<p>I'm aspiring to eventually go to graduate school to get a PhD for cell biology (stem cell to be specific). I have no research experience, a 3.427 overall GPA (Bachelor in Biology) and never talked to any of my professors during my time at school. I'm absolutely positive that this is what I want to do and didn't figure it out until my final year... </p>
<p>I really don't know what to do here. I'm willing to do anything, even if it means repeating undergrad for another degree to improve my chances. Lately I've been looking to at least get my foot in the door by asking around if I could volunteer, do internships, or work actual jobs in any lab settings that are at least somewhat related... but I've not gotten anything. What should I do from here so that I can end up in a PhD program? </p>
<p>I’m curious as to how you can be ‘absolutely positive’ if you have no research experience. Doing research is very different from taking classes or reading about something.</p>
<p>In any case, repeating undergrad for another degree won’t help you. What you should do is try to get some research experience. You can do that in a variety of ways - you can volunteer with a professor as an RA; you can apply for a post-bac program with the NIH; you can apply to be a full-time RA or lab technician with a biomedical research lab at a university or government agency. If you haven’t gotten anything yet, you need to keep trying. You can get at least one recommendation out of that.</p>
<p>Another way to get recommendations and prove yourself is to take a few graduate biology classes as a non-degree student at a local university. You can get good grades and get recommendation letters from the professors who teach you.</p>