<p>@erbbie3: Thank you! Good luck to you as well!</p>
<p>@trickster31: Thanks! I don’t think publications matter as much as just showing evidence that you were significantly involved in a long-term research project somewhat related to your field of interest.</p>
<p>@Elocin: The ETS says up to five business days for processing. Sometimes schools will be delayed in updating the status of your materials. I wouldn’t worry too much.</p>
<p>Undergraduate: NYU
Major: Architecture and Urban Design
GPA: 3.65</p>
<p>Grad Major: Public Health
Grad GPA: 4.0</p>
<p>Years Research Experience: </p>
<p>1 year in a prestigious pathology lab: no papers or anything; just pure experience driven</p>
<p>Past 1.5 years in a lab with a focus on molecular epidemiology / epigenetics: 3 poster presentations, two 1st author papers in preparation, one 2nd author paper in review</p>
<p>3+ years of public health (more clinical) research. One poster presentation, one middle author paper.</p>
<p>Recommendations:
two extremely strong letters: one from leading figurehead in public health, another from current PI (full professor; doing a very coveted type of research).</p>
<p>The 3rd is good, yet not the best (from a rising collaborator of ours).</p>
<p>GRE Scores: V 160, Q 158, W 6.0</p>
<p>Prospective Graduate Programs:</p>
<p>Rockefeller
Columbia Mailman - Environmental Sciences
Cornell Weill
NYU - Biology; Washington Square Campus
Harvard: Biological Sciences in Public Health
Loyola
UPenn
Boston College
Boston University School of Public Health - Environmental Science
Mount Sinai
Northwestern DGP</p>
<p>Didn’t want to hide this in my previous post - received an interview invite from Mount Sinai today for mid-January.</p>
<p>Wow! This is really not the place to be if you’re stressed/worried. Read a book, PG Wodehouse, if I may suggest.</p>
<p>Congratulations ulysses40!</p>
<p>lol my apps aren’t even due yet and people are already getting interviews.</p>
<p>Some wisdom I found while scouring last year’s Admission and Interviews Thread</p>
<p>Quoting BMC2011:</p>
<p>Hey Everyone,</p>
<p>I applied to graduate school last year (was addicted to this forum btdubs), and am currently a first year graduate student in the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Just for the record, I love the place–it was in all honesty the only school I really really wanted to go to (although I loved a lot of the other places I got into).</p>
<p>First, I’d like to say that I went to a small liberal arts college and to any applicants out there who are secretly freaking out that having gone small liberal arts will hurt their chances: STOP IT. I worried about this constantly during the application process as everyone else seemed to come from an Ivy or a huge research university…but I ended up getting in everywhere I applied. Your ability to talk about your lab work and meaningful contributions you have made matters more than anything. That is what you will be judged on.</p>
<p>Second, GPA and GREs do matter. They are not unimportant. I know way too many people who think that if their research is great, it will totally make up for suck ass record. I know a couple of people who have won interviews based on purely impressive research as some schools take chances but in the end, you are a package and every aspect of that package reflects on your ability to survive grad school. Point: There is no way that GPA and GREs can get you into a school…but they can keep you out.</p>
<p>Third, I had all of my interviews (Yale, Princeton, Penn, UChicago, Duke, Chapel Hill, 4 departments at Hopkins, IU) two days before Christmas. I had my acceptances to programs that don’t interview (Harvard) by mid-January. Schools usually give interviews in two or three tiers. I knew people who were still hearing from Duke and Chapel Hill well into January. Don’t panic. Do not call the school a million times…THEY WILL NOT TELL YOU. Wait for the call, and sit patiently. Everyone else is going through the same thing.</p>
<p>Fourth, please don’t be that guy on the interview. Maybe you’ll win a Nobel Prize one day…but you don’t have to let everyone know. Also, be warned that if the current students think you’re an *******, they will tell the administrators and program heads–this can seriously affect your chances. So be nice, be social, and don’t do anything really stupid.</p>
<p>Fifth, sell yourself. I went into every interview telling myself to take the approach that said school was my top and only choice. I was passionate about the school and why I wanted to be there. I also made the point very firmly that a PhD in the biomedical sciences is the only thing I have ever wanted to do with my life–I’ve had successes and I’ve had huge failures in the lab but this is my path. I am going to finish the degree. From various sources, I’ve heard that showing absolute committment to grad school and getting the degree is really helpful.
