If your goal is to have a career as a university researcher in biology, you will need a PhD, not a master’s degree.
The good news, is that most PhD programs in the sciences are funded: you do not pay tuition, the school pays YOU a small salary - enough to live on if you’re not a big spender.
The bad news, is that admissions to a funded PhD program is very competitive. Your GRE score should be outstanding. You should also ask yourself, how good is your academic record at home? How much research have you done? Any publications? To get in, you will be competing against very good students from the US and internationally.
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@BlueBubble
Check your PM, I sent you one.
1° If you want to be a researcher, in the US you need to get into a PHD. You get your Master’s “en route” to the PHD.
Any PHD worth attending will offer you tuition remission/waiver and perhaps a stipend to help you pay rent/food and live modestly.
2° However I strongly suggest you try and get admitted to a US college. Indeed, most European degrees don’t offer many research opportunities - doing original research, presenting at conferences, etc. Your goal should be to attend such a college in the US. To get into a graduate program in the US, you need some research experience. In fact, how much money you get may well be based on your research experience (presentations, publications).
Thanks for catching that thumper1 and katliamom! I was hoping that the first @ would make the message link to b@r!um’s notification list. But evidently the system gets confused about that username.
Thanks a lot for your advises!
Speaking of transferring, I don’t know where to start. Again having the same problem - a US citizen with a foreign school and university record. As I can see I can’t even apply for FAFSA because the application deadline comes just before I get any answer about my acceptance.
How hard is it to be admitted by transferring?
No, you file the FAFSA as soon as it becomes available every year, and have the data sent to the college/university that you are applying to. They use those figures to calculate your eligibility for financial aid. You will receive your financial aid offer at the same time as your admissions offer - possibly in the same letter or email.
You’d have to file FAFSA now, listing the colleges where you’re applying.
This poster says he is a college JUNIOR now. He won’t be applying to grad school until next year…when he is a senior. He should not be completing a FAFSA now. He would be starting grad school in fall 2018…not fall 2017.
So…he would apply to grad school fall 2017, and file the FAFSA October 2017.
I have one question about transferring. Pretty much about the same thing. I looked up for some universities and all of them expect students to meet some major requirements and general education requirements in terms of college coursework. What if my university doesn’t have those offered? Then how can I meet those requirements? Curriculum is too much different among countries for them to require such academic background.
If you don’t meet the academic requirements to get a degree…and you transfer, it is possible you will be accepted, but you will need to take those courses in addition to anything else you need to complete tomget your degree.
But keep in mind, you very likely will get NO funding at all as a transfer student here.
All US universities will require you to spend 2 years there before you get a degree. You will need to complete all the requirements.
If you don’t have the profile US grad schools want, you won’t be admitted (or you’ll be admitted without a stipend, which is the same thing).
Is your Bachelor’s degree 3-year or 4-year? (Many grad schools want 4 years - often because students don’t get to research work till fourth year.)
You complete FAFSA now if you’re trying to transfer to a US college. If you’re applying to grad school only, you’ll complete it in the Fall of 2017.
SInce you’re not an international, you’re entitled to the same funding as American transfers. While those scholarships are lower and rarer than scholarships for freshmen, they do exist. University of Minneosota has good transfer scholarships. Temple, UAlabama, … also do. I bet that Truman State does, too (haven’t checked). They’re not full tuition scholarships but they could make college affordable. You’re also entitled to federal loans - a total of $27,000 for all undergraduate years. If your parents make $25,000 or less, you’d also get a Pell Grant ($5,580 a year). You’d have to apply to several universities and choose the cheapest one.
Do you have family anywhere in the US?
Are currently among the very top students in your major?
Were you highly ranked in high school?
Are you involved in a lab, doing research for a professor?
My Bachelor’s degree is 4-year. OK. I’ll look for University of Minnesota, Temple and Alabama. I live with my mother and she barely earns $5,000 a year. But a lot of that money go for food, house and that kind of things. That’s why I don’t think I would be able to afford anything more than $5,000 a year.
Yes, I was the best one in HS, the same thing at university now. I’m doing research for two of my professors at the moment. No, I don’t have family there.
OK, if it’s a 4-year degree and you’re doing research for professors, it may be better for you to stay put and apply directly from your current university next year to graduate schools, especially if you have a high rank (sounds like you’re class valedictorian) and your university is well-regarded in your country, which I would assume if you were #1 in your HS class. It’ll be cheaper too, since even with full Pell ($5,580), full federal loans ($7,500), you’d need at least a full tuition scholarship and I don’t think you can easily get one as a transfer student.
If you knew someone there (your father’s parents? friends?) you could go, work for a year, establish residency -works in NYS, in MN, in Utah, in Missouri, but not in all states), become an instate applicant, graduate from the state’s flagship, but it may be quicker for you to get your degree in your country.
The problem is that, once you get your degree in your country, you get no “do over”. You can’t prepare a second degree in the US with financial aid. So, you have to get into a US graduate school. You can of course always move to the US and work, then apply to graduate school, but your undergraduate record is your undergraduate record, and any extra class will be on your dime.
Is it okay if I apply for grad school one year after finishing my undergraduate studies?
Would the admission committee mind if I spend one year preparing for GRE or GMAT?
Are my chances in that case slimmer?
I went to grad school after working for TWO years after undergrad. I took the GRE during that time. I was working in my field so I’m guessing that helped too.
Many, many folks seek advanced degrees years after they get their undergrad degrees. This is especially true in business, I believe, where experience in the field is an important component in admissions.
It’s very, very common to spend time after college graduation working, doing research, etc (and preparing for the GRE, LSAT, MCAT, GMAT…)
it’s basically a requirement in business sinc AACSB accreditation requires 2+ years of professional experience.