<p>I just finished my bachelors from a liberal arts college ( ranked ~70 in US news.com). I will be doing research in harvard medical school for next two years (already have the position confirmed). My dream is to be in one of the three schools for grad study in biomedical sciences (cancer biology): Harvard, MIT or Stanford.
My stats are:</p>
<p>Major: Biology and Chemistry; minor: maths, biochemistry
GPA: 3.6cum (cum lauda), major 3.7, cum GPA (in last 2 years) 3.8 (best student in the department award at convocation w/ several other scholarships)..average undergrad GPA in our institution is ~2.6..</p>
<p>several short term researches in my undergrad institution with two senior independent studies in cancer biology and biochemistry. </p>
<p>One summer research at a different university which almost got published.</p>
<p>distinguished student in the department and will have excellent recommendation letters from the professors with whom I did my independent studies ( they wrote me letters when I applied for research @ harvard and heard from them that they were very complementary)</p>
<p>took almost all of the grad level courses in bio, chem, and maths and have As in all of them...</p>
<p>I am gona take GRE sub test and am confidient od scoring above 90-95 percentile since I have been studyin for it forever...
I really do not want attend any other colleges for my grad studies and since you are experienced with this...I wanna know how my stats are for the three institution that I have listed.</p>
<p>P.S. I am an international student who did undergrad in US.</p>
<p>Your profile looks ok. But if those three schools are your dream (hopefully for reasons other than prestige), you will apply and should apply regardless of what people say here. I never understood the point of chance threads. if people say you have no shot, you are going to apply anyways.</p>
<p>With a technician position at Harvard, you should have a significant leg up for admissions at least at Harvard -- one of the easiest ways to get into a program is to have a professor from that program willing to go to bat for you. Several of the students in my programs who didn't have out-of-the-park undergrad records did research at Harvard before applying, and all of them feel that their experience was a factor in their admissions. Having a letter from a prominent professor will also help you in admissions to MIT and Stanford.</p>
<p>It is difficult to be admitted as an international student, but at least anecdotally, I feel that it's easier for students who did undergrad in the US. (This could be related to those students' greater familiarity with the US application system -- it's not necessarily favoritism.) A few of my international friends felt that Stanford was the most difficult school to be admitted to as an international applicant, although I can't say I have data to back that up.</p>
<p>Ideally, you do want to get your target score of 90th+ percentile on the subject test. If you don't get a score above 90th%, I don't know that I'd bother sending the results. You also want to get an 800 on the math section of the GRE general test, although the verbal and writing scores are less important.</p>
<p>I was just worried about my GPA, which is not as extraordinary as the most of the students who apply to these institutions. And also about the fact that I am not a US citizen/PR.</p>
<p>@blah2009
thanks for your suggestions too....you are right, its not the prestige of these school but the program, research and the array of researchers they have are, i think, unbeatable....there are some other schools like UC berkely, UCSF which are counted in the same category for biomedical sciences program but when I applied for research in these universities and got offers from almost all of them, it was researchers in these three institutions whose interests matched my past research accomplishments and current interests, the most.
But its true that I chose harvard of the three coz I really wanted to be there.</p>
<p>Just wondering, but what does it take for international students (esp. for Canadian students) to receive a research position at Harvard med school?</p>
<p>
[quote]
I was just worried about my GPA, which is not as extraordinary as the most of the students who apply to these institutions. And also about the fact that I am not a US citizen/PR.
[/quote]
When you have technician experience, schools tend to look past your undergrad GPA and focus more on your more recent (and presumably more sophisticated) technician work. I don't have any idea what the average GPA of applicants is to my program (international or otherwise), so I can't tell you if your GPA is any sort of problem.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Just wondering, but what does it take for international students (esp. for Canadian students) to receive a research position at Harvard med school?
[/quote]
As far as I know, citizenship status doesn't affect ability to get technician positions.</p>
<p>Our lab is currently hiring for a technician position, and we are looking for someone with a strong record (previous research experience, outstanding letters of recommendation, good grades, strong interest in our area of research) who fits with the lab (interviews well, seems interested and asks good questions, is hard-working, is generally a person we want to have working with us for the next two years). What we are looking for in a technician is not much different from what my PI looks for in PhD applicants when he sits on the admissions committee.</p>
<p>I would be <em>very</em> surprised if your GPA was a problem. It's quite good, you should realize. It won't get you in, but neither would a 4.0. At the grad level, at least in sci/eng, GPA is a screening factor; it's the rest of your app that matters once you've jumped that hurdle.</p>
<p>Harvard/MIT, how did you get the position to do research at Harvard? You're an international.. do you have enough OPT to work there for two years?</p>
<p>I dun need to worry about my OPT...I will be having H-1 soon...Regarding how I got it, I applied for research in all of the universities which I am interested in attending for graduate which.....</p>
<p>Yea it definitely keeps you at disadvantage if you are an international.....in two labs, where I was offered for interviews, they dismissed the interview offer as soon as they know that I am an international. This was because they needed people to fill the position at least for 2 years and in order for an international student to work for 1+ years, we require H-1. Getting H-1 is a very complicated process for employers because they have to go through an expensive process to get one for us...They prefer hiring a citizen to an international unless they are really enticed to hire an international....</p>
<p>Although it seems that the discussion has already moved past this...I agree that your 3.6 is fine. Like somebody said before, it won't be what gets you in, but it certainly won't be seen as a negative. For what it's worth I had similar stats and got into similar caliber schools in a related field. Good luck!</p>