Grad School Advice

Graduate School
1

<p>Hi All,</p>

<p>So, I just recently started looking into PhD programs and different grad schools and am a little overwhelmed. Just so you get an idea about me, I'm a 3rd year Biochem major at UCLA w/~3.2 GPA and I've been working in a research lab for roughly a year and a half. Additionally, I'm the second author on a soon-to-be-published paper. Also, I should be taking the GRE this summer. </p>

<p>Obviously, at the moment, my biggest concern is that my GPA is a little low. I'm entirely convinced that I won't be able to get into the top schools in my field (biochem) such as UC Berkeley, Stanford, and Harvard (according to US Weekly)... So I guess, my question would be, taking my stats and research experience into consideration, what are realistic schools (those that are most likely to be in my range) to look into? Is there a website that has a list of a grad schools (not just the top few) that I can look at to get an idea of what sorts of programs are out there? </p>

<p>Thanks for any help!</p>

2

<p>Well, you could take a look at the rest of the biological sciences rankings on USNews, rather than just focusing on the specialty-specific rankings.</p>

<p>My advice is to get thee to a trusted professor friend -- he or she will have a good idea where you stand with your complete admissions package and will be able to recommend a range of programs that might pique your interest.</p>

<p>It's really difficult to tell where a given biology applicant will get in based only on the information people give on CC. I think the admissions committees at different schools are pretty consistent (someone who gets into Stanford is pretty likely to get into Berkeley and MIT), but I can't for the life of me tell what exactly the criteria are.</p>