<p>So I've been thinking heavily about grad school for the past few months, and have been working on the areas I'm capable of working on right now: cultivating LOR's, writing/rewriting my SoP, and, in general, doing research on what I want to research. </p>
<p>I saw UWashington put up their Fall 2010 application a couple days ago, and--after remembering a few conversations on this board--does the time of the application matter? I'd think earlier is better, and it's a bad idea to submit last-minute, but I was wondering if submitting your application before the crush of submissions has any bearing. </p>
<p>Any luck with this on my choice of schools? (Bit of an eclectic mix, but I made sure they all had at least one prof who nailed both of my research interests, and 2-4 who got at least one).</p>
<p>-UC Berkeley
-Johns Hopkins University
-UMinnesota-Twin Cities
-UWashington Seattle
-Drexel University
-Oregon Health and Science University
-Columbia University
-UCSF</p>
<p>Relevant stats/info:
-Cell/molecular bio major, 3.3 overall/3.5 major GPA (last two quarters have been 3.75-3.8, though, and I have another three quarters)
-770Q; 640V general GRE
-Six months research experience in C. elegans lab, six months research experience in cancer stem cell/virology lab, and can count on three strong LOR's.
-Looking to do PhD in neural stem cell biology/viral gene therapy.
-CA resident (I know that somewhat affects admissions with UC schools)</p>
<p>Some schools will review applications as they arrive, and if you send your application early, they will send you an interview invitation early, which is nice for your peace of mind.</p>
<p>In addition, if you send your applications early, you will have plenty of time to deal with the inevitable late pieces – if your GRE score doesn’t get sent, if your LOR gets lost in the mail, etc.</p>
<p>Sending applications early doesn’t seem to give you an advantage in admissions, per se (you wouldn’t get an interview invitation if you weren’t otherwise going to), but it will definitely put less stress on you and may, in some cases, lead to earlier notifications about interviews.</p>
<p>If you submit in December or earlier, you will be fine at most places. If they have January dates, you should still submit before the end of the year since they view apps earlier than the late deadline. There are probably a few places that are exceptions. Wash U sends a lot of their interview invites before the app deadline (majority come in oct/nov).</p>
<p>RE your list of schools:
Remove OHSU: 1. they have major funding issues that you do not want to mess with 2. If the neuro stem cell faculty are not in PMCB, you cant rotate with them. All of the neuro faculty are off limits in PMCB. I imagine all of the gene therapy faculty are off limits in neuro, since there is little connection.</p>
<p>Add more schools: As you know, your GPA is very low and you dont have tons of research experience. You should do fine in the process, but I would maximize your options by adding more programs. </p>
<p>I am a little biased (a Duke grad student), but you should consider Duke. Duke is not as number happy as some of the top schools on your list. We have a new faculty member that will probably be a rising star in the neuro stem cell field. He has been at Duke for ~2yrs, and he is already the best funded neuro lab at Duke (we have some very well funded labs). It is an intense lab, but I have heard that he really cares about training students. I know for a fact that a neuro stem cell project is possible in several other labs. We also have some people working on other types of stem cells. Unfortunately, there are not many people working on viral gene therapy. I think that there may be one in BME (you should be able to rotate in this department if you wanted).</p>
<p>Some other schools to consider (I am not sure whether faculty will match): NIH GPP, UTSW, baylor, wisconsin, michigan, WashU, stanford, mit, harvard, princeton</p>