<p>Hello everyone, I'm new to the board. However, this forum has helped me a bunch in attaining information on the graduate school admission process so I'd like to thank everyone who reads and/or responds to this post.</p>
<p>I'm a 2010 University of Chicago graduate who majored in biology and had attained an overall GPA of 3.4 and a major GPA of about 3.63 upon graduation. I've also taken the GRE last year and had gotten a score of 570/800/5.5(Verb/Math/Essay). Earlier this year I've obtained a score of 880 for the Biology GRE test. The big disappointment, which I can obviously blame no one else but myself for, is that I do not have any research experience on my application.</p>
<p>I know what I want to do and I know that I have the skills and dedication to achieve it. I've always had a deep interest in the plasticity of neurons, neural regeneration, and the pathfinding abilities of axons. However, knowing that research is such an important part of my application, I blew my chances and feel that I'm out of the game in terms of applying for a graduate school.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, I'm not an expert in this, so my first question is that do I really have no chances of being accepted to a decent graduate school (preferably local in CA) with no research experience?</p>
<p>Hoping alone won't help, so I do intend to remedy this problem; I am still young and have plenty of time and energy. I've been looking at the NIH post-bac programs, which, if anything, shows that I'm willing to put forth 1, 2, or even more years of time in research in order to strengthen my graduate school application. I'm wondering if this is a good way to go and if not, what other ways could I go?</p>
<p>I'm sorry if anything I've said seem obvious or ignorant, and again, thanks for reading.</p>
<p>You are impressively polite in your post. </p>
<p>Yes - you need research experience. How do you know you want to be in the lab every day for 6ish years (for a PhD program)? Try hard for an NIH or tech job. You haven’t destroyed your chances - your major GPA and test scores look good (but you can’t get a 880 on the bio GRE… it’s out of 800. You’re overall GPA maybe a little low numerically, but U of Chicago is known for hard grading right?) which are two things that can keep people out of grad school- but without research experience, I don’t see you getting into a “good” grad school (How good is good to you? (Are you aiming for a top 10 or top 30? or 50?) Which CA schools are you interested in? UCSF, Stanford, Berkeley, UCLA, UCSD, CalTech, etc. etc. will all require research experience to get in) One of the most important parts of your app will be your LORs (letters of rec) - and the ones that really count are the one’s written by PIs (especially PIs that are well known within their field or know the interviewers at the school that you want to get into). A good LOR from a good PI is a huge advantage to getting in (it’s all about who you know/connections in the really good schools. Can be frustrating - especially if you come from a great but small liberal arts college-, but it’s true). You also want LORs from your undergrad profs that speak highly of you - how well did you get to know them?</p>
<p>I wouldn’t recommend applying until you have research experience that you can talk about in your SOP and interviews. </p>
<p>Good luck!!</p>
<p>You want a PhD or MS? For a PhD application, you will need to do work in research for 2-3 years and be really involved with the theory there. You should be fine to apply after that. If you are aiming for the NIH programs, make sure to email potential labs before you indicate you want to work with them on the online application. I talked to the head of that IRTA program and he said that is the number one mistake people make.</p>
<p>The girl who took my old tech job when I left had no research experience. So clearly it is possible to attain research positions without research experience. However, it is unlikely that you will get into a grad program without research experience.</p>
<p>Thanks for the helpful and kind words, I know what I should do now and will spend a couple of years doing some research first.</p>
<p>PS: According to what I heard U of C is indeed a bit harsh on grading. I also got a 870 on the bio GRE actually, and from what I hear the full score is 990 (870 was the 96+ percentile).</p>
<p>Woops, my mistake - you’re right it is out of 990. Good luck finding a lab job - you will have to commit 2 years for many lab jobs as they invest a lot in training you (before anyone protests - yes, you could find a one year - but that’s hard/rare).</p>
<p>^2 years is a decent amount of time. If you left a tech job after 1 year, it is unlikely that you would get much out of it. I published several times as a tech but my first article didn’t even go into press until the beginning of my second year. If you consider that between undergrad, grad school and postdoc (the three phases of training prior to a permanent position) you will be spending somewhere between 13 to 17 years on your training, 2 years doesn’t seem that big of a deal to drastically improve your trajectory by being competitive for positions with better labs and in more respected departments.</p>