<p>Ok, here's my background:
-Applying to Immunology (maybe pathology) PhD programs
-Applied to 5 schools this cycle (2 top 5, 1 top 10, 1 top 20, 1 top 40? Poor planning ...) and got two interviews and one acceptance. Decided to not go and apply next year.
-B.S. in Biochemistry, minor in Biology, graduated in 2009
-3.73 GPA from a school known for good research (not top 10)
-5 semesters of undergrad research
-Summer research at UCSF
-LORs from undergrad PI, summer PI, and current PI
-Currently working in a lab at a top public university
-GRE: 730Q (78%), 480V (59%), 4.0 AW (41%)</p>
<p>I'm looking for suggestions on improving my app for next year. My plans are to apply to:
-Mt. Sinai
-UPitt
-Northwestern
-WashU in St. Louis
-UChicago
-NYU
-UNC
-UCSD
-University of Colorado Denver
-UPenn</p>
<p>Am I aiming too high? What should I do to improve my chances? (FYI I'm only reapplying to one of the schools I applied to this cycle) I'm figuring I could get interviews from 50% of the schools and then acceptances from 50% of the interviews.</p>
<ol>
<li>Most importantly, I'll be getting a first author paper. It's being written up now and hopefully it will be published by December! I'll also have a 3rd or 4th author paper and there's talks of writing a 2nd or co-author paper very soon.</li>
<li>The GRE. I think the GRE is a useless measure of one's capabilities and I really don't want to take it again. But clearly there's room for improvement in my score and I have enough time to study. My dilemma is that I have a slight learning disability and have never done well on standardized tests (back when I took an SAT prep class I was only able to increase my score by 10 points). So I'm afraid if I retake the GRE I'll get the same or worse. 4 of the schools I'm applying to stated that the GRE caries very little weight and/or they consider apps as a whole. I have a feeling two schools do the same although they didn't specifically state it. I'm I being a complete idiot for not wanting to try to retake the GRE??</li>
<li>I could get a LOR from the well-known chair of the dept (I work for one of his junior PIs). I've been told it would be a major bonus at the school he used to work for (one of the top schools I'm applying to). Of course this means I have to drop one of my other recs.</li>
<li>Should I take a class in the fall? I'm not even sure this is possible since I work on a separate campus from the main campus and my PI might not be OK with me leaving for 2 hours in the middle of the day.</li>
</ol>
<p>Thoughts? Am I being totally unreasonable?</p>
<p>Thanks for reading my long post!</p>
<p>You should have applied to more than 5 schools. </p>
<p>I am planning on applying to 12 or more to increase my chances. </p>
<p>I agree with you about the GRE being a useless measure, but you may need to retake it anyway, your quant score looks really good but the verbal is low.</p>
<p>Why did you decide not to attend the school you were accepted to?</p>
<p>I gave it a lot of thought over a few weeks. I loved the other school that I interviewed at and was ultimately rejected. I basically didn’t try to get into the school I was accepted to - it was the last app I filled out so I just kind of threw everything together because I was tired. In the interview, I already knew I had my heart set on the other school. As for the program, I couldn’t find anyone who could give really positive feedback. The best I could get was that it was in a great city for networking with scientists. I felt like the caliber of grad students was a little lower than I wanted. The department’s website states that they have failed to recruit top faculty and grad students and failed to produce many high-impact publications. The department is also changing and trying to improve itself, which means I could end up as a guinea pig. I’ve been one in high school and college and I’m getting really tired of people not knowing what’s going on because they’re still working out the kinks. Ultimately I felt like I applied to too many reach schools and not enough schools that are reasonable. And maybe I need another year to figure out what I really want to do with a PhD. I don’t regret my decision at all, but now I’m a little paranoid that I’m still aiming too high.</p>
<p>Though there virtually is no such thing as a “safety” school when in comes to these kind of programs, maybe you can look into some top 50 schools that might have POIs that still produce high caliber work/publications that you are interested in. Just read the relevant papers that you find interesting, go to the PI lab’s website and see where they are and if their work is super stellar. Also if they have people who have moved on and started their own prolific lab at another school. It kind of sounds complex and time consuming… but you may just find a faculty at a decent school that you might not have considered before. You will be working for them four plus years, not the program itself…</p>
<p>Yes, I know it’s all about who you work with and the program only matters for the first year or so. But I’m realistic. I have no desire to be a professor. I don’t want to write grants all day. I could see myself eventually going into the industry. I think going to a well-respected school will help me in the future more than a good PI. Anyways, there’s a better chance that I will be well trained and have a good reputation with publications if I go to a good school. I just feel like, with my stats, I’m capable of getting into a good school. I know i’m not at the top and that’s fine.</p>
<p>Does anyone have any suggestions/advice for things I could do between now and september? Such as:
-yes, you have a pretty strong app for the schools you want to apply to. if you want to risk it with that GRE score, you should be ok … but you never know
-no, i think you’re aiming too high and need to strengthen your app with multiple things
-no, you’re being way to stubborn about the GRE and have to retake it. Even if you might get the same score.
