<p>Just wanted to start up a thread for people who are applying to biological/biomedical sciences PhD programs this fall (i.e. where are you applying, stats, talk about interviews, etc.). There seem to be a fair amount of older isolated threads about this but I figured the forum could use a new one for this fall. </p>
<p>I am applying this fall to a bunch of programs (UCSD, Scripps, MIT, Harvard, Berkeley, Stanford, UCSF, Penn, Yale). </p>
<p>Stats:</p>
<p>top 10 university
3 years research experience
biology + anthropology major
3.6 GPA
GRE: 800Q/740V/still waiting on writing score in mail</p>
<p>Hey tvgradschool, I think this is a great idea :)</p>
<p>I am also applying to the same bunch of schools except for UCSD. My stats are:</p>
<p>3 yrs research experience in one lab, 2 years in another, 1 summer internship
molecular and cellular biology major with minor in Chemistry
4.00 GPA
GRE: 780Q/570V/5.0
PS: I am an international student studying in the US :)</p>
<p>This would be really helpful if more bio students join in this forum :D</p>
<p>to my knowledge all of those schools are "fall admission only" and they all have deadlines around early december. I am taking the GRE subject test but I think I will probably only submit the scores to 1-2 schools (Harvard, MIT, Stanford all say it is not required for the specific programs that I am applying to). The director of grad admissions at my undergrad school said that the GRE subject test is probably the least important aspect of an application, so I think as long as you don't do really poorly on it it is not a big deal.</p>
<p>I am considering graduating a year early and doing a thesis masters program.</p>
<p>Would be applying to Cornell (Animal Science), Tufts (Biology), Wake Forest (Biology), and William & Mary (Biology). Maybe Northwestern (Plant Biology) but unlikely since no stipend...</p>
<p>Credentials:
Major in cell/molecular biology, minor in chemistry at Duke
3.65 GPA, 3.63 Major GPA
1440 GRE (780Q/660V/5.0AW)
2nd year independent study in developmental genetics lab
1 summer internship in diagnostic medicine/pathology (institutional publication)
research experiences in organic chemistry and nuclear physics
assistant in plant-microbe genetics lab and in cryptogamic herbarium</p>
<p>Is there some reason that you don't want to apply to PhD programs? Your stats are good enough to get in at a lot of places. Biology masters degrees are really only good if you want to be a high school teacher (or maybe if you want to apply to med school after you finish it). Its definitely harder to get funded for a masters as well. You might also want to look into submatriculating into duke's masters program in bio (if they have one). I know that you can do this at some schools.</p>
<p>Yes, I am not sure whether I want to eventually get an M.D. or a Ph.D. so I'm considering an M.S. first. I think it will help me to better focus in on what I want to do than staying an additional year in undergrad. Duke doesn't have a masters program in biology so I'm looking into other places. You are right in that there is limited funding for the masters. These schools that I looked into all have tuition remission + stipend (with the exception of NW which is only tuition).</p>
<p>Hey guys! I just finalized my decision of schools to apply to, so I'm really excited that this place exists for me to talk about it with other people.</p>
<p>Here's the schools I'm applying to:
UChicago (Mol. biosciences), UWashington (MCB), UC-Berkeley (MCB), Harvard (MCB/GGT), NYU (Sackler Open Program or Developmental Genetics), UWisconsin (CMB), Yale (BBS, MCGD), and UPenn (CAMB).</p>
<p>Here are my stats:
Goldwater scholar
Majored in biology with 3.97/4.0 GPA at liberal arts college
GRE 790Q (92%), 740V (99%), 5.0AWA
Biochemistry subject GRE 700 (96%)</p>
<p>I spent 4 months researching fungal phylogenetics at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, in an internship funded by the Dept. of Energy. I have been researching in a lab at my school for 2 years. I've spoken at one small conference in the main session, 2 undergraduate conferences, and had a poster at the ASM meeting. I have a published abstract in a small rinky-dink journal, and I have a paper in Genetics that has been accepted pending review.</p>
<p>At this point, I think UChicago is my top choice, but I would LOVE to get into Washington.</p>
<p>EDITED TO ADD: Hey Lee - you do know that if you go to a PhD program, and then fail, they give you an MS as a consolation prize...Master's degrees aren't really worth too much in biomedical sciences for that reason. Why not just apply for a PhD at a school you really want to go to, then if you change your mind, you could leave with your masters. But don't say that in the interview! :)</p>
<p>Well, these are my stats:
GPA: 4.0
GRE: 800Q/790V/4.5AW</p>
<p>I go to an unknown school in Missouri, and it does not have very many opportunities for research. This summer, however, I was part of the Summer Internship Program at Johns Hopkins. I'm part of the Honors Program at my school, and we are required to do a senior thesis before we graduate, so I will have that too. </p>
<p>The schools I'm applying to are Johns Hopkins (BCMB), Gerstner Sloan-Kettering (Cancer Biology), UPenn (CAMB), Harvard (Virology), and maybe MD Anderson (Cancer Biology). UPenn is my first choice, though. Looks like I will have some stiff competition!</p>
<p>hi buffkitten, yes haha i know that. I'm not sure whether I want an M.D. or a Ph.D. at this point. I've been talking to a PI at Cornell and it seems to be working out there in terms of research and funding. I think I will start with the M.S. and if I decide to get a Ph.D. will see if I can just stick around and do it there, or if I change my mind and end up going for the M.D., no hard feelings either way :)</p>
<p>off topic, but i'm currently a junior who wants to apply to graduate school in molecular biology. i'm applying to the Howard Hughes Undergraduate Research Program. i've heard that it's a really prestigious undergraduate program (as it should be, since it's under HHMI). does anyone know how much of a boost it will give for someone applying to grad school?</p>
<p>Not that much. It will come down to your other research and recommendations. Its more of a program to get underrepresented minorities exposed to research and produce something tangible (a poster). Think of it more as a springboard to hopefully more significant work when you go back to school.</p>
<p>are you sure that that's what the Howard Hughes program is aimed at, specifically? i ask because there are other programs that are more geared toward underrepresented minorities, since they specifically say so in the application. i was under the impression that the Howard Hughes program was strictly based on merit and highly competitive.</p>
<p>to what extent have you guys been targeting specific professors at your schools of choice vs. just targeting good overall programs in specific fields (i.e. genetics). What do you guys think about talking to professors during the application process at schools (like harvard for example) with nearly 1000 PI's. Any thoughts on whether or not this is worthwhile. I know this is important at a smaller program, but it seems kind of silly at a large program like Harvard/Stanford/Berkeley.</p>
<p>I can tell you that for Harvard's BBS program, contacting a faculty member would make absolutely no difference -- the program has so many participating faculty members that we don't even interview because of the logistics. </p>
<p>Personally, I didn't contact professors when I applied. I felt that, in the absence of a truly compelling reason for contact, the correspondence would be useless.</p>