<p>Reposting my info here from "what are my chances?" board. apparently everyone on there is trying to get into college not graduate school. I'm new... so that's probably why I'm all confused. </p>
<p>I would like to get a PhD in Bioengineering. Here's the list of schools that I would be applying to: Harvard, MIT, UCSD, Stanford, Univ. of Wash., UCLA, Georgia tech, UNC-chapel hill.</p>
<p>What are my chances on any of those schools? Suggestion on safeties? I've registered to retake the GRE on dec 16, though should I be retaking it?</p>
<p>Here're the stats:</p>
<p>Race/ethnicity: Chinese American Female
School: well known engineering school
College GPA: 3.83/4.00
Major/Minor: Chemical Engineering, Biochemical Engineering minor, polymer concentration
GRE general: V460/48%, Q770/87%, AW4.5/52%</p>
<p>Research:
3 summer internships, all related to biotechnology. 1 of which is an REU at University of Washington.
1 paper published in undergraduate journal, lead author
Currently working in R&D for a small biotech company</p>
<p>Awards:
Dean's list
Scholarship from my school during college years</p>
<p>Activity:
Alpha Chi Sigma (chemistry professional fraternity)
Tau Beta Pi (Honors engineering society)
Currently volunteering at a science museum once a month</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Wow, your stats are almost identical to mine except for the fact that I didn't care about my undergrad and got a bad GPA =X.</p>
<p>I also registered to retake my GREs on the 16th =D. I think you should go ahead and take them, although you have a pretty solid GPA, it's always good to have better GRE scores; this is unless of course you feel as though your scores would drop and/or be the same.</p>
<p>I can't help you much by telling you our chances for those schools other than UCSD because I went there for my undergrad. It has a ~22% acceptance rate and their bioeng program is second in the nation, so don't be too disappointed if you don't get in. I know somebody that had pretty decent stats and got denied there and got into UCLA, so you can always rely on that to a certain extent.</p>
<p>Other alternatives you may want to consider (based on my research for Mechanical Engineering) is probably Michigan, I know somebody with similar stats as you that just got in last year. Problem is that their bioengineering program is just a sub division of Mechanical--not that that's necessarily a bad thing, UCSD made BE undergrads take a ton of ME classes. (<a href="http://me.engin.umich.edu/prospective/graduate/how_to_apply.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://me.engin.umich.edu/prospective/graduate/how_to_apply.pdf</a>)</p>
<p>Their Biomedical Engineering is 10th in the nation (<a href="http://www.engin.umich.edu/gradadmissions/Programs/)%5B/url%5D">http://www.engin.umich.edu/gradadmissions/Programs/)</a>.</p>
<p>You might also want to consider USC, they have a Biomedical Engineering program and their standards seem low enough to be your "safety".</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>UCSD's acceptance rate is ~22%? That seems pretty high. Someone told me it was about ~10%, that seems about right for many top PHD programs. Your research interests should dictate where you apply to; not so much because college "A" is ranked 2 in the nation or college "B" is 15th. A lot of programs don't concentrate on instrumentation or MRI development, while others don't concentrate on tissue engineering- so you should spend a lot of time researching programs. I think you have a good chance at any of those schools.</p>
<p>I'm interested in adult stem cell work or tissue engineering (so scruffy, thanks for the heads up, but I won't be heading to the ME dept any time soon). Those schools I listed all have those researches on there, but thanks for the heads up, pippyvan. </p>
<p>I was very worried about my GRE score because I don't have a TOFEL to back up my low GRE verbal score. I've talked to professors at my school and they were all saying that my GRE verbal is low and I should retake it. That got me all worried, even though I got a "verbal doesn't really matter as long as you prove you know english" from an MIT prof. And then there's the writing score. My bf got a 5 on the writing and it was at the 82% even though the description on the back of the score card is EXACTLY the same. Is it good enough? </p>
<p>I've been grilling myself on the vocab lately, but somehow I don't think it's going to get much better. I did sign up for the GRE again out of fear. My question is, should I go through the agony again with those scores? or should I concentrate on making my application looks polish and try to contact people in the schools I apply so I can get in sideways? </p>
<p>Thanks again guys, it had been really helpful.</p>
<p>BTW scruffy, I think that's some crazy coincident that we have the same stats ;)</p>
<p>my opinion is that the verbal score doesn't matter. Especially if you provide a well written essay. Every school weights things differently, so I can't say for sure. You definitely don't want your quantitative score to go down if you retake the GRE's. So if you're positive you can get a higher verbal score and maintain about a 770+ on math, then go for it.</p>
<p>What do you think of the writing score?</p>