<p>Mr. Zoo is from Ohio State so he probably doesn’t know much about top schools considering the fact he is going to Ohio State.<br>
Are you going for Ph.D. or master
@MolSysBio: What school are you from?</p>
<p>^^hahah
I wanted to say the same thing but refrained myself.</p>
<p>prefer not to post that kind of info online, but it might have slipped out once or twice.</p>
<p>I think I know exactly what school u r from. It’s cool</p>
<p>I agree with molsysbio-- if you have the right connections its not difficult to get accepted to top 5 schools with a GPA ~3.0. You probably won’t get into all 5 top 5 schools, but you will get into at least one. With a GPA ~3.5 I got accepted into every school that I applied to (only top 10), as did several of my classmates applying with me. They don’t care about grades, because classes are by far the least important part of the phd. They don’t care about GREs either, as long as you don’t do awfully. What they care about is research experience, LORs, and the personal statement-- since research is really what the PhD is all about. </p>
<p><strong>this only holds for biosciences grad schools, since that is all I know about</strong></p>
<p>Thanks for the continued advice everyone.</p>
<p>I’m not applying from a top-ranked school, and to be honest I never cared about rankings so I still haven’t even looked up where my school is ranked after 3 years of attending. It’s a non-issue to me, since my application will consist of my individual efforts, not my school name.</p>
<p>I will have one good LoR from my PI at my old lab, and most likely an LoR from my NIH PI, plus 2 professors I’ve had in undergrad (one Molecular Bio prof, and one Philosophy prof). Hopefully I’ll continue research in a 3rd lab at school when I return in the Fall.</p>
<p>Geography isn’t really a choice for me at this point, I’m sure living in the midwest for a year was doable, but I’m not leaving everyone I know for ~5 years, it’s just not worth it to me.</p>
<p>Katatonic, make sure you post your interviews and acceptances/denials in the Official Biosciences Results thread. It will be important for others to see how a student with a 3.43 GPA from a non-top university and a lot of research/LORs fares in the process.</p>
<p>I will definitely post everything in that thread if I end up being accepted. Since I’m also considering Biochem related programs, I’ve added Oregon State to my list which is a great school, and maybe not AS hard to get into as the cali schools I listed.</p>
<p>ok, sefago said what I wanted to say about those cases, all of them went to MIT, so if you are 3.43 from MIT then you are in good shape–but I guess you are not? </p>
<p>@asian boi, I went to OSU for my undergrad and applied to wide range of different graduate school programs so I know what it’s like coming from a non-top ranked schools. And I have friends/classmates got into top ranked schools (in case you don’t know, OSU is the largest university in the US right now, so we have students go to everywhere upon graduation) thanks for the discrimination thou, it tells a lot about your character.</p>
<p>and finally to the OP, now you are saying you dont plan to apply to top-ranked school? then why did you put Stanford and UCB on the original list? I gave you suggestion based on that list and then now you changed it. Afterall it’s your own money, I just tried to save you some application fee</p>
<p>Why are ppl trying to denigrate each other on this thread based on where they went to undergrad? OSU is a pretty good public school recognized nationally. Maybe its not top 50 nationally, but it is considered top 20, tier 1 public school. I didnt go there but I wouldn’t reject it as non-ranked. All Undergrad programs provide the same basic all-around education to their students. So, I would like to think that it doesn’t matter where you went to undergrad–as long as you have a decent GPA and good GRE score, with good LORs and research experience–you should be able to get in somewhere (maybe even in the top 20 programs). But take my opinion with a grain of salt --because I am also a prospective applicant with no experience in this process yet. Maybe if ppl here who did have experience would like to back this up.</p>
<p>no, they didn’t all go to MIT (I didn’t, and my friends didn’t). We did all go to top schools though and had really good LORs from very famous PIs who actually knew us</p>
<p>Zoo, I didn’t say I’m NOT applying to top-ranked schools now, I’m considering applying to “less-competitive” programs now. Not the same thing, but thanks for the advice you’ve given so far.</p>
<p>finally back, moving from Midwest to the east coast is not an easy thing! Boston is interesting place :D</p>
<p>yaygrady put it well, but there are certain (quite a lot) people believe the magical aura around the “top-ranked schools”, they will be so carried away with that and then 10 years after college they will realize it’s not such a big issue (with the big exception that you work in academia)</p>
<p><3.3 gpa here from non-ranked bottom-tier public school. Average GRE scores. Last cycle I got into 2 of the places the OP has on his list. </p>
<p>I now am attending one of those places, and there is a person who went to OSU for undergrad in my class.</p>
<p>Just sayin’…</p>
<p>Took the GRE this morning and scored a 1230 (560-V/670-Q). I know it’s not great, but here is where I’m seriously thinking of applying, dropped a few and added one:</p>
<p>OHSU (Neuroscience or Molecular/Cellular Biosciences)
University of Oregon (Biology –> Neuroscience Institue or Molecular Bio Institute)
University of Washington (Pathology or Neurobiology)
UCSF (Neuroscience or BMS)</p>
<p>Now that I know my GRE I can better gauge my potential shot at these schools. Any more thoughts? I know I’m right on the line numbers wise with a GPA of 3.43 coupled with a mediocre GRE, but you never know?</p>
<p>Katatonic, don’t drop all your “reach” schools. Roxannecello is a superb example of how a student dedicated to his/her research can be accepted at a top program, even with a lower GPA. Include one or two dream programs, even if you know your odds may not be great, because . . . well, you never know.</p>
<p>That Quantitative GRE score might keep you out of schools you would have otherwise had a shot at. They might filter out a score so low. </p>
<p>The application process is a pain and you don’t want to be left with what-ifs. I suggest you redo those GREs.</p>
<p>Do you really think the Q score is more of a problem than the V score? I figured the Q was okay/average and the V was a little low.</p>
<p>Your quantitative percentile will likely be lower than your verbal one, and in a biology PhD program, the quantitative score is emphasized more.</p>
<p>for my field (engineering, including biomedical engineering) if your Q is less than 770 it’s a red flag… not sure about neuro related fields</p>