I'm just gonna post my entire transcript. Do I have a chance at molecular biology?

Graduate School
1

<p>Hi everyone. I want to get into a molecular biology type graduate program, don't care too much what school I just want to get the degree and learn. I'm a senior molecular biology major.</p>

<p>I want as good a guess from you as possible so I'm gonna give you as much info as possible (my transcript). Skip it if you want and just read the bold for general info.</p>

<p>The first several quarters I pretty much did no studying and had no idea what I wanted to do. Then I got interested in biology once I took bio200 (it was the first time I learned about any molecular biology), ironically after getting a 2.2 in bio180 which I hated. I gradually brought my cum. GPA from a 2.67 to a 3.0.</p>

<p>School: University of Washington
General science classes are curved to a 2.6-2.8 so it's really ridiculous how 90% of the students got 3.7+ GPA in high school, but it's only possible for 40% of us to get above a 3.0 in a science class. I find many people from other schools do not understand what this means...literally HALF the class gets below the curve and half gets above, regardless how smart the students are as a whole. Think about that for a sec.</p>

<p>Sorry for the format and caps, everything is just pasted straight from my transcript.</p>

<p>SAT SCORES : VERBAL:570 MATH:660 WRITING:590 </p>

<p>Autumn 2006<br>
CALC I 3.0
GEN CHEM 2.8
Classics 2.2
GPA: 2.78</p>

<p>WINTER 2007<br>
ATM S 101 WEATHER 2.5<br>
GEN CHEM II 2.5<br>
CALC II 3.0<br>
QTR ATTEMPTED: 15.0 EARNED: 15.0 GPA: 2.67</p>

<p>SPRING 2007
GEN CHEM III 2.7<br>
ECON 200 INTRO MICROECON 2.6<br>
MSE 298 INTRO MODERN MTLS CR<br>
QMETH 201 INTRO TO STAT MTHDS 2.9<br>
QTR ATTEMPTED: 15.0 EARNED: 15.0 GPA: 2.72</p>

<p>AUTUMN 2007<br>
BIOL 180 INTRO BIOLOGY (evolution and random stuff about the 5 kingdoms) 2.2
CHEM 237 ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 2.8<br>
MATH 126 CALC ANYL GEOM III 2.7<br>
QTR ATTEMPTED: 14.0 EARNED: 14.0 GPA: 2.55 :(</p>

<p>WINTER 2008<br>
BIOL 200 INTRO BIOL (molec bio) 3.4<br>
CHEM 238 ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 2.9<br>
SCAND 151 W-FINN LIT/CULTR HIST 3.6<br>
QTR ATTEMPTED: 14.0 EARNED: 14.0 GPA: 3.33</p>

<p>SPRING 2008<br>
BIOL 220 INTRO BIOL (physiology) 2.9 (2.7 in the plant half, 3.1 in the animal half)
CHEM 239 ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 3.0<br>
PHYS 114 GENERAL PHYSICS 3.1<br>
QTR ATTEMPTED: 12.0 EARNED: 12.0 GPA: 2.99</p>

<p>Begin first lab job. Nothing special, just RNA purifying and microarrays over and over to make some money and get bench experience. ~10 hours a week </p>

<p>AUTUMN 2008 BIOL 3
ARCH 150 3.3<br>
BIOL 355 FOUNDATIONS OF CELL/MOLEC BIO 4.0<br>
CLAS 205 BIOSCIENTIFIC VOCAB 3.4<br>
PHYS 115 GENERAL PHYSICS 3.3<br>
QTR ATTEMPTED: 13.0 EARNED: 13.0 GPA: 3.48</p>

<p>WINTER 2009 BIOL 3
BIOL 350 FOUNDATIONS OF PHYSIOLOGY 3.5<br>
GENOME 371 GENETICS 2.7<br>
PHIL 242 MEDICAL ETHICS 3.1<br>
QTR ATTEMPTED: 13.0 EARNED: 13.0 GPA: 3.04</p>

<p>SPRING 2009 BIOL 4
BIOL 354 EVOLUTION AND SYSTEMATICS 3.2<br>
BIOL 401 ADV. CELL BIOLOGY 3.6<br>
BIOL 454 ENTOMOLOGY 3.6<br>
MICROM 301 GENERAL MICROBIOLOGY 3.6<br>
QTR ATTEMPTED: 12.0 EARNED: 12.0 GPA: 3.50! </p>

<p>AUTUMN 2009 BIOL 4
BIOC 440 BIOCHEMISTRY 1.4 (loved learning, hated memorizing)
BIOL 415 EVOLUTION & DEVELOPMENT 3.9<br>
MICROM 302 MICRO LAB 3.4<br>
SPANISH 3.7<br>
QTR ATTEMPTED: 14.0 EARNED: 14.0 GPA: 3.04</p>

<p>CUMULATIVE GPA: 3.00</p>

<p>Lab job ends, new lab work begins (MED499)</p>

<p>IN PROGRESS:
BIOL 405 CEL&MOL BIO DISEASE 3.3?<br>
BIOC 406 INTRO TO BIOCHEM 2.8?<br>
MED 499 UNDERGRAD RESEARCH 3.5-4?</p>

<p>NEXT QUARTER:
CELL BIOLOGY LAB 3.5?
SPANISH III 3.3?
MEDICAL VIROLOGY 3.0?
MED 499 3.5-4?</p>

<p>CUM GPA UPON GRADUATION ~ 3.05</p>

<p>No extra curricular stuff, which I read on here isn't a big deal. My spare time is just spent with friends and learning completely random things on the internet...and video games which I wish I had never gotten into...</p>

