<p>U Guelph aint rlly all that impressive for Biomedical.</p>
<p>In the bio dept, it's better for more environmental stuff--in this regard it's prolly the best school in Canada. I'm no expert anyways.</p>
<p>I'm rlly just goin on wuts commonly known here.</p>
<p>The thing is it is ALOT easier getting loads of research experience in schools like UofT and McGill because they're surrounded by quite a few research institutes. Getting research experience right outta 1st yr of undergrad is possible--although unlikely.</p>
<p>So being a student at UofT should help in getting into top notch grad schools in the states.</p>
<p>Just curious. I doubt there's any clearcut answer for this but how much would a publication help me out? Possibly a 2nd or 3rd authorship on a paper. I have no clue how impactful the paper may be but this project does seem fairly important because our genetics department has collaborated with the chem engineering and they had to pull quite a few strings to get the funding for this---although my lab is obscenely loaded--they're swimming in cash.</p>
<p>In addition, I'm a summer student working with a more experienced summer student and we're both working under a moderate degree of guidance from a senior lab tech and my PI. What's the likelihood that I'd get 1st or 2nd author?</p>
<p>Bah. It's prolly best not to worry bout this.</p>
<p>Publication can be very helpful, particularly if you're publishing in a high-impact journal. But even if it's not a publication in a high impact journal, authorship is useful, if only because the vast majority of applicants don't have authorship.</p>
<p>
[quote]
In addition, I'm a summer student working with a more experienced summer student and we're both working under a moderate degree of guidance from a senior lab tech and my PI. What's the likelihood that I'd get 1st or 2nd author?
[/quote]
This depends entirely on your individual PI's policies on student authorship. Every lab decides differently how they will allocate credit for work accomplished. For example, my undergrad PI allowed technicians to be authors, but my grad school PI doesn't.</p>
<p>Hmmm. GPA always comes to mind when I feel grad school anxiety.</p>
<p>I'm just about finished my 2nd yr summer research proj. in my genomics and proteomics laboratory and I definitely enjoyed it. However, I had an organic chem class and hadta miss work for almost 2weeks to prep for my tests. This has left me sorta behind when it comes to my research and I needta finish the 2nd stage of my proj. Reason bein this second stage is fairly relevant and in the event this leads to a paper, it may be the diff b/w gettin 2nd/3rd authour or less. I've also been applying to labs as a volunteer during my 3rd yr. I think I've landed a spot with my ideal PI which could be great news. This will also lead into a 3rd yr summer proj as well--makin for even better news. So I'm goin on fairly smoothly as far as research is concerned. I'll prolly get 3 strong letters of reference from 3 different PIs all in fields of research very relevant to what I plan to pursue.</p>
<p>However, my MAIN question is this--Will 1st sem 4th yr grades factor into grad school admissions? I know admissions in the states are fairly early (earlier than in Canada and the final marks come in late December for us). I also heard the depts usually care only for ur last 2yrs or so worth of creds and they tend to pay more attention to the relevant classes. </p>
<p>Needless to say 1st and 2nd yr didn't work out as I planned and my GPA floats very close to a 3.5. S </p>
<p>I'd also like to know how much the reputation of ur undergrad dept matters. UofT is the largest research university in Canada along with McGill and is def top notch in Biomed research. However, I wonder how relevant that is.</p>
<p>wow, is it really that much harder for international students to study in the us?</p>
<p>also, can you really be picky about what journal you publish in as an undergrad? i mean, impact factor is something that experienced scientists need to think about - undergrads should be happy to even have their name on a paper, right?</p>
<p>None of the schools to which I applied asked for an update for first semester senior year grades. Actually, I was offered a few interviews before my first semester senior year grades were even available.</p>
<p>I had to submit a final transcript to the program I decided to attend, in order to prove that I had actually completed my bachelor's degree.</p>
<p>Rockefeller's incoming classes usually consist of 40-50% international students. The following is from Rockefeller's website:</p>
<p>"Recruit the best students, regardless of citizenship. International diversity is both intellectually and culturally stimulating. Our global approach is possible since we have significant private support for our students. Our current student population consists of approximately 200 students from 31 countries."</p>
<p>UofT is not easily the best biomed research university in Canada according to any ranking (in fact it's 4th in the national medical-doctoral rankings) but I'm not debating research output, and I'm not saying this to offend you, I know your school is great and you're a good student, but you come off as being a bit too arrogant. It's not at all just the name. You seem to dismiss places like Mount Sinai and Cold Spring Harbor whereas they're some of the most respected institutions in your field of study. And maybe you should sort out what your planning to study first, in some ecology/genetics research for example Queen's > Uoft, McGill and UBC. In many health/life sci. programs McMaster really stands out, as does UWO oncology. In the US there's UCSD, UMich etc... that stand out to anyone in the field of neuroscience (my field), particularly cog/behavioural. What about Duke, Baylor College of Medicine and Caltech? Some of the big public universities like UT Austin, Illinois, Wis. Madison, UWash - Seattle (gets tons of funding in these fields), Berkeley? Toronto is a paper mill institution (it built its reputation on research output with the help of 74000 students), you will hardly get the kind of fundemental science research you get in good public univ.s in the States, in most dept.s there or anywhere else in Canada for that matter, so even they are an upgrade. So keep an open mind and look for the dept. / faculty member who will be the upgrade, not just the school's name... A good friend of mine did his undergrad in Toronto and is doing/did his grad in McGill and Toronto in neuroethology, he would give anything to be in a similar group/department at Queen's. Why? His supervisor who was formerly at Princeton is a dick, old as f-, and barely takes the time to talk to him, he has been working on his PhD (upon receiving his MSc.) for 5 years... And I know of people who have done much better for themselves in Concordia and York, one of which is doing his postdoc @ Harvard. Science is complicated business, so many of Harvard's faculty is made up of people from much less known universities, and at the end of the day your individual qualities will hopefully be worth a lot more than the name of your univ. :)</p>
<p>
[quote]
Just curious. I doubt there's any clearcut answer for this but how much would a publication help me out? Possibly a 2nd or 3rd authorship on a paper.
