<p>Hi all. I'm applying to grad school this year for a pHD and I need to figure out a way to improve my application suite.</p>
<p>Despite getting rejected from a lot of the higher tier schools I applied to last year, I got in to Irvine and USC (albeit for master's), but I realized the research that I really want to do (gut microbiota and microecology) are at places like WashU, Caltech, NYU, Mich, etc. Basically, places where my GPA just isn't going to cut it. </p>
<h2>stats</h2>
<p>School: UC Berkeley</p>
<p>Major: Microbial Biology and Immunology (BS and BA, respectively)</p>
<p>Minor: Integrative Biology</p>
<p>GPA: 3.10/4.00 cumulative</p>
<p>Past 4 semester GPA's in chronological order: 3.0, 3.1, 3.0, 3.2</p>
<p>GRE: 750Q, 710V, 5.0 analytical, 760 biology</p>
<p>extracurricular: not a whole lot. I did a lot of volunteering for local science olympiad stuff (coached a few events), tutored, helped run a de-Cal (Cal student run course) about invasive species.</p>
<p>Experience: Lots and lots of lab experience worked in 2 NIH labs for my first two college summers (oncology and cell dev bio), UCSF (immunology), Cal (microecology and zoology), and currently in two UCSD labs (bioengineering and immunology). This is my one strongest point, but I don't have anything to show for it besides letters of rec. I came close to publishing twice, but no cigar.</p>
<p>Motivation for Grad School: Literally it has just never been a question. I love science and I could not see myself doing anything else. I'd like to say something about making teh world a better place or having grand aspirations of forwarding knowledge, but that's just not true. I simply love what I do. How do I get this across without sounding like a sycophant? </p>
<h2>Research Interests: everything biology. In particular immune tolerance and gi microecology.</h2>
<p>What I'm worried about: a lot of my crappy grades come from relevant classes like org chem, gen bio, bioinformatics, etc. </p>
<p>The problem here is that I spent most of my college life having to fly up and down the coast to help with a pretty terrible family situation (had to take care of cousins while my parents and their parents weren't home), plus working two jobs and lab research. I would do well on the tests, but ended up missing a lot of stuff (deadlines, homework, lab quizzes) because I was all out of sorts. Obviously, this is my responsibility and my lack of production is no ones fault but my own. I did improve from sub 3 to above 3 in my later semesters as I tried to get more focused, but I simply didn't put enough time into my classes. This situation hasn't gotten much better, but my uncle moved back from Taiwan, so it's not my problem anymore, hopefully.</p>
<p>BUT: I am very good at what I do. I know for a fact that I can devote myself to grad school and I have the intellect to compete with the best.</p>
<p>How do I explain this in essays? Or do I at all? I don't want to sound whiny.</p>
<p>Also: my letters of rec are largely from postdocs or grad students because my PIs have, by luck, been very uninvolved. Should I ask for PI recs instead? I tried, and they were very clear that they would be happy to write positive recommendations, but they would only write what they observed, which was very little.</p>
<p>Anything I can do to improve my chances of landing in a good program?</p>