Btdubs, if you have a research mentor that is a role model for you…talk that person up. What you’ve learned from them, how they influenced you to apply for a PhD. It’s a good talking point.</p>
<p>Sixth, let the PIs talk as much as they want in the interview. Some love to tell you about their research–it’s cool and it uses up some time if you’ve run out of things to discuss.</p>
<p>Sorry I am an ******* rambler. This is it for now. Feel free to ask questions!!! </p>
<p>/endquote</p>
<p>Hope this helps everyone!</p>
<p>I suppose I’ll stop lurking. >_></p>
<p>[Undergrad. University] Small public institution, very little research conducted
[Undergrad. Major(s)] Biology
[Undergrad GPA] 3.86, though I anticipate around 3.89 by semester’s end. 4.0 major.</p>
<p>[Years of Research Experience] 1.5 of independent study doing mostly ligation/transformation work, plus a summer program working with a gammaherpesvirus (cell cultures, miRNA work, and rtPCR).
[GRE Scores] 162V (89%) 165Q (92%) 5.0AW (92%)</p>
<p>[Prospective Graduate Schools]
Harvard - Virology
University of Washington - Pathobiology and Microbiology
UC Davis - Microbiology
UC Denver - Anschutz Medical Campus - Biomedical Sciences Program</p>
<p>I would’ve applied to more programs, but applications are expensive and I’m quite poor. :P</p>
<p>Good luck, everyone!</p>
<p>The majority of my research is at a molecular genetics lab working with maize. I also worked at a pheromone/signalling lab in C. elegans. Considering that I’ve applied to mostly biomedical programs, do you think this will hurt my chances since my research does not really pertain to medical field?</p>
<p>@biotechstudent: If you have good reasons why you want to obtain a Ph.D. in biomedical sciences and explain these well in your SOP, i see no point why your lack of research experience related to biomedical problems should hurt you. I mean, you have research experience in general. It’s easier to dig into biomedical literature and catch up on that knowledge than to gain hands-on experience in molecular biology/biochemistry/etc.</p>
<p>@biomed89- yeah I figured, thanks for reassuring me!</p>
<p>@Ulysses40, which graduate programs are you applying to? I don’t mean the school but the field you are proposing to study. I wasn’t sure if it was public health or biology.</p>
<p>
There are a lot of PIs in biomedical sciences programs doing work that’s not directly clinically or medically relevant. Often the differences between a basic science PhD program located in an arts and sciences division and a biomedical science PhD program located at the medical school of the same university are subtle, at most. Nobody will blink an eye if your research experience isn’t “translational” enough.</p>
<p>@BambooPanda</p>
<p>I should have been more explicit - sorry for the confusion.</p>
<p>Rockefeller - biomed sciences
Columbia Mailman - Environmental Science; while within a school of public health, this PhD is more biologically based
Cornell Weill - pharmacology
NYU - Biology; Washington Square Campus
Harvard: Biological Sciences in Public Health
Loyola: molecular biology
UPenn: biomed sciences
Boston College: biology
Boston University School of Public Health - Environmental Science
Mount Sinai: microbiology, genetics
Northwestern DGP; biomed sciences</p>
<p>[Undergrad. University]- Top 10 Liberal Arts
[Undergrad. Major(s)]- Molecular Biology
[Undergrad GPA]- 3.40
[Years of Research Experience]- 3 summers in biotech and senior thesis in graduate lab
[GRE Scores] 166Q 161V 5.0AW
[Prospective Graduate Program] Biomedical Sciences, Molecular Biology
[Prospective Graduate Schools]
UCSF
UCLA
UCSD
UC Davis
UC Berkeley
UNC
Sloan-Kettering</p>
<p>I had a question to pose as well. My GPA is a little low for a lot of these programs, however, my upper-division GPA is 3.9. How will that affect my standing at selective schools, if at all? Thanks.</p>
<p>@SOD7247</p>
<p>I’m assuming that your upper-division courses were taken later in your undergrad, and that they were in the sciences. If that’s the case it should help you out because admissions committees consider an upward trend in grades and at scores specific to the sciences when reviewing transcripts.</p>
<p>Thanks. Any chance they’ll send out interview offers before the holidays? Anyone know what they’ve done historically?</p>
<p>@SOD7247</p>
<p>Yes, it’s pretty common for there to be a decent number of interview offers sent before the holidays. A very small number of people already have interview offers, but it depends partially on the schools you’re applying to.</p>
<p>I see people already got interview offer from UNC-chapel hill (BBSP) today</p>
<p>Did you luck out MicroB? I applied to UNC BBSP but haven’t heard from them myself. My app didn’t show as complete (all materials matched) until this week though.</p>