[/quote]
Other posters seem sure that this would help your application, but here's my two cents. As a second or third author (and a former lab member) you won't prepare much of the manuscript. Regardless of whether the work is published, there will be very little difference in the quantity, quality, and type of research experience you have received because you won't be involved in the writing process. Paper or no paper, you did publication-quality research and your PI will say so in your recommendation letter.
[quote]
In addition, I'm a summer student working with a more experienced summer student and we're both working under a moderate degree of guidance from a senior lab tech and my PI. What's the likelihood that I'd get 1st or 2nd author?
[/quote]
One way to answer that is to ask yourself, "Who is holding all the data?" If it's not you, then you can't write the manuscript, so you're not the first author. You really should discuss this with your PI. Ask about the timeline for publication and make it clear that you would like to at least have a role in preparing the manuscript. This would be a good conversation to have right after outlining the last few experiments needed to round out the project.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Well at better schools I'll have more reputable proffs to choose from.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Not always. There are random universities that end up with the leading lights in particular subfields. "Better schools" is not a clear-cut concept in grad school. Also, it's not just the reputation of your advisor that matters, it's how good of an advisor they are. I have a lot of friends in grad school, and I've heard stories of students with openly abusive advisors, advisors who steal their students' work, advisors who deliberately delay their students' graduation by years because they (the advisors) have problems with separation anxiety, advisors who put their students to work on dead-end projects and sabotage their careers...it doesn't do you much good to have a prestigious advisor if they're a <em>bad</em> advisor.</p>
<p>I never dismissed UCSD, UMich, Baylor, UWash or Caltech. I just didn't bother writing them in. I'm pretty sure i wrote 'etc.' I know they're all great schools.</p>
<p>I dunno but I get the impression many of the cali schools take very few internationals. If that is the case, i prolly won't apply.</p>
<p>Its not as if I haven't skimmed thru the departmental webpages from these universities.</p>
<p>Most departments have many faculty to choose from and I risk the chance of an ******* PI no matter what university I attend. It isn't as if I know for certain the PI i'll be workin with prior to applications.</p>
<p>it's much more expensive for state schools to have non-citizens since non-citizens can't establish residency in the state. The California schools expect all US students to become residents of California by the second year, drastically decreasing the amount of tuition that is charged (and that they need to pay). Also the schools have relatively small endowments since they are funded by the state and depend more on NIH training grants than other schools might.</p>
<p>MasterMoe have you tried applying for an NSERC grant? (I study in the US so what I'm telling you might not be terribly accurate, look into it though) I believe if you can find a university with a faculty member that really stands out (that you have made contact with), or some really advanced medical lab and somehow manage to convince the committee that this is very important and will change your life (and of course write up something about how this will benefit Canada or mankind/ try not to come off as being too selfish) they might pay your salary. Funding yourself so that your supervisor doesn't have to dip into his own funds will make a huge difference! I believe the deadline is Oct. 15, good luck!</p>
<p>Outside of the US, McGill certainly has a very good international rep. in the life and health sciences. I think that paired with the importance of working/studying in different environments (and getting to know your supervisor beforehand) makes it an attractive alternative. If you have a 3.6 you shouldn't have a problem, for either university (UofT and McGill, and for many of the American universities you mentioned, paired with good GRE scores of course), but again, it depends on the program and the strength of applicants for that year (this is of course true for both Canadian and US schools). A lot of these universities also look for a minimum of one year's (full time) research. A 3.6 will also guarantee placement in one of Oxford's taught MSc. programs, not necessarily considered terminal degrees, but studying there will give you the oppurtunity of being mentored, which you might not get at a large research oriented Canadian university and of course open many doors to you in the future. It's also worth applying to the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, a very well known institution in these fields, its postgrad research program is excellent because you have a lot of say in what you'll study and work on.</p>
<p>Does anybody know how that works? Does a tuition bill get generated and sent to the department, where an administrator writes a check and sends it off to the registrar? or is tuition more of a hypothetical thing?</p>
<p>My baymate has had some issues with her department paying her tuition, so for a while she had a multi-thousand dollar tuition bill from the registrar's office and had to do some banging down doors to get everything squared away.</p>
<p>MM I just looked it up. The really good one is the Canada Graduate Scholarship and it will get you 35000 a year. Since I'm a Canadian citizen I could apply but unfortunately I haven't "obtained a first-class average (a grade of "A-") in each of the last two completed years of study (full-time equivalent)."</p>
<p>When depts say the subject test is recommended or strongly recommended, will it work to my disadvantage if I don't send my subject test scores? I assume every dept works differently. Any general rules of thumb when applying to schools that say the subject test is recommended.</p>
<p>I most likely wont do the subject test cuz frankly I don't want to study for it.</p>
<p>Since I understand applying to and visiting lots of schools is stressful (although I don't expect to get interviews to most of the schools), I think it would be best to limit myself to schools that at the very least have a decent track record for taking internationals.</p>
<p>I have wondered this myself...how important are the subject tests? Are they important if you did well on them eg will they be a positive factor or simply not a negative one? I have heard that subject test scores are important for applying to fellowships, is this still true?</p>