I’m looking into immunology PhD programs and was curious if anyone could lend me some insight in how my application specifically could best be strengthened. I’m looking into Mayo, WUSTL, Northwestern, etc. so if anyone has some advice concerning specifically those programs (or similar programs) that would be greatly appreciated.
I graduated from BU (hoping well-known grade deflation accounts for my not incredibly stellar GPA)
Cumulative GPA=3.75 (magna cum laude)
Science GPA=3.9
My degree was in neuroscience and philosophy.
In college I gained 2 years of experience in a behavioral neuroscience lab and will have one middle author publication with a target submission this April. I’m also in the middle of a stint as a research assistant/lab manager now studying autoimmunity, and here I will most like get at least two more publications. One will be a review where I’m the first author (only author besides PI), and one first author/coauthor research paper with a postdoc and my PI. This altogether will give me 4 years of research experience and at least 3 publications.
I should have three really good letters of recommendation: one from each of my PIs and one from my student advisor who was also my professor and my boss when I later served as a learning assistant for the class I had taken with him.
I haven’t taken the GRE yet, but my practice test yielded a 317 with a higher math than verbal. I’m hoping to increase this drastically, but I’m not sure that this is specifically where I should be targeting my effort or if my time could be better spent somewhere else. If something else sounds like it’s lacking more I’d like to know I should concentrate on it. Any advice is greatly appreciated.