<p>MED 499 is a 5 credit (15 hours per week) unpaid position I've got at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. They have some brain tumor patients who they implanted with bone marrow stem cells that were treated with gene therapy to give them chemotherapy-resistance to allow the patients to receive stronger doses of chemo. This obviously isn't my project so I'm not doing any research, just sort of a part time unpaid lab tech job.</p>

<p>Give me your input and suggestions. I haven't looked around much but I'd like to stay close to home, so Washington State U would be a good choice for me, I think theyre outta my league though.</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

2

<p>Well, what I would recommend is for you to get some research experience. I think that would significantly improve your prospects for grad school. You could either do a post-bac somewhere, or you might even look into doing a research Master’s first. Even as is, I think you still stand a good chance of getting in somewhere, but if you were to gain some solid research experience I think that would help significantly.</p>

3

<p>Does this thing at the Hutch not count as research experience? What about being a lab tech after I graduate?</p>

<p>This is something I’ve never quite understood, my fellow students always tell me they are “doing research” in labs…and I always think to myself “youre an undergrad, why would they let you use their money to do research but not a lab tech who is more educated and experienced than you?”</p>

4

<p>Don’t worry about the GPA, my undergrad institution also wasn’t in tune with what grades were like at peer institutions. That didn’t seem to affect me much. I think you stand a good chance at getting into most grad programs. Obviously there will be applicants that will be considered more highly who went to schools that give out A’s like candy but fortunately grad admissions aren’t all about grades. Play up your research experience, and if you apply and don’t like your response, you can always work for a couple of years as a tech. There is nothing like a couple of publications and an adult sense of maturity to make you a more desirable recruit.</p>

5

<p>I think it really depends on how extensive these research experiences have been. Can you come up with an insightful description of the work, and show that you were intellectually involved in its’ development? If not, lab tech for a few years. Your GPA may keep you out of some programs, but shouldn’t stop you overall. If you are really worried, take the subject test as it might help remove some doubt.</p>

6

<p>hey AntiAger, I am a UDub alumni and I can totally understand you. My introductory BIOL series’ GPAs were very awful. As a matter of fact, on average, you did slightly better than me on those three classes. However, I did pretty well on my advanced bio-related classes to make up those bad GPAs. I’m applying this year and so far, I’ve got several interview invites and acceptances from top schools. So, doing poorly on those classes is definitely not the end of everything.</p>

<p>Just try your best to get high GPAs on your remaining bio-related classes. For that purpose, I won’t really recommend you taking medical virology though. It’s a fun class but the grading system is tough. There are so many pre-meds taking that class and only the top 5% get 4.0. </p>

<p>Your current work at Hutch will definitely count toward research exp. Also, as other people said, get some post-graduate lab experiences to strengthen your stats. With more research experiences, I’m pretty sure you can aim for WSU and even some other better schools.</p>

<p>(Btw, my research field relates to your lab’s research. I might know your PI)</p>

7

<p>This is awesome stuff to hear! I’m completely surprised, I thought having a 3.0 GPA would virtually get an automatic no from 90% of state schools right off the bat. And selpunca I’m really surprised you think I have a shot at WSU or better!</p>

<p>I was planning on working as a tech for awhile anyway, at the suggestion of a few people who didn’t :)</p>

<p>Thank you all for the uplifting comments, I’ve been worried and stressed for a long time over this.</p>

8

<p>AntiAger, we were in the same class! lol! (BIOL415)</p>

9

<p>@AntiAger I’m a grad student at UW (in micro) and my lab has an undergrad who is running her own research project, so it is possible, but I also know of labs in which the undergrads are only helpers to the grad students/post docs. It depends on the lab and the PI.</p>

<p>In your app, you need to play up any lab experience you have, whether it’s doing RNA preps and microarrays, or as a lab tech. When people talk about ‘research experience’ they’re not just talking about running a project, but also any hands-on benchwork. Even if your current project isn’t what you want to do, list it and explain how it helped you define what you’re interested in by showing you what you’re not interested in.</p>

10

<p>I’m now experienced/knowledgeable enough to give you input… I am just a freshman at UW with a deep interest in biology as well. If I may ask, where did you get your first lab job? I am currently searching all over for jobs/research related to my interests but, have yet to discover one. I would love to hear how you went about your search for job/internship/research experience. Thank you</p>

11

<p>@ pumpkins: From what I understand, many students approach their professors for lab jobs. It’s also not unheard of for a student to just go down the faculty page for his/her department until he/she finds a professor doing research in something that matches his/her interests, and just shooting off an email asking if the professor has a lab position available.</p>

12

<p>@ pumpkins, neltharion is right. Most students look through the faculty lists for professors whose work they are interested in and contact them, or they approach their professors. Before you talk to anyone you need to look through their work (read the abstracts of their papers, and maybe try reading a few) so that you can explain why you chose them. Just showing up and saying “I want to do research!” without explaining why you want to join that lab is not going to get you far. </p>

<p>Also, professors are busy and emails sometimes get lost (or disregarded). Send an email, wait a few days, send another. If they still haven’t replied go to their office (if they’re teaching a class go to their office hours). Be persistent. Apply for dishwashing jobs.</p>