<p>to safetypin reason Im limted to those schools are cuz those are the top school to do evolutionary stuff and they have been personally suggested by my PI. Not many schools at the states have a seperate evolutionary dept so I it was difficult to find a school that has a evo dept and is private. So even though cali is melting down got no choice lol berkley and davis has great PIs in the field of evolution. Worse comes to worse Ill probably have to stay up north (canada) then lol.</p>
<p>Got a question. When you send out ur general test scores to schools does ur subject test scores get sent out together?? cuz if they r I cud be royally screwed :(.</p>
<p>I see your point. I have noticed evo bio is not as common in the umbrella programs. </p>
<p>When you wrote the General, for the 4 schools you selected, did you pick for the schools to see both scores? You can decide if you want the schools to see one or the other or both. I’m assuming if not for the 4 (if you already said both for those 4) then for the rest of the schools you apply to. If you still have some x amount of days before the general (if you haven’t written it yet) or haven’t written either one yet, you can still change that I believe. Just go on the ETS website. But you can send them only one of the scores, just have to make sure you make the decision some x amount of time in advance.</p>
<p>How competitive is U of Toronto for Biomedical Sciences PhD program? Are they pretty open to non-Canadian applicants (including funding issue)? There are a couple professors there that I’m interested to work with. My PI actually also recommended that I should think about applying to UT. Is the application procedure pretty much the same as US schools?</p>
<p>We would only know about how competitive it is for Canadians to get into our departments. You should contact the departments.</p>
<p>Which departments are you considering?</p>
<p>The main biomed PhD programs at UofT are Molecular Genetics, Medical Biophysics, Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, Immunology, Biochemistry, Physiology, Insitute of Medical Sciences (mainly clinical), Pharmacology and Toxicology, and Pharmaceutical Sciences.</p>
<p>There are a few collaborative departments: Biomedical Toxicology, Biomolecular Structure, Developmental biology, Genome Biology and Bioinformatics, and Neuroscience.</p>
<p>So there are quite a few. I didn’t even know 1/2 these existed.</p>
<p>selpunca - there are several departments at uft, so if you could be more specific about which professors you’re interested in, i could give you more detailed information. </p>
<p>generally though, same deal: transcripts, SOP, LOR, research experience regarded well, etc. etc. …applications aren’t due until january though</p>
<p>also, i’m not sure if this “international” status applies to US students, but if you’re international you don’t get to do rotations, you have to find a professor who is willing to sponsor you before you come (i.e. contact the professor’s you’re interested in directly) (to answer the question if this applies to you, you’d have to contact the specific department…molecular genetics, biochemistry or IMS generally are the one’s i imagine you’d be interested in…if you google “university of toronto” and any of those you’ll get to their websites which has pretty much all the info + contact info)</p>
<p>BUT i know quite a few international students in the labs myself, so from what i gather, they are very open to it (esp if you find a lab that has lots of $$)</p>
<p>IMS is not mainly clinical, it is pretty varied. You should apply to the department where your PI of interest is located. There you have a choice too, if your PI is a member of 2-3 departments, you can apply to all three and pick whichever one you want or get into based on courses, stipend, etc. The process is different from US, most programs don’t have rotations, most don’t require the GRE and also tend to only want 2 LORs. </p>
<p>It is imperative to get a faculty member though who is willing to work with you. This is pretty different from a US system. Here if you fit the main criteria for scores, you are in, (and some programs are considerably easier than others, for example Physiology just need 3.3 GPA whereas IMS 3.7), but you need to have a faculty member who wants to work with you! </p>
<p>I think it is challenging to get accepted as a grad student without funding. If you bring money with you, it will make the process MUCH MUCH MUCH easier. I think the departments generally don’t care if you are international or not, but the PI’s do, and I think then it is a case by case basis in terms of money. Connections also help. In my old lab some of the international students came from undergrad labs in other countries but the PI’s post-doc’d together, which seems like a huge plus. </p>
<p>For collaborative departments like neuroscience you have to apply to any of the programs that are part of the interdepartment program, like physiology, IMS, pharm, LMP, etc. </p>
<p>There are no fun and exciting recruitment weekends either (except I think in the few programs that do rotations? like MolGen?)</p>
<p>Haha, UofT is well represented on this forum.</p>
I thought this was true of all students in Canada – one of the postdocs in my lab did her undergrad work at UofT and her PhD at UBC, and she did not rotate, but picked a lab and went off to UBC.</p>
<p>^ It is true of all students. If the program does rotations, it applies to everyone. If they don’t, then no one does. Rotations are a rarity in Canadian programs, not the norm, mostly because I think most people do MS then PhD or a MS –> PhD transfer. Not direct PhD as is the norm in US.</p>
<p>it is true that rotation programs are far more rare in canada, but i was speaking (in that instance) of the molecular genetics program, which is my home undergrad program and the program i will be applying to for graduate school at uft, hence the one i know most about. they do rotations for domestic students (3 in the first semester and you can do a fourth if you still feel unsatisfied), and if you go to their graduate studies page ([Molecular</a> Genetics](<a href=“http://www.moleculargenetics.utoronto.ca/admisisionapplication.htm]Molecular”>http://www.moleculargenetics.utoronto.ca/admisisionapplication.htm)) they state:</p>
