<p>Hey guys!</p>
<p>I'm a little nervous about applying to grad school. I believe I have a great background, but horrible test scores and need a little advice.</p>
<p>GRE: 155V (67%) 158Q (71%) 5AW (93%)
GPA: 3.5 from Northwestern for undergrad and 3.5 from a Joint Master's program at 5 different universities overseas
Research experience: 4 years in undergrad with 1 co-author in a top 10 journal and a manuscript on the way, i was a TA for undergraduate biology during my senior year, 2+ years in a master's with a thesis and a summer research grant that resulted in a presentation. in my undergrad i was also a DIV1 athlete.
I should have 3 great letters of recommendation and my personal statement has a lot of great aspects. </p>
<p>I intend to apply to Northwestern, UChicago, Stanford, Madison, Rockefeller, Sloan Kettering, Columbia, but I'm VERY nervous about my GRE scores. should i retake them? </p>
<p>The problem you will have is that neither your GPA nor your test scores will stand out among the many applications to highly selective programs. Unless you can get past the initial cuts, your letters of reference and other positive aspects of your application may not get seen.</p>
<p>Getting a better GRE score would be good, also have you taken the Biology GRE? You might also look at other schools which are not quite as selective since you will be an excellent candidate there.</p>
<p>Finally, if you have some excellent letters of reference, perhaps they could give you a personal introduction which will get your application noticed. This goes double for Northwestern where you already have some contacts because of your undergraduate degree.</p>
<p>I haven’t taken the Biology GRE. I am scheduled to retake the GRE in about a month and a half and I’m afraid I don’t know if I will have time to squeeze that into my schedule. </p>
<p>I can probably have a personal introduction at Northwestern but unfortunately I don’t have any connections at the other schools I am applying to. I have been trying to send out a few e-mails to the faculty at some of the universities but have gotten very little response back :-/</p>
<p>What about your research mentors? They might have contacts at these schools and the clearly have a good opinion of you.</p>
<p>actually, i’m not even sure about my master’s GPA. currently i’m at 17.5/20 on the Belgian system. looking at grade conversions it shows that it should be a 4.0/A GPA. how will the admissions committee factor in my GPA that is out of 20? </p>
<p>the grading system is completely different so anything 16+ is an A GPA
i guess does that change my standings at all?</p>
<p>It certainly helps. Most universities understand that grading systems in Europe are different than in the US and if the transcripts have any kind of explanatory legend, it will help too.</p>