I am an international student majoring in Biochemistry and a mathematics minor. I have transferred from a community college to a four year college with a 3.8 GPA. My current GPA at this college for two semesters is 3.2. I want to apply to nano-science programs for grad school but everyone is telling me that I need research experience before applying for PhD. I am a junior right now and this semester I did research but it did not work out quite well and I had to cancel the project. I want to ask is there any chance that I get into a grad school without much research background?
it is possible but the most selective programs expect a significant amount of research from their successful applicants. You need to try again and figure out why it did not work out the first time. Frankly, when you say that you had to cancel the project, i am not quite sure you understand what it means to be involved in research. Generally, you find a faculty member who is doing research that interests you and volunteer in the lab, learning what it means to be doing research. You still have time since you need to apply next Fall but you need to move quickly.
Yeah, what does “it did not work out quite well” and “I had to cancel the project” mean? If you just started doing research this semester, that means it’s been 3 months or less since you started the project - how is that enough time to know whether the project was working out?
In addition, if you have no research experience, how do you know you want a PhD? That is what professors reading your application will think if you apply without it. A PhD is all about research and about preparing you for a career in research, so professors want to be reasonably sure that you know what you are getting yourself into and will not discover after 1-2 years that you actually hate research and want to leave the program. They also want you to have basic lab skills so you can actually be of use to the PI you will be assisting with their work.
So if you want a hope of getting into graduate school without research experience (and those chances are very bleak, since the best programs have no shortage of well-qualified students WITH experience you are competing with) you need to demonstrate both of those things: that you know what you are getting yourself into, and that you have enough basic lab/research knowledge to be of use at the graduate level. You can talk about your coursework if it is advanced and maybe some related activities (science-related volunteering, applied work, internships, jobs) that have transferable skills. But really there’s no good substitute for research experience.