<p>I did a post over at the 2009 biomed applicants thread but was promptly bumped off the page. I'd like to get some feedback on schools I'm applying to and how my odds look like. :)</p>
<p>International Applicant
GPA: 3.5 (Undergrad), 3.59 (Masters) in Biochemistry from State University
GRE: 730 Analytical, 620 Verbal, 5.0 Writing
Research Experience: About 5 - 6 years
Papers: Nil
Strong Masters thesis
Strong LORs
Work Experience: more than year at foreign National Laboratory</p>
<p>Schools applying to:</p>
<p>Stanford
Yale
Boston University
Berkeley
USC
Carnegie Mellon
Northwestern
Penn State</p>
<p>And maybe 1 or 2 state universities thrown in for good measure. </p>
<p>I'm not holding my breath for the top 4 schools on the list. Realistically, I think I have a shot at USC, Carnegie Mellon and Northwestern. Profs over at USC said I would be a competitive applicant there. </p>
<p>What do you guys think? I'm looking at schools that have a relatively higher foreign acceptance rate, and good connections to industry.</p>
<p>Sideserver, I think you have a good list of schools, try Tufts too? I heard they have good industry connections (esp. since Boston is a hot spot for biotech). Also I heard Rockefeller is good spot for us internationals.</p>
<p>What department are you interested in? It seems as though that may be a relevant point as certainly not every department in a school is equally competitive.</p>
<p>If you are interested in industry, I would also look into the Research Triangle group of schools (Duke, UNC, maybe NC State). They have a decent amount of foreign students and the area is, I believe, the third largest biotech area in the US with lots of collaboration between those schools and the companies in town.</p>
<p>Northwestern and Carnegie Mellon are harder to get into than Boston Univ and USC.</p>
<p>I'd apply to a longer list of schools if I were you--your app is a bit tough to analyze, and if an admissions guy likes your research you could get into some strong places.</p>
<p>well i don't know what you want in terms of location, urban vs. rural, medical school attached or not...but to your list, I would add a few more good schools--i mean in terms of how hard it is to get into the schools you've listed, its (from hardest on top to easiest on bottom)
Stanford
Yale
Berkeley
(BIG GAP HERE)
Carnegie Mellon
Northwestern
USC
Boston University
Penn State</p>
<p>so what I'm saying is that while Stanford, Yale, Berkeley might not accept you (i'd say 50/50 that you get into 1 of the 3), if you apply to a list of schools in the middle (BIG GAP HERE) part, you could probably get into one of them--I'd put on there Penn, Johns Hopkins, Sloan Kettering, and Princeton as a group of schools you have a marginally good shot at.</p>
<p>Really? That's interesting. In my mind, the order of difficulty (in terms of getting in) has always been something like:</p>
<p>Stanford
Berkeley
Boston U / Yale
Carnegie Mellon
USC / Northwestern
Penn State</p>
<p>I might be completely wrong here, but i've always been under the assumption that BU is pretty hard to get into. Also, I thought that Yale was easier to get into for Biosciences than Princeton (then again, it could be because I read more papers from princeton people during my masters). If its really the case then I might swap those 2 schools. I've heard some pretty nasty things about New Haven anyway. Where'd you get the information from, by the way? </p>
<p>I already looked at U Penn, but according to their website they only take in a few internationals per year so I think I'm going to give them a miss. Funny that you think I need more "mid-tier" schools in my application. I was actually thinking of adding more schools between the USC to Penn State range. ;) </p>
<p>By the way, with regards to my masters research it was fairly esoteric so I don't think it would help me that much, even if the research itself was solid. </p>
<p>I DO actually have a prof at Princeton (who was affiliated with my masters advisor) who's interested in taking me in, but he's in the department of ecology and evolutionary biology doing research in a field I'm not terribly keen on.</p>
<p>I'm familiar with the computational biology program through CMU and Pitt (it's joint, but you get your phd from whichever school your advisor is at). You would have a good shot there because it is a newer program (they don't have any graduates yet) and they have a high rate of acceptance for international students. HOWEVER you would be much more likely to get accepted into another program in CMU's bioscience department. CMU is not really known for biology; more for computer science and engineering, so I would only apply to the computational biology program. So if you're interested in biology check out Pitt. They do a lot of work with CMU anyways.</p>