<p>Yeah yeah MIT is a great undergraduate university I know, but, It is not happening for me as far as admissions goes. yeah I could transfer, but, could you guys tell me about it's graduate school? I know little about it. thanks a bunch!</p>
<p>Graduate admissions is done by department, so in order to give you more information, it would be necessary to know what department you'd be interested in going to graduate school in. Not all of them are equally difficult to get into.</p>
<p>In general, to get into a top graduate school in the sciences and engineering, you will need a solid undergraduate GPA, excellent professor recommendations, a strong reason for going to graduate school, and great undergraduate research experience. It is not easy to get all of these things together.</p>
<p>Department of Biochemistry and/or Biomedical engineering and/or physics. sorry if that does not help.</p>
<p>Well, for one thing, you do need to pick a focus before you even think about applying to graduate school. :) Grad school can't just be a default option -- you have to absolutely know you want to spend 5-6 years of your life beating yourself over the head with one research topic. (I realize that what you're saying is that you're in high school, and as such it's totally understandable that you don't know what you want to focus on yet. But just remember that grad school isn't something anybody has to do.)</p>
<p>If you think you will want to go to graduate school, it's most useful to pick an undergrad school where you can do real, meaningful research (i.e. not just dish-washing) and where you can develop close relationships with professors. It helps to go to a school like MIT, because research is available to everyone and because the school is small enough that students can develop good relationships with prominent faculty members.</p>
<p>Some things about graduate school admissions are not fair. For instance, a strong recommendation from a faculty member who is eminent in his or her field carries more weight than an equivalent recommendation from a faculty member who is unknown. Additionally, students from schools like MIT can get lower GPAs than students at other schools and still get admitted.</p>
<p>One nice thing is that test scores are not terribly important, and few people waste the time and money to re-take the GRE. It's just not worth it.</p>
<p>Hey mollie, I had a question that maybe you had some perspective on.</p>
<p>How important is it that the research one does as an undergraduate mirrors his or her interests in graduate schools? If someone is successful in one area, but then moves to a different field, do you think schools would be concerned that such a person couldn't focus on one subject matter, or would they appreciate that the person has a broader exposure and thus could better choose a graduate program that was interesting?</p>
<p>(Darn it, I had this whole thing written out and my browser window reloaded. Trying to reconstruct from scratch.)</p>
<p>I don't think it's a handicap to apply to graduate programs in a different field from your undergraduate research, and in fact I think it can be an advantage -- graduate programs want to see that you're picking a focus based on things that you find really interesting, rather than just continuing your undergraduate research by default. After all, many people end up in a certain undergraduate research position more or less by chance, and it seems a little scary to stick yourself in a 5-6 year PhD program based on a random choice you made as a freshman or sophomore in college. :)</p>
<p>I had also written something about how my undergraduate research was in neurobiology and I interviewed for biology programs with immunology, stem cell biology, and cancer biology faculty members, but I forget where I was going with that.</p>
<p>It probably wouldn't be a bad idea to stick a sentence or two in a statement of purpose about how you came to choose a particular field if it's not obvious from your background, but I don't think it's disadvantageous to choose a different path for graduate school than the one you pursued as an undergrad.</p>
<p>following-up, I know we are talking science here, but, many scholars accepted into the "prestigious" law schools majored in things like economics philosophy biology chemistry mathematics history physics etc. and of course poly sci., but, still often colleges appreciate self-driven individuals who pursue their interests. Further, shifting to different fields of interest is how miraculous discoveries are made and nobel prizes are won. With an expertise in one field the scientist is able to apply completely isolated concepts into the new field and that is how we end up with no longer just biology chemistry and physics. But, things like biochem nanotech chemical physics physical biology and so on. All power to you, by all means continue to connect the science web! :)</p>
<p>Hi mollie,</p>
<p>In your experience, what do you think makes very strong research that graduate schools would be impressed by? I am involved in research projects, but it is mostly grunt work. I mean, are they expecting journal quality research experience or enough research experience so that you have the basics when working on a thesis? Obviously journal quality research experience would be ideal, but what is the next best thing you can do? Thanks for any advice!</p>
<p>Well, they'd like to see that you're involved intellectually in the research -- that you're not just doing what someone else tells you to do, but that you're involved in designing the project and interpreting the results.</p>
<p>I guess I'm not sure what the difference between publishable and thesis-quality research is... I mean, shouldn't they be one and the same?</p>