Admission to PhD at VT or Duke Univ., coming from an unknown, low-ranked MS program?

College Majors Engineering Majors
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<p>I know VT and Duke are very competitive programs, especially in engineering, and especially in their graduate programs. But I was wondering about my chances of getting into these schools (for Biomedical Engineering or Computer Science) with my current and future credentials:</p>

<p>Major in undergraduate school: Molecular Biology
Undergrad school: Tier 1, public, top 100 national university (USNWR)
GPA: ~3.7
GRE**: Verbal: 610. Quant: 660. Writing: 4.5.
Extracurricular: Society of Women Engineers, and that's pretty much it
Grad School: About to attend a no-name school for master's degree ~2 years</p>

<p>Other info: Made one D, three C's in college (It was one really bad semester. I have a good excuse, but not good enough to use as an advantage for admissions.) I retook the course with a D, and passed with flying colors (i.e. A+). The rest was mostly A's and a few B's along the way.</p>

<p>**NB: I plan on retaking the GRE next year when the revised test comes out. Will this help me or hurt me to take a revised test, especially since the scoring is changing. The ETS company is saying that the new test is supposed to be a better indicator of performance in graduate school, so I didn't know if this might help me or hurt me if I were to do better on the revised GRE. What would be the best thing to do here? I'll be asking this question in another part of this forum as well.</p>

<p>Also, I'm planning to start school as a software engineering master's student. I was going to go to another school for biotech, but the department is being really unorganized to the point that I'm completely turned off of going to that school. But to get to the point, the software engineering program I'm about to go into is at an unknown, low-ranked school (It's ranked close to 100 REGIONALLY, not nationally, to give you a good idea). </p>

<p>So, my second question is, if I retake the REVISED version of the GRE next fall, make 4.0 in math and computer science courses in my master's program, start an engineering or science organization at that school (my plan anyways), AND do some sort of research or internship along the way (if I'm lucky enough), DO I HAVE A CHANCE of getting into a PhD program at Duke or VT? Okay, so I'm not so stupid, I know Duke will be a LONG SHOT possibility, but I think maybe I have a shot at VT, but I wanted to know what you guys think! Note that the school I'm going to is NOT a research university, so if I indeed do research, it will have to be somewhere else for a summer or two.</p>

<p>I REALLY want to study Biomedical Engineering at these schools, but in case that doesn't work, I'll likely apply to VT's computer science program and do a master's in BME if they'll let me. I'm really passionate about TissueE.</p>

<p>Thanks :)</p>

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<p>Going to a low ranked school does not spell the end of your academic career. It would be beneficial to go to MIT instead of a low ranked school, but if you do well, show enthusiasm and initiative, and get involved in things you will be able to go far.</p>

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<p>Well your interests are with different fields, yet you have a fundamental draw to biological implications. You want to venture from bio, to software engineering, then maybe bio engineering? Thats kinda hard to do since these are different areas of science that require different areas of core courses (for degree purposes anyways, you can always work in any of these areas). You don’t want a degree in biomedicalE- thats tailored more for devices. Bioengineering is more of a fit if you want to study tissueE (for what its worth, I plan to major in chemE and get a masters in BioMaterials engineering, so I know what you mean).
You can go into the field, just not into the engineering degree option unless you take u some required courses. </p>

<p>You don’t have to have a bioengineering degree to get into tissue engineering. You have a biology degree. I would look at schools programs in the bio and chem dept…not engineering. Many schools have great programs that are not in the engineering department. </p>

<p>Don’t worry about the school so much; narrow your search to specific programs. Do your research and look at specific schools. Sounds like the passion is there, so apply direct to a phD program that fits you. Georgia Tech, William and Mary… there are tons of great schools on the east coast. </p>

<p>Don’t be afraid of your stats. The only thing that might hurt you is lack of research experience. You ARE applying for post grad degrees after all. I personally wouldn’t apply to a software program; bioinformatics is a much better fit if anything. If you have a 3.7 in molecular bio, I am sure top programs would accept you. Pick 10 schools that do research in tissue engineering from a bio or chem perspective. If you can’t get in phD, then apply to a masters program that is known for doing research in bio or chem. </p>

<p>good luck.</p>