Chance me for Stanford graduate program please?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hey everyone, I’m planning to apply for Stanford’s graduate program in biochemistry next year and would really appreciate any input/opinions you have to throw at me :slight_smile:

A little about me:
-I’m a biochemistry major(junior) at UCSB’s college of creative studies, a “graduate school for undergraduates”. There’s no program in the world like it, as far as I’m aware.
-Just transferred here from community college where my GPA was 3.5.
-Worked full time in a biochemistry lab over the summer, where I completed my own research project.
-I have presented my research poster many times and have given talks at small seminars. I even presented my poster that the SACNAS national conference.
-Currently working in a new biochemistry lab here at UCSB and may even get a publication before I leave.
-I have awesome and enthusiastic recommenders from people I’ve done research with.
-My statement of purpose is good, going off of what others have told me. I spoke to someone from the selection committee of the internship I did and he said my SOP was one of the strongest he’s seen.
-All of my experience is focused into my field as opposed to being ‘well-rounded’ among other fields.
-I’m the first of my family to go to college, and the first to graduate high school.
-Am currently struggling with the quarter system here, I’m not the most stellar test taker so I’m finding it difficult to show what I know. I’m not a 4.0 student, I make mistakes and don’t function like a machine.
-I have cool EC’s that I’ve dedicated a lot of my life to such as art, leading group backpacking expeditions, mountaineering ect but that’s not what’s most important here.

What’s ahead, before I apply:
-Will be taking graduate level classes in place of my electives. CCS students are the only students at UCSB that are allowed to do that.
-Am applying for summer internships, my #1 choice is an internship at Stanford and am hoping a letter of rec from someone at Stanford will give me an edge for getting in.
-I have a secured place in my lab for the rest of my time here at UCSB.

That’s it, thanks!!

2

You need to have completed more than 2/3 of your first qtr at UCSB. Come back in a year. I don’t know why you are working on your statement of purpose already. Your recommendations need to come from professors in your upper level classes. You have no recommendations as of now. To be a competitive at somewhere like Stanford, you need to the in the top 1 or 2 students in your department. Right now I would suggest that you spend less time worrying about grad school and more about how you become a 4.0 student.