-yes, taking a class would really help you</p>
<p>I’m not quite sure, but from what I’ve read it seems that some schools use the GREs as a way to filter the initial applications. I’ve no idea what the cutoff is, but I’ve seen some people saying 1300. I’m no expert, but your application looks pretty strong, especially if those letters of recommendation are solid. I see no reason why you wouldn’t have gotten interviews at all 5 schools aside aside from the GREs. Something to keep in mind is that the GREs will be changing format soon (or has it already?), with the verbal undergoing a drastic change from what I’ve heard. So perhaps you can try taking a practice version of hte new one when it comes out and see if it’s better? Also, it’d be the first year that schools would be seeing the scores, so perhaps they wouldn’t really know what kind of scores to expect.</p>
<p>Seriously though, you need to apply to MORE schools next year. There have to be more than 5 top schools in your field. Also I really do think you need to retake to get rid of that low verbal score. I hear the flash cards work wonders.</p>
<p>@turkeylurkey </p>
<p>Yes, I’m hoping the cutoffs only come into play with the top 10 schools/schools that get massive numbers of applications … I would assume I just missed the initial cut this year for those schools. The new GRE comes out in August and I definitely would take the new version. I know I can improve the math score with the addition of a basic calculator, but I’m still a bit worried about the verbal. I’ll have to give it some more thought.</p>
<p>@xdarthveganx</p>
<p>Yes, I agree with you, applying to 5 schools this year was definitely my biggest mistake. That’s why I’m planning on applying to the 10 schools I listed above. Unfortunately I’m fairly specific in what I’m looking for, so I don’t think the list is going to get any bigger. I guess the question is, did I just apply to the wrong schools or is there something seriously lacking in my app?</p>
<p>Just to clarify … the schools I listed are where I plan to apply NEXT year. NOT the schools I already applied to (with the exception of 1).</p>
<p>Just realized that I keep saying “next year” but it’s really next fall. For entrance in Fall 2012. I still think of time in terms of school years … haha</p>
<p>Everything looks good, except the verbal gre score. Also try and contact faculty beforehand, I have heard this plays a large role. Basically if a particular faculty member says that they want you, you will probably get in. Everything else is just “luck” and “fit”</p>
<p>Go back to your SOP. Improving that will likely be the best and most positive change you can make. Your stats are good for many of the schools you listed.</p>
<p>Phagocytosis: </p>
<p>I am a first year student at UPenn, and I would like to say that your profile is very strong and you have a great shot at getting into top schools. What I would suggest you do is to work a little bit more on your GRE’s and just improve a little bit. If it helps, take a class–I took a class because I realized that I would not have motivated myself to study on my own because I was working full time and I would not have devoted time to studying after coming home as I would feel tired or wanted to relax after a long day. </p>
<p>You also have an edge since you have a publication, which really helps! I didn’t have that when I was applying. Make sure your recommendations are strong too because that really helps a lot in the application. </p>
<p>Also, if you really want to be in the immunology field, what you can do is apply to more broad umbrella programs and then divert yourself to immunology labs, because they are very flexible in taking on students from other subprograms. For example, I am in the cell and molecular biology program at Penn, which is a large umbrella program and their recruitment is a bit higher compared to a program directed to specific field where they take on very few students a year so chances of getting into one is lower because they are slightly more competitive. I am rotating in a immunology lab right now and my PI is very well renowned in his field and I had no problem getting into his lab for a rotation. He was very welcoming and I have seen that so far that people here seem to be very supportive, which is not the case as I have heard at some of the other top schools. </p>
<p>Hope this helps and don’t hesitate to PM me if you have more questions. I would be happy to help you out! </p>
<p>Good luck with your application.</p>
<p>First off what are your plans after you graduate? If you decide to go out into the workforce outside of academia your pedigree doesn’t really matter that much at all. Plenty of PhDs who went to schools “ranked” in the 100-200s still find jobs.</p>
