<p>I am an international student from Asia currently studying pharmacology in a big research university in Canada. I am thinking of applying to grad programs in the US next year cycle, and am wondering where I stand in terms of admission. Since many of the people have just gone through (or still going through) the admission, I thought if you could give me some advice!</p>
<p>GPA: mid 3.5
Research Experience: 4 years (3 wet labs & 1 year internship in clinical lab)
Papers: 4 co-author but all in clinical
Other factors: two business & finance internship, International student
I am thinking of applying to; Columbia, Michigan, Johns Hopkins, UCSD (and some other good school that you recommend?:)</p>
<p>I know the "what is my chance" question is not very practical, but since I am making a big career change (I was intending to work in business) I would like to know my situations well before I make the move.</p>
<p>Thank you so much guys! and Congrats & Good Luck to everyone!:)</p>
<p>You don’t really need to know the situation before you make the move - you can continue to work while you prepare graduate applications. If you don’t get in anywhere, you can just stay in your job and perhaps reapply next year if you want to.</p>
<p>Pharmacology is not my field. It’s my sense that a 3.5 GPA is solid enough, 4 years of research experience is pretty good/standard for a field like pharmacology and having published papers already is a definite cherry on top (but also somewhat expected if you work full-time as a research associate, although it’s not clear whether you do. If you’re still in undergrad then it’s pretty impressive as long as you’re not like 5th+ author on all of them). The finance internships and the fact that you are an int’l student don’t matter.</p>
<p>Columbia, Michigan, and JHU are all top-ranked programs, though, so you’ll be competing with a lot of applicants who look like you stats-wise. Also, graduate admissions are based more on fit - the numbers are just to get you in the door. Assuming that you get decent GRE scores, your numbers are good enough to get you in the door - but from there, the evaluation is going to be based on the quality of your research experiences, your letters of recommendation, your statement of purpose, and your research interests (and an interview if your field does them). So it’s not that you have no chance - you’re in the upper-middle to top portion of the pool as far as GPA and years of experience go - but there’s no way to really realistically give you a picture of what your admissions might be because we don’t know your research interests AND it really depends on who else is applying to that department that year, plus other vagaries like funding, who’s taking students, etc.</p>