How can i prepare myself in making a stunning application?

Graduate School
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<p>Ok, i am a rising sophmore at a low rank 4 year college. I screw up my freshman year by occupying myself with tv shows and music instead of studying. I retook a math course that i got a D on this summer, and received a grade letter A-. It replaced my previous grade and pulled my overall GPA to just above a 3.0 (3.02 to be exact). I am prepared to get all A's this point forward. With that said, what other criteria do i need to fulfill aside from excellent GPA?</p>

<p>extracurricular activities? volunteer work? internship? recommendation from professors, research with professors, conferences? am i missing any more?</p>

<p>how can i do research, engage in conferences, get recommendation when i did not declare a major. Pleaseeeee list everything i should be doing in depth and in steps if possible. i'll be forever grateful.</p>

<p>also, does undergrad college rank matter for a grad school application? I aim to finish next year with a high mark and get my associate but am undecided about staying or transferring. Would it look better if i finish my last 2 years at a university as oppose to finishing it in my current school, or does it matter? </p>

<p>i been using collegeconfidentials for nearly a year and it has never fail me, can you guys kindly help again?</p>

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<p>night bump</p>

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<p>bump. 10 char</p>

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<p>If you are planning to go to grad school in life sciences/engineering/physics/chemistry, everything else besides doing research is probably going to be waste of time. Research matters much much more than extracurricular or volunteer at non-related place. I’d say research (or volunteer for research) > internship in related field >>>>>> extracurricular in both related and non-related field > volunteer in non-related field.</p>

<ol>
<li>plan/decide your major field</li>
<li>plan your field in grad school
(For 1 and 2, the major doesn’t have to be exact, but general - biology related, engineering related, chemistry related, etc)</li>
<li>do research according to (2) but if you can’t decide yet at least do research according to (1)</li>
</ol>

<p>Undergrad college rank counts on GPA weighing, but the difference is not that much.</p>

<p>The advantage of getting into university is you can do good research since college usually doesn’t have many research projects/grants.</p>

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<p>Thank you, vitiatethis. This was exactly the answer i was looking for. Say i take an interest in something science related (which i been contemplating for a while), what would be the absolute lowest GPA for competitive top tier schools? 3.0? 3.5?
i know getting to know professors is key in getting recommendations and research but, how can i make myself stand out amongst other student. Also, how can i get internships? I been exhaustedly searching and almost all internships requires that i have a degree and or require skills.</p>

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<p>Without taking into account anything else, competitive college GPA is >3.8 (preferably major GPA). University GPA is >3.5 but also depends on your major.</p>

<p>GPA is not as important as research though, i.e. you get 3.3 but you have first author publication in a top ranked journal -> is more competitive than 3.9 GPA without pubs.</p>

<p>You make yourself stand out by coming to every office hour (whether it’s held by TA or prof) asking good questions for the whole office hour and get A. Do this in every class.</p>

<p>For skills, yeah it’s hard to get internship when you’re a starting sophomore. You don’t have the skills yet if you have never take a lab class that is specific like organic chemistry or biochemistry (I don’t think you have). If this is the case, then the best is just volunteer to be student lab assistant in a (any) lab so you can get skills that you can put in your resume. First you’ll be given menial task like washing lab equipment or mopping the floor, but depending on how diligent/good you are sooner or later (3-6 months) you’ll be given the chance to handle simple experiments such as making simple buffers/gels and even purify some chemicals/enzymes or do PCR etc. Those skills are the ones that people are looking for in internships and future research. Plus your professor will be more than glad to give you good recommendations.</p>

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<p>Given my situation, if i transfer out of my college to a university, how would it affect the GPA competitive standard. That’ll mean i spent 2 years in a college and the last 2 years in a university. How will that balance out? Will they look at trends? Does it affect the overall GPA?</p>

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<p>how can i get first hand experience on author publication or conference. How can i be apart of a project and have it successfully published?</p>

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<p>What do you suppose good questions are? Last year i schedule a meeting with one of my professors every week for assistance. Even tho i didn’t necessarily needed it, i came to her office hour just to show that i am taking interest and that I deserved a good grade However, at the end i didnt get a satisfying grade and was quite disappointed.</p>

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<p>You are right, i’ve only taken biology last year. This fall i am register for both bio 2 and general chemistry 1 (inorganic). Do you suppose i pick either one and volunteer to be a student lab assistant? If so, i can do this. Thanks.</p>