<p>"Additional Requirements for International Students</p>
<p>Apart from meeting the above admission requirements, applicants who will be studying with a student authorization must FIRST identify a professor in the department who is willing to sponsor their application. By sponsoring their application, the professor certifies his/her willingness to supervise the student in their graduate studies, provided that they are accepted by the Graduate Admissions Committee"</p>
<p>furthermore, in the FAQ, the have:</p>
<p>"I am an international student and have been unable to secure a sponsor for my appliction, can I submit an application anyway?</p>
<p>No. Applictions from international/visa applicants who do not have a sponsor in this Department will be considered incomplete and inadmissible."</p>
<p>so for other programs without rotation, i guess it’s the same deal, sorry if i confused by not clearly stating which program i was referring to</p>
<p>Quoting safetypin : "How much more ‘above’ in a sense do you have to be as an international applicant to be as competitive? " </p>
<p>I would love to know this. I am very nervous about this being an international applicant =.=</p>
<p>So I just wrote my GREs today… got 580V 760Q. Just another average GRE on top of averge GPA . I’m contemplating on writing them again. I’m worried that I won’t even meet the minimum threshold.</p>
<p>Two of the faculties that I’m interested in (Andras Nagi, James Ellis) are under Molecular Genetics Dept. The other one is Gordon Keller, who is affiliated with University Health Network. Those are big names in stem cell field. My PI kinda personally knows one of them. </p>
<p>But, wow, that looks much more complicated than applying to US schools. At this point, I’m not even sure whether they would bother replying an email from a random international person asking for graduate school sponsorship. They also need to take into consideration that there’s no guarantee that I’m going to UT. Considering they have have big names, don’t they prefer recruiting local students who anyway are gonna contact them later? Even if they are willing to sponsor you, won’t you feel bad if you end up attending other universities? Hmmm…</p>
<p>Contact them! Drop your current PI’s name. Say you are very interested in working with them. When they take on students from here there’s no guarantee they get funding either (for example if they have current seniors emailing them from Canada, they wouldn’t know if they received funding until way later). It is how it always works - because there has to be a yes from the faculty AND the department. Don’t feel bad, that’s just how it works. They don’t have to commit to anything, but if you don’t email, you’ll never know!! </p>
<p>Say that you are so and so, you want to apply to MolGen at UofT, you are interested in working with them, are they taking on students, etc…? For them, if you end up going somewhere else, meh, they don’t have a shortage of students, I’m sure. In any given lab there are pretty much always some students who have external funding, those that don’t. Anyway, if you really like these people, I’d urge you to apply. I think applying in Canada is much simpler than in US (but maybe that’s just my bias).</p>
<p>i would say definitely contact them as well! being part of the department, they understand that this is a requirement for international students, and i’m sure they do get e-mails (especially more prominent scientists like these two you’ve mentioned) and, by that token, know what sort of profile/enthusiasm/etc they’re looking for</p>
<p>a friend of mine is currently working for andras nagy…he’s taken a year off between undergrad+grad school, and andras took him on over the summer + for this entire year (with salary) and it was sort of a change-of-heart-and-life-plans revelation for my friend, so he had no funding nor was he a graduate student…so it seems to me it’s a well funded lab that accepts passionate members</p>
<p>james ellis - don’t know too much about him, but he’s teaching the next section of one of my current classes so i can let you know what kind of person he comes off as :)</p>
<p>It seems we have an overwhelming number of Canadian/international candidates as compared to US candidates. Or you guys are just more vocal haha.</p>
<p>Interest: PhD in Biomedical sciences (Cancer Biology) </p>
<p>GPA: 3.6/4.0, Major: 3.7; junior/senior years: 3.8(class of 2008) from a good college in US
Majors: biology and chemistry; minor: math (with ~34 science classes, took all the relevant classes under biology, molecular biology and chemistry; few in maths)</p>
<p>Research Experience: 2 years during undergrad with two senior theses (one in cancer biology and another in biochemistry)
Two years after undergrad in Harvard medical school (cancer biology)</p>
<p>Publications: a co-author in Nature (independently involved in a project)</p>
<p>a third/fourth author will be submitted soon to Nature/science/Cell (big project) before submission of my application (almost everything was done by me and the post doc I am working with)</p>
<p>Recommendations: more than stellar from 2 PIs here at Harvard and one from my research advisor in my college.</p>
<p>Citizenship: Indian :(</p>
<p>My problem is I just took GRE and got 800 math, 500 verbal (I know very bad but I prepared so much for this verbal with almost no prep for math. And just took it yesterday)</p>
<p>I am thinking of applyin to only top 10 schools (Harvard, MIT, Stanford blah blah…) and no safe colleges.</p>
<p>Guys, please tell me flat if I need to retake my GRE (nov 1st ??…what a freakin mess after working so much hard</p>
<p>@tor2010 and safetypin00: That makes sense. I guess I’ll just try emailing them and see how it goes. Thanks for the information.</p>
<p>@Oncogene: with those 2 big papers, I think your verbal GRE doesn’t really matter anymore. It’s not that it’s super bad and anyway, they will understand that you’re not a native speaker.</p>