Advice for an aspiring biochem researcher

Graduate School
1

<p>My girlfriend is a biochem student in her sophomore year and has been having trouble doing well in her courses--she works very hard, but she's had a terrible education background being a student from Nigeria. At the moment, she's been doing research with a professor for a little over a year (she loves the stuff and always puts in 15+ hrs a week in lab) and should get at least 1 publication by senior year. </p>

<p>What I was hoping to figure out was what would be the wisest route. Since she has a sub 3.0 (~ 2.7-2.8) and may have a 3.0 this semester, should she drop from the biochem major and do something else with a minor in biochemistry. This way, I figure she could do well with easier courses and still get good research done; this would boost her GPA, give her the possibility of a few publications and give her a nice shot at graduate school. </p>

<p>Anyone have any advice? She's pretty set on graduate school, but not right after undergraduate since she won't have the money and she will probably not get a fellowship in a US school. Also, what the job market be for someone that is a biochem major with a 3.0 from a top 10 school vs someone who is a biochem minor and something else for the major?</p>

2

<p>biology programs are looking for diversity. As a nigerian from a top school she should at least have a small leg up. Programs will either fund her, or not accept her, so she shouldn’t worry about the money. It would be helpful if she did well in the upper level classes, since the intro ones tend to be big and have worse curves. But if she has some awesome letters from a set of well known faculty memberes she should be generally okay</p>

3

<p>I’m not sure if diversity would help her out because she is Bulgarian from Nigeria, but she definitely has a few fantastic letters of recommendation. So you recommend her to take upper level courses and then keep with the biochem major, even if she is not going excel?</p>

4

<p>US graduate schools are flooded by international applications. Therefore, the bar is higher for international than for domestic applicants. She definitely needs to raise her GPA above a 3.0 in the sciences, regardless of major.</p>