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<ol>
<li><p>Most grad school apps only look at last 60 hours (credit). Therefore it’s safe to say that if you transfer only the university grade (junior-senior) will be the one weighed for application. That being said, you shouldn’t do badly on college because you want to transfer to a good university in the first place.</p></li>
<li><p>You don’t deserve good grade by just showing up or showed you’ve taken interest, you study to get good grade. Showing up is just to make you stand out to professor (besides the fact that they are very very very very busy, they are human too, they need direct communication to at least remember you a bit). Some good questions are out of the box questions, and some usually arise after you’ve studied the material (textbook and class notes) deep enough that there will be some material that is not explained by the textbook alone that you need to ask the prof for further clarification.</p></li>
<li><p>To get publication, first you need to build up lab skills. You need to volunteer to lab as I’ve said:

After doing the above for a year, you will have a general idea of what your research interest is. Since you’re planning to transfer, it’s best to just do the quoted above during your sophomore year at your current college.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>When you transfer, join a lab of interest (with recommendation from your boss at previous lab how good you are), then after 3 months ask your prof if you can work together with a grad student/by yourself in a project (do not ask directly that you want to publish, it’s kind of not the way to do it), if you are good enough then your prof might give you first, co, or second/third authorship on the publication.</p>

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<p>Given my situation, if i transfer out of my college to a university, how would it affect the GPA competitive standard. That’ll mean i spent 2 years in a college and the last 2 years in a university. How will that balance out? Will they look at trends? Does it affect the overall GPA?</p>

<p>Eh. In my experience, GPA differences aren’t based on college v. university, but more on the quality and reputation of the school. A 3.5 coming from a school that has a good reputation with the particular program in which you are interested may look better than a 3.6 or 3.7 coming from an unknown school, all other things being equal. But when I say “unknown”, I’m not talking about U.S. News rankings. Graduate committees don’t care about that. What they care about is their experiences with students from a particular department/school and the reputation within their field and the greater world of academia of a particular institution. In my experience, professors don’t rank-order institutions the way magazines do. They just have vague categories of “excellent,” “great,” “good,” “fair.” And these categories are going to vary from program to program.</p>

<p>Basically, just try to get as high a GPA as you can.</p>

<p>how can i get first hand experience on author publication or conference. How can i be iapart of a project and have it successfully published?</p>

<p>Quite frankly, it’s very unlikely that an undergrad will be “first author in a top ranked journal.” It’s unusual for undergrads to have publications in general, much less be first author, MUCH less be first author in a top journal. Your goal should be to get research experience and to present at a conference. Any publications are icing on the cake.</p>

<p>The best way to do this is to look up what professors are doing as far as research, and approach one and ask if they need a research assistant. If they don’t, ask them if they know a professor that does. Don’t limit yourself to your own college; you can also explore the nearby universities where people might be doing more interesting or extensive research. As you progress along in research, the opportunity may come along for you to do an independent project, and that’s when you would get the opportunity to present at a conference. Since most undergrads are only on projects for at most 3 years, and usually they only spend 1-2 years on one, it’s difficult to get an authorship. You have to contribute significantly to the writing of a scholarly paper, and honestly, most undergrads just aren’t there yet. Heck, a lot of first and second year graduate students aren’t there yet. I know a lot of people who don’t publish until their 3rd or 4th or 5th year of grad school. I’m going into my 4th and I’m hoping this first-authored revise and resubmit I have going now will be published in the next academic year.</p>

<p>The most important thing is just the experience. Connect with a professor.</p>

<p>I also don’t think it’s good advice to go to EVERY office hour and ask good question the WHOLE office hour. That’s kind of ridiculous, IMO. It is a good idea to <em>occasionally</em> go to office hours - when you actually have a question. I am a TA, and I would’ve been THRILLED if a student had come to my office hours just to chat about the psychology they learned in the class. (Most of the students who came just wanted to fill in the notes they were missing, word for word.) But you don’t want to hang around too much (the entire office hour every week) because then you become annoying. You don’t go to office hours to show that you “deserve a good grade.” Your grades are about the work you do. I had a student who came to office hours quite often and she still failed the final. I felt bad failing her, but she earned the F.</p>

<p>Before you volunteer to be a research assistant anywhere, you need to figure out what you’re interested in. Honestly, you can’t even plan to go to graduate school if you don’t even know what you want to major in yet - focus on that first. It is a good idea to get involved in research early, but what if you start in a biology lab and then realize you want to do English literature in grad school? Take some classes and explore your interests first. Settle on at least a range of majors. If you volunteer in a biology lab, even if you decide to go to graduate school for chemistry that experience will still be useful. Same if you do sociology research and go to school for econ or poli sci instead, or if you do English-type research and go for history or religion. But a biology lab research position won’t impress an English adcom, and vice versa.</p>

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<p>thank you so much guys. I’ll certainly apply the advices you’re giving me. I’m taking time looking over the majors before proceeding on. Like you guys said, first things first.</p>

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<p>See if your school has a department for undergrad research. They might be able to help you fund your own research project and tell you about opportunities for where you can take your research.</p>