Biosciences: Application information (old results thread)

Graduate School
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<p>Here it goes guys:
Undergraduate School and Major: University of Wisconsin - Madison, Medical Microbiology & Immunology
GPA: 3.35 (3.70 Major)
GRE: 750Q, 700V, 5.0 AW
Possibly taking Bio GRE
Research: Will have a total of 4 years research experience by the time applications are submitted in 3 labs. 4 months at a Biopharmeceutical Sciences lab at UCSF. 1 1/2 years at a microbiology/molecular biology lab at UW-Madison. 1 1/2 years at an Immunology lab at NIH/NIAID under the IRTA program.
LoR: 1 from UWMadison PI, 1 from NIH PI, 2 from professors/advisers</p>

<p>I know… I know… my GPA is a bit on the low side. However, that can be attributed to my first semester in college – trying to jam everything into morning classes (Calc II at 7:45 everyday isn’t by any means enjoyable, neither is Advanced Chem right after) and trying to continue with time intensive varsity sport (crew). Ever since then its been just a rocket ship.</p>

<p>List of schools:
Sloan-Kettering
Cornell Weill
Columbia
UPenn
UNC
UW - Madison
UCSF</p>

<p>Question: Am I overreaching with these schools? What other schools should I consider adding to my list? (I’m looking seriously into Immunology/Cell Signaling). Any pieces of advise you’ve heard about these places? I was wondering if anyone knew the statistics of Sloan-Kettering successes?</p>

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<p>Jeez if you’re overreaching, most of the rest of us are screwed. You’re fine.</p>

<p>You went to a well known school. Your major GPA is high. Your GRE scores are solid. You have a lot of research experience. </p>

<p>If you are writing the biology GRE, you might want to consider applying to TSRI. If I’m not mistaken, they have a strong immunology background–unless I’m mistaking them for a different school.</p>

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<p>hi guys!</p>

<p>another canadian here :)…also from u of t</p>

<p>so my profile:
major: molecular genetics, minor in math
cGPA: 3.6/4.0 but yrs 2+3 (aka last 2 years with reported grades) is 3.8/4.0 (i transferred from a different faculty and lost some good 1st year grades on account of getting just the credit, and also gained some pretty crappy summer school marks onto my cGPA trying to catch up after first year)
programs of interest: genetics/development, cancer biology
GRE: 620V (89th %ile)/790Q (92nd %ile)/waiting AW
GRE subject: not taking
Research/work experience: 2nd year summer - molgen lab, v. respectable PI; 3rd year school - worked in a teaching lab, developed some protocols that are in use in these teaching labs; 3rd year summer - neural stem cell lab, won a poster presentation symposium day; current - 4th year thesis in a very reputable cancer mechanisms lab…also have several years of tutoring experience, both paid and volunteer (think this might be appealing for the whole TAing/teaching aspect of grad school)
Publications: none (may be hoping for some, but def not in time for applications)
LOR: debating…going to speak to a professor soon about advice on this…but basically can count on strong references from all 3 of my PIs, a GLOWING reference form a prof who no longer does research but has MANY prominent publications in his field (but he’s only taught me/known me personally, not in work experience), or a strong, very personal reference from a postdoc i used to work with (he is currently a PI; was named one of Science’s “Research Highlights of 2007”)…what do you guys think about who I should ask for letters?
Schools:
UCSF
UC Berkeley
Stanford
Columbia</p>

<p>Short list, I know, but i am not too interested in much else. i am also applying to U of T (as a “backup”, I guess…although I’d be happy to stay here, I just think a change of location may be good for my personal development)</p>

<p>question is - am i being insanely unrealistic in applying to 50% public californian schools?? is my list completely unrealistic in general? i’m considering adding uchicago to the list, but aside from that, i’m not REALLY drawn to any other schools, so don’t see the point in applying to them…</p>

<p>any people around this forum who applied last year and made it to interviews/got in? what were your profiles like? do you know what your main selling points were?</p>

<p>also - i’ve heard some schools may do rolling admissions - is this true? will i be at a severe disadvantage if i don’t plan on submitting my complete applications until november? </p>

<p>oh - forgot to add - not guaranteed, but pretty confident i will bring NSERC funding…but this is only valued at 17 500 CAD…will this make a difference? and any advice on how to incorporate this into my applications, considering it’s not a certainty (NSERC doesn’t publish their lists till march, but based on stats i’d say i have a much better chance of getting this funding than getting into the schools i’m applying to :slight_smile: )</p>

<p>thanks guys!</p>

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<p>ol another UofTer… and a fellow MolGen student as well. Small world.</p>

