Hello everyone,
I’m currently an undergrad majoring in biology at a state school. I would like to pursue my phd at a top bioengineering program (Harvard/Stanford/UCB-UCSF/UW/BostonU/JHU etc). I know my stats are pretty good but I am not sure if I will be shooting myself in the foot if I only apply to <8 top programs. Any advice?
Here are my stats:
GPA: 4.0/4.0 (math taken up to Linear Algebra)
GRE: 162 V / 170 Q / 5 AWA
4 co-authored journal publications
1-2 first-author conference papers indexed in IEEExplore
3 poster presentations at national conferences
Barry M. Goldwater Scholar Award
$20,000 research grant
3-4 stellar LORs
1 competitive internship and two NSF-REU programs
You want to add a safety school just in case. Getting in is one thing, but being able to afford the tuition is something entirely different.
@wantsaphd - Welcome to the Forum! I agree that you need to apply to a program that you would be happy in but which is a sure thing for admission and full funding. You definitely do not want to self-fund a PhD so you have to factor the financial package into the equation. You sound like an excellent applicant but the biggest hurdle you face is that you are not an engineering major and that likely puts you at a slight disadvantage to other applicants at these highly selective schools. The reason they are highly selective is that they have many applicants and a significant fraction will have credentials similar to yours. It is certainly possible that your application will stick out and you can get into one of those programs but hedging your bets is always a good idea.