Hi guys. I’m a senior and have recently decided to apply to some biology Phd programs. I’m currently at a very prestigious research university and have been lucky enough to get nearly straight A’s (except one A minus) in a relevant undergraduate major, but I haven’t done an iota of undergraduate research. It seems many programs place a strong emphasis on undergrad research, and my utter lack of experience may be extremely damaging to my application. How much value do phd programs really place on research? Is this a crucial gap in my application that needs to be shored up? Thanks!
Since you are already at a research university, the best people to ask would be the profs and the PhD students in biology. But in many science fields, students do wait to apply to PhD programs until they can get some research experience.
Focus on the other areas of your application: the GRE, the statements, etc, if those are very very strong you’ll be competitive.
The whole point of a PhD in biology is to continue to develop as a researcher. If you are completing an undergraduate degree at a research university and have not spent any time whatsoever involved in research - why would an admissions committee believe that you are PhD material? Why do you want a PhD, and what can you provide as evidence?
It is difficult to be admitted to a competitive biology graduate program without previous research experience. You should consider applying to some biology departments at large state schools - that may need lots of graduate students to serve as teaching assistants as well - or working as a tech in an academic research lab for 1 or 2 years before applying, if you are not accepted during your first set of applications.
If you are invited for an interview, be prepared to answer the question: “Why haven’t you been involved in research yet?” Better yet, try to address this effectively in the statement you prepare for your applications.
Grad school especially for the PhD, isn’t like undergrad, where you get to just try things out, 2 years later, finally pick some major.
It’s specialist. They’ll want to see your bio LoRs, bio accomplishments, bio research directions. You’re supposed to start deeply educated in the field and ready to hit the ground running.
It’s an essential gap, OP. The suggestion to see if you can aim for an MS is good…except that expects appropriate background, too.
If you’re serious, you may need a series of undergradcourses to catch up and establish your credentials.
My area is biomedical sciences, so not exactly biology. Applicants to our PhD programs who have no previous research experience never make the cut to be invited for interviews - it doesn’t matter what their grades or GRE scores are. I cannot think of a single exception in the last couple of decades.
Why do you want a PhD in biology? And why hasn’t that reason motivated you to get involved in research before now? If you haven’t spent any time in a research lab, how do you know the life of a PhD biologist is for you?
The reason I suggest you might want to apply to biology PhD programs at big state schools is that some of them have state funding to pay for graduate students to be TAs in their undergrad teaching labs - and if there are a lot of teaching labs, they will need a lot of TAs and thus admit a lot of graduate students. They may be less fussy about previous research experience - but in these programs you would be expected to spend part of your time TAing and part of your time in research, in addition to taking courses your first 1-2 years.
In research universities in which grad students are not expected to be TAs but are expected to be full-time in the research lab, the PhD students are typically paid by their faculty mentors’ grants - and the faculty are not going to gamble by investing precious grant funds in a new PhD student with no previous research experience. This is the case in our biomedical sciences programs - we are only willing to gamble on new PhD students who have some previous research experience, so will have previous faculty mentors attesting to their motivation and potential.
A lot. Paramount. It is probably the single most important thing on your application.
As was mentioned above, the point of a PhD program is to teach you how to think and work like a researcher for the purpose of preparing you for a career doing research. You will spend 5-7 years toiling at the bench, 40+ hours a week, for little pay. Graduate programs want to know that you know what you’re getting yourself into and that you’ve made a conscious, well-informed choice before they fork over hundreds of thousands of dollars for your education.
Moreover, PhD advisors who are selecting you into their labs are doing so because they want you to help them make their research great. You’ll be working as a research assistant. Why would they choose you if you have zero experience when they can choose someone else who has a near-perfect GPA AND years of research experience? Top PhD programs have many candidates who have both.
I echo the question above: If you have no research experience, how do you know you want a PhD? You only take classes for 2 years. Everything after that is research. Really, the classes are secondary.
Obviously you want to try to get research experience ASAP, but as a senior you won’t really have enough to be competitive by December when your apps are due. I suggest you also seek out some post-baccalaureate options: post-bacc programs like the NIH IRTA or Pittsburgh’s Hot Metal Bridge program; or perhaps a funded MS program in biology or a closely related field; or a job as a research associate in a life sciences or biomedical lab.
This generally isn’t true.