<p>First off, your stats are stellar.</p>

<p>ANYways… I don’t think you stated which field you were going for.</p>

<p>4 schools seems like too few to me. It seems perplexing why you would only apply to those schools. Even though you have great stats, the UCs tend to take just about no international students. Unless you get that NSERC funding, your best bet is to assume the UC schools won’t take you. The Cali schools are doing pretty poorly these days with funding and grad school stipends suck balls in Cali when one considers the cost of living.</p>

<p>I would STRONGLY suggest adding a few more schools to that list.</p>

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<p>@ MasterMoe: Thanks! Yeah, TSRI looks very interesting and I might as well apply – it is a free application. I was just worried that my general GPA was a bit low. Despite all the research, however, I don’t have any publications. Although I hear one is in the works from UW research.</p>

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<p>

None of the schools you listed have rolling admissions. Submitting in November is fine. (Submitting right at the deadline is fine, too.)</p>

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<p>MasterMoe - you’re way too nice to other people, and way too hard on yourself :slight_smile: if my stats are “stellar” as you said, yours are nothing less!! i mean, we come form the same school in the same program, have similar research experience, and these probably come from the same caliber, if not the same research institutions. where my GPA is slightly higher than yours, your GRE scores are higher than mine. </p>

<p>…and we’re applying to some of the same schools, so i wish us both luck :slight_smile: maybe i’ll take your advice and apply to a few more…thanks for your advice!</p>

<p>and thanks molliebatmit for the info!</p>

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<p>@tor2010</p>

<p>Well the GRE is merely used as a filter for the most part so my high GRE score is of little to no benefit to me.</p>

<p>My GPA was sort of brought down by 3 VERY low grades–2 of them were sort of important courses. That has me concerned. </p>

<p>I should have written the subject GRE and aced it to make up for my poor GPA but I didn’t have enough time for it. Should have studied for it this summer but wasted my time.</p>

<p>As far as research goes, I worked in one lab that was merely a whole lot of cloning and protein purification. No downstream experiments done with my proteins as far as I know.</p>

<p>The next lab was just one epic failure at cloning. A total waste of my time to be honest. I didn’t really hit it off with the proff and I don’t want a LOR from him. That is essentially a year of research totally wasted. </p>

<p>Both of these projects were not part of a department sponsored summer student project so they payed out of their own pockets and I couldn’t present at a poster presentation. </p>

<p>My current lab seems to be a lot more promising but I need references by November and I better get some results by interview time–assuming I get any interviews. </p>

<p>Frankly I hate how proffs like to advertise the merits of their research and explain all the great downstream experiments you can perform. What they don’t tell you is they only want you as an extra pair of hands to purify x proteins or clone x insert into y vector. For the most part, we’re just a pair of extra hands doing things grad students and post docs don’t want to be bothered with.</p>

<p>So your GPA is stronger.
Your GRE scores are essentially the same if one considers how adcoms view the GREs.
Your research experience is more legit.
Your LORs will most certainly be stronger.</p>

<p>Not trying to be a pessimist. Just viewing things objectively.</p>

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<p>I could be wrong about this, but I was under the impression that if you are a domestic applicant and go to a well-respected undergraduate program (top 20 or so), have a decent gpa (above 3.2 maybe, or even less), have research experience, and have decent GREs, you should apply to the top schools (stanford, harvard, berkeley etc.). Generally, phd programs in the sciences aren’t super selective as not that many highly qualified students choose to pursue a phd over say, a medical degree or a law degree, as those are much more secure career paths. most people I know from my college who applied to graduate school went to at least a top 10, despite not being star students, and not having publications.</p>

<p>this is of course only true I think if you are a domestic applicant. do you guys think I am totally wrong about this? It was just my impression, so it could be wrong.</p>

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<p>Being a domestic applicant helps—ALOT.</p>

<p>Internationals have it a lot worse as there are a lot of us but due to departmental funding there aren’t as many spaces. However, it could be argued that many internationals come from no-name schools and don’t have a mastery of the english language. In that respect, it feels a bit comforting to be completing my undergrad degree at UofT. But I digress…</p>

<p>If you go to a top domestic school, you are already ahead. Getting a good GPA (3.3+, ideally 3.5+), solid research experience (ideally 2yrs+), solid LORs, and a good GRE score makes you golden. I mean that is all they are looking for outside of the SOP.</p>

<p>If you have all this, by all means apply to the very best schools. If you apply to enough, you will more than likely end up at a top notch department.</p>

<p>However, the assumption that not many highly qualified students apply to grad is absurd. Just take a look at the people posting on this forum. Sure they may be above the curve for grad applicants but 1/2 of these students could have pursued medicine if they wanted to. Their interests merely lay somewhere else.</p>

