<p>Hello everyone. I want to apply to Neuroscience PhD programs this fall and am wondering if I am aiming to high for the schools I want to apply to. First off, I have a GPA of 3.68 and am graduating Cum laude at UC San Diego with a BS in Neuroscience. I am doing a BS/MS program doing neuro research for my MS, and should have my masters degree in Biology by next spring. I have two years of research experience under my belt, and a great GPA, but my GRE scores are not so hot (Q: 630; V:550; AW: N/A yet). I really want to apply to the following:</p>
<p>MIT
UCSF
UCB
BU
Columbia
UW</p>
<p>None of these school list a minimum GRE score. Do I have a good chance? Appreciate your input!</p>
<p>Some very important factors that you are not listing are: your letters of rec (who are they from? what will they say?), your statement of purpose (explains really well why you want to go to grad school and at this particular school), and if you get interviews, how well you interview. You will need to have these three components be super strong to make a viable app.</p>
<p>I have three really strong letters of recommendation (one of which is from my PI, and two others from professors I got along with very well in my undergrad courses). I have heard that the personal statement will also make or break my application. Someone told me to be sure be very succinct in what my aims are and why I am interested in their program as well as few sentences of the professors I would be interested in working with. Do you have any suggestions?</p>
<p>I would guess anything below a 650Q is gonna be extremely difficult. Most applicants to those science programs will easily have 700+. Suggest a retake…</p>
<p>Even Harvard’s School of Public Health has a 650 floor, not bcos they are concerned about USNews’ reporting, but about the ability of the students to handle their quant courses, biostat and epi. I would guess, and it’s only a guess, that MIT would have the same reaction to a <700 Q score.</p>
<p>I agree that your GRE may keep you out of programs like MIT and UCSF, but it is tough to say. If everything else is excellent, GRE really shouldn’t be too important. Your GRE scores aren’t terrible by any means, but because the top schools will get so many applicants with near perfect GRE + all the excellent qualities you have, you may get squeezed out of the running. </p>
<p>If you haven’t already, I suggest looking at the labs at specific schools that would be perfect research fits for you and getting in tough with those faculty members to express your interest. That can make the difference between having your app thrown out in pre-screening and getting a serious look. Still, programs or graduate schools may have relatively hard GRE or GPA thresholds, and at a place like that, interest from a faculty member in your app may not be enough to get you an interview.</p>
<p>Thank you for your response NeuroGrad! Yeah that is the general feeling I’ve been getting from people I asked. I have luckily been able to schedule meetings with two professors in the neuro departments at BU, Columbia, and MIT this summer, and plan on making a good impression. Hoping their interest in me would bolster my application somewhat.</p>
<p>Keep in mind some applicants have all 3 letters from research mentors and not just professors they took classes with. Both MIT and Columbia are exceptionally competitive in that sense, I have a friend who went for a similar program, who had taken 3 student fellowships at top schools and still got rejected by a few.</p>