Graduate Admission for Molecular Biology

Graduate School
1

<p>Undergrad Institution: Top 40 liberal arts school
Major(s): Biology
Minor(s): Philosophy
GPA in Major: 3.86
Overall GPA: 3.72
Position in Class: Top 13% percent
Type of Student: Asian male</p>

<p>GRE Scores (revised/old version):
Q: 162
V: 157
W: 4.0
B: </p>

<p>Research Experience:
-1.5 years at current lab, studying speciation in drosophila
-1 summer intern at Institute of Biotechnology in home country
-1 summer at Penn State College of Medicine
-1 poster presentation, 1 oral presentation</p>

<p>Awards/Honors/Recognitions:
-2 summer fellowships from home college
-1 summer fellowship from Penn State College of Medicine
-Dean's List</p>

<p>Pertinent Activities or Jobs:
-Student tutor for Bio Department</p>

<p>Special Bonus Points:
-letter of recommendation should be strong since I am one of the first students of current research advisor and have been heavily involved in the lab. Second letter of recommendation is from former chair of a top 10 school and he was happy with the results that I produced during my internship.
-Hoping to push for a paper before applications (should be co-author) but it's tough since we are doing a new system. I am literally doing everything I can to finish this. Will paper in preparation count????</p>

<p>Applying to Where: Immunology or molecular bio programs
Princeton (Molecular bio)
Penn (IGG)
Columbia CMBS
Weil Cornell (IMP)
Harvard BBS
Rockefeller
UChicago
Cornell
Pitt IBGP
UMass Medical School
Stony Brook (Molecular genetics)
Mount Sinai
Penn State Hershey
Brown (Pathobio)
Tufts</p>

<p>Any suggestion or comment would be helpful! Is my GRE too low ?</p>

2

<p>Curious to see what others would say since I have similar stats /applying to similar schools but for genetics though!</p>

3

<p>Any suggestion or comment?</p>

4

<p>It is hard to tell since we don’t sit on admission comittees for these schools. Each will be different. You should look through previous years’s application threads, see what poster’s stats are, where they got interviews etc (though keep in mind it is mostly the highly qualified applicants, take it with a pinch of salt). I did this last year and it helped me out, and gave me some ideas on schools to consider.</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/graduate-school/1415178-2013-bioscience-admission-interviews.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/graduate-school/1415178-2013-bioscience-admission-interviews.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>and check out the equivalent topics on thegradcafe.com</p>

<p>[2013</a> Applicant Profiles and Admission Results - Biology - The GradCafe Forums](<a href=“2013 Applicant Profiles and Admission Results - Biology - The GradCafe Forums”>2013 Applicant Profiles and Admission Results - Biology - The GradCafe Forums)</p>

5

<p>Thanks! I actually have checked out those threads. One of my concern is that my GRE score is in such a grey area, I don’t know whether it is worth retaking?</p>

6

<p>Don’t worry about your GRE scores, too much. It wouldn’t hurt to try and improve but you can apply fine as it is imo.</p>

7

<p>The advice I got from our adcom (microbiology) is that if you’re higher than the 80th percentile in both areas of the GRE, you’re fine. That’s clearly just one adcom, but considering that no one seems to take the GRE too seriously except as a negative selector, it seems like a good benchmark to me.</p>

8

<p>since my verbal is only 73%, should I consider retaking then?</p>

9

<p>It’s totally up to you. If you feel confident in your more important areas, like independent research experiences, then I wouldn’t waste my time. It can’t hurt, though, so if it’s not too big of a hassle, then maybe.</p>