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<p>I was not saying that those who apply to phd programs are not highly qualified or could not pursue medicine if they wanted to, only that there are simply not that many of these students out there, numbers-wise. top graduate programs typically only get about 500 -1000 applications a year, and have acceptance rates between 15 -25 percent. this is not that terrible, even before considering the fact that approximately a third or maybe more of these applications are international, and acceptance rates for international students is probably way lower (maybe 5-10 percent? - not sure), which then means that acceptance rates for domestic students is higher than their average, probably closer to 30 percent.</p>

<p>For comparison, top medical schools get about 10,000 applications a year, and have acceptance rates of 6 percent or so. So really I was just saying that most highly qualified science students do not choose to do phds, not that those who do are less qualified.</p>

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<p>

Those of us with these credentials still freak out and assume we are screwed. There are no shoo ins or givens. Though I do agree with you, there is a “mold” that seems to fit with successful candidates, and the most basic attributes are what you listed.</p>

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<p>I agree with jenlam regarding the super qualified students pursueing professional schools. Most people I know who have solid marks, research experience, awards and publications are going for MDs. Most people in summer research programs I’ve participated in wanted to go to professional schools. Even in the labs I’ve been at, which have had a good number of undergrad students, the VAST, VAST, VAST majority want to go to professional school and the ones that go to grad school only do it because they couldn’t get into med so they want a master’s before re-applying. This is not to say there aren’t many qualified PhD applications - there are tons of schools, of course tons of people will be qualified and superstars, but I think in making a generalization, jenlam is correct. </p>

<p>I used to get very irritated when someone would ask me what I want to do after undergrad and I’d say PhD/research and they go “but you know, you could get into med school”… SO?! Ugh. As if research and being a doctor are SOOOOOO similar.</p>

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<p>Along the same lines, check out this info. from an undergraduate program at Stanford. Scroll down to the sections covering Bioscience PhD admission.</p>

<p>[Stanford</a> - HHMI Pregrad program](<a href=“http://pregrad.stanford.edu/phdfaq.html#important]Stanford”>http://pregrad.stanford.edu/phdfaq.html#important)</p>

<p>This sure makes me feel confident in a process that generally has me feeling the opposite.</p>

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<p>

I would agree with this.</p>

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<p>How much more ‘above’ in a sense do you have to be as an international applicant to be as competitive?</p>

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<p>Hi guys,
I am an international student.
my profile is:
Major: Mechanical Engineering in undergrad, Biomedical Engineering in master
GPA: 3.2(undergrad), 3.8(master)
GRE: v570, q780, w3.5
I am taking iBT…
Research experience: 1 year at biomedical engineering lab at MIT and 1 year at pathology lab at Harvard Medical School and Children’s Hospital Boston.
Recommendation: 1 from current PI of Harvard Medical School, 1 from MIT and 1 from professor in my country
Program of interest: Biophysics, bioengineering, cancer cell biology
Publications: 1 as a first author, 2 as a second author and 1 as a third author</p>

<p>Schools to apply for:
Harvard BBS
MIT Biology
MIT Biological Engineering
MIT HST MEMP
UCSF
Stanford
Johns Hopkins
BU Biology</p>

<p>My GRE and GPA are critically low…Is there hope?</p>

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<p>Final list of schools Im aiming for</p>

<p>Mostly aiming for schools that are very strong in evolutionary biology</p>

<p>Chicago
Cornell
Duke
UMichigan
UIndiana
UC Berkley
UC Davis
UArizona
UWisconsin
Harvard</p>

<p>seems alot of people here are aiming to do studies in the med sci area…
any pure bio people :D?? lol</p>

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<p>is it bad that i’m only applying to places i would want to go to…and those places are all top 10 schools? to be honest, i don’t see the worth in going to just any school for a phd, especially for a career in academia. i figure if i don’t get in, i’ll make use of my degree to land a 60K job. bad?</p>

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<p>Apply wherever you want MolSysBio, for whatever reasons you want. Everyone has different goals and different priorities. Some schools I’m applying to are b/c of faculty, some because of location. I’m sure one is seriously because it has higher acceptance rates and if I don’t get into others I still want to go to one of those recruitment weekends, lol. That’s a bad reason! Eh, I don’t care, my money. </p>

<p>To choijae, my interests are not at all medical. Fundamentally, I’m interested in how sensory stimuli are transduced into electrical signals and information processing in sensory circuits. But I have a lot of tangential interests that are probably spun as more medical than they really are to sell the research, blah. I would suggest applying to more private schools… since your chances as an international student are better, even if the schools are more prestigious… also given how tough it is to break into the UC system for internationals AND the current economic ‘crisis’ in Cali, I would suggest not bothering with the UC’s, but of course, it is up to you and by all means, apply if you want to. There’s no harm.</p>