<p>OK. I’m really appreciating the input. For some reason I have just been freaking out about not getting into grad school for the past two days! I really need to find a better way to spend my time … It doesn’t help that my lab is pretty much all medical doctors so there’s no one to talk to about this. Except one other tech who will be applying next fall. Anyways, I’ll definitely spend time on my SOP - I think I may have had a good draft and then I tried to cram too much info into it and it went downhill. And I guess improving my GRE is the only thing that will minimize the uncertainty of me getting interviews.</p>
<p>@gravenewworld
haha the million dollar question … Short answer: I don’t know. Which probably has contributed to why I’m not going to grad school yet. What I do know is that whatever I think I want now will change in grad school and I will figure out my next move before I graduate. Currently, I know that I don’t want to be a professor and/or write grants all day. I do want to be in control of my own experiments. I could see myself wanting to manage people and maybe get away from bench work at some point in the future. However, the responsibility of directing the research of an entire lab with the possibility of going in the wrong direction and not getting grants leading to the lab shutting down is a little more than I can handle. Maybe prestige doesn’t really matter for me, but I want to get into the best school I can get into.</p>
<p>What schools did you get accepted, got interviewed at, and got rejected from?</p>
<p>In addition to retaking the GRE, I would also suggest that you delve into the difficult job of figuring out why you didn’t get an acceptance at both places you interviewed. Once you get the interview, the GREs no longer come into play: it’s usually about research experience/knowledge and fit. If you were nervous and said some stupid things (everybody does this at one point!), then I wouldn’t worry, but if you couldn’t articulate your interests or past research, I advise working on succinct “sound bites” that will get you past the first jitters of answering a question and that will serve as directional guides for the rest of your answer.</p>
<p>Rejected (no interview): University of Washington, UCSF, Stanford
Interview: Mt Sinai, Boston University
Accepted: Boston University</p>
<p>I can think of a ton of reasons why I didn’t get in. My limited choice of schools was probably a big factor. Also, I really focused on knowing my research when preparing for my interviews, so I think I didn’t do a great job of articulating my answers for other questions (the big one being “what do you want to do with your phd”). I always struggle with asking smart questions after professors explain their research … I really need to work on that.</p>
<p>I guess I’ve got to start studying for the GRE…</p>
<p>Hey,</p>
<p>I’ve done a ton of interviews this cycle, and I had the opportunity to chat with a bunch of admissions directors at top schools. One director said that they asked all their PI’s to rank all of their 5th year grad students on a scale of 1-10, and then they went back and looked at those grad students applications to grad school to look for what characteristics correlated with success in grad school. As might be suspected, GRE had basically zero correlation. GPA had a weak correlation, in that your GPA had to be ~ 3.3 or higher, but someone with a 3.8 was no more likely to succeed than someone with a 3.6. They found that the quality of questions asked during a grad school interview correlated pretty well (yes, they are listening to what you say about your research AND what you ask about theirs). But above everything else, the only truly predictive thing was the rec letter from your PI. This is far and away the most important portion of your grad school application. It matters how famous your PI is and how strongly they advocate for you. Yes, stronger GRE’s or a stronger personal statement might help a bit, but at this point in the game I don’t think there is much you can do to strengthen your application. It will help that you have another year of research under your belt and some papers. You have a strong record; just try not to stress about it and try to focus on your research. Unfortunately, the most important part of your application is something that someone else writes about you.</p>
<p>Is there a reason why phagocytosis applied to schools that he didn’t want to go to? I was under the impression that people would choose to apply to safety schools that they would actually want to go to in the worst case scenario that they got rejected from their top choices.</p>