’t marked that option.</p>
<p>Personally I am guarded and pretty competitive when it comes to this type of information. I see no gain from sharing it with others. A few old timers here have bits and pieces of my stats, but that’s about it.</p>
<p>Undergraduate + Graduate (Masters): Ivy
Major: Math, Biology
GPA: 3.7
Research: 5 years, 1 first author paper + 1 second in Big 3 + 2 middle author
Recs: Strong letters from “household names” in biology
GRE: 680V 780Q 5.5A</p>
<p>Something that might be helpful for those applying in 2012 would be to look at the last several pages of the 2011 thread. Many of the applicants posted their stats and the schools they applied to along with the results (i.e. interview or not; accepted or not). This might help with a lot of the “chance me” type questions.</p>
<p>Why don’t we add some “Initial Statistics” tag to these post so when searching for them it is easy to pick out the posts with statistics rather than searching through what will inevitably become 60 pages before interviews are even offered.</p>
<p>On another note, I am applying next year so I will just sit back and try to gain a little bit of wisdom.</p>
<p>hello all! i applied last year and was addicted to the 2011 thread. just paying it forward.</p>
<p>These are the lessons learned:
APPLY EVERYWHERE EVEN IF YOUR NUMBERS ARE LOW!!! Experience matters more than numbers. I only had a 3.1 GPA, and applied to 25+ schools. At first I thought, ok, maybe something ranked in the 30s is an ok goal. But why not apply to Harvard, Yale, Penn, Cornell, UCSD, Hopkins, UCSF, whevereeeer! etc? You never know and you’ll never know til you try. Fork over the application fee, cus it’s worth it! </p>
<ol>
<li><p>Sometimes it’s random. I got rejected from UC Santa Barbara no interivew, but got into Penn? </p></li>
<li><p>It does not hurt to email professors now indicating your interest. Most will not reply. But some might with a, “if you get an interview you can request me” or “maybe we can chat sometime”. Get your name out there. Can’t hurt, right? Also, you can use a fairly generic email for most professors since you’re casting the net wide.</p></li>
<li><p>Interviews will start to come in around end of December for very competitive applicants for SOME schools only. You will read about people on here who have an interview invite or two at the end of December. It will freak you out. Do not panic over the holidays if you have no interviews. Most people have no interviews. January is the high season and goes until early February. Invitations are extended all the way until beginning of February in my experience. Interview season is roughly Jan 15-March15. </p></li>
<li><p>During the interview, be familiar with the professors at a school you’d like to work with. Reading a mini-description or abstracts suffices for the most part in interviews. Be prepared to answer “Why did you request to interview with me?”</p></li>
<li><p>Wear business attire for interviews. Men, black pants, dress shoes, and a button up. No jacket required. The lowest is khakis and a sweater. Women, slacks, khakis, or skirt, button up or a blouse/ sweater. No super high heels, low cut tops, trendy dresses. Jeans can be worn for most things with students only. </p></li>
<li><p>Watch for skewed statistics. The average time to do a PhD increases every year. Don’t let some programs fool you with 4.5 year or 5 year statistics. They have usually doctored their #s by using the time it takes MD-PhD students to do their PhD work, which is much quicker and not at all representative for you. On average, it’s end of the 6th year. I.e. 6-7 years. maybe 5.5 (which they’ll try to tell you because it sounds closer to 5, but really its closer to 6). </p></li>
<li><p>EVERYONE says their school is collaborative unlike “other” institutions. </p></li>
<li><p>Yes, you can get REJECTED after an interview. People will tell you most get in afterwards, but it varies from school to school. It goes from like 4% (some NIH programs) to almost all getting in post-interview. Especially if at 10am on the first interview day, you’ve decided you really don’t want to go to that school. Thus during the hourlong tour of the mass spec facility you have the MOST annoyed look on your face and are mentally pleading to go home. Advice on that - try to grin and bear it, but if not, just skip out and stay at the hotel. It’s better than having a strained look on your face like this is the most painful thing ever. They do see that. </p></li>
<li><p>How to pick a school? A large quantity of professors you’re genuinely interested in working with. A location you can stand for 7 years. Each decision is personal, but that’s my advice.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I’ll hopefully see some of you during recruitment! Good luck and relax!</p>
<p>Hey everybody, I will continue the thread by posting my stats.</p>
<p>GPA: 3.2
Major: Chemistry and Biology
GRE: 750Q 570V 4AW
GRE Chem: Waiting for scores
Went to a small liberal arts school, were I researched in a lab for the past 9 months, and I have been published as a fourth author on a paper in JBIC. I also TA for general chemistry</p>
<p>Schools applying to:</p>
<p>ASU
U of A
Scripps
USC
UCSF
University of Washington
University of Wisconsin
University of Illinois
Indiana University</p>
<p>First year grad student here, hoping to offer small tidbits of advice and watch another round of admissions…</p>
<p>This thread is evil, and I encourage you to stay off it at as much as possible. However, I will make one comment on the timing with which interview candidates are notified. In general, programs tend to notify around the same time each year. So if you look at past year’s threads, you can probably get a good sense of when the programs you are applying to should announce. I got most of mine in the 2nd and 3rd week of January, with one coming early (December 17th or something) and one coming at the end of January. People also like to keep their hopes up and say that “another round of interview notifications is coming,” but in my experience I found this to be very rare (the exception for me was Princeton Molecular Biology. I saw some invites go out and I assumed I was not being invited, but I got a phone call a few weeks later).</p>
<p>I honestly had a blast with interviews; the activities were all really fun, ranging from a murder mystery to a wine tasting to a dive bar to dinner at a professor’s home. And it’s an awesome opportunity to network and meet a lot of professors at different schools. And explaining your research over and over again to the professors you interview with helps you become more comfortable talking about it. So just try to stay cool and not stress too much.</p>
<p>Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.</p>
<p>Finishing up my undergrad. at a large, top 10 research institution
Biochemistry major
3.7 GPA
167V (98%), 165Q(93%), 4.0W (48%)
2+ years of research in Neuroscience lab, published as co-author on 1 paper
~10 months of research in Biochem/Biophys lab. PI is well-known.
3 Letters of recommendation from my 2 PIs, and an additional from a Chemistry professor I have worked under for nearly 2 years (but not doing research). All letters should be good because each professor knows me personally.</p>
<p>Applying to biochemistry, cell, and molecular biology programs
Applying to:
Northwestern University
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Johns Hopkins University
Harvard University
Yale University
Stanford University
University of Washington
University of California, Berkeley
CalTech
UPenn</p>
<p>Potential weaknesses: my third letter of rec. is from a chemistry prof, GRE writing score is low (not too worried about it though), my publication is a not explicitly related to biochemistry.</p>
<p>Question for you guys: How specific are guys being about your research interests in your Statement of Purpose? Is it specific to a research area (ie. Autoimmunity, Cancer Immunology) or specific to faculty members? I was thinking about keeping general to the point of talking about experimental approaches (ie. molecular immunology, signaling, etc.).</p>
<p>I hope denizen isn’t in my cohort… I went pretty general on my statement. Didn’t mention faculty unless specifically asked in the application. Best of luck!</p>