So... I'm applying to grad school next fall, and I've got a big bag of festering questions (don't know how many of them are relevant to this particular post, so ignore/exile me if I'm out of line).
Me: attending medium-ish R2 state school, majoring in microbiology/molecular biology- ~2 years of research (and counting), with one funded summer program at my home institution, 4.0, a couple of poster presentations and undergraduate grants, but nothing published. I'm interested in environmental and community microbiology, and in genetically engineering microbes to solve problems (detoxification, biofuel feedstock breakdown, value-added products).
1) The elusive question of "Prestige": so I picked my favorite 8 schools with the conditions that (1) they have to pay for me, (2) they have to have at least 5 faculty I like, and (3) their microbiology program can't be part of their medical school/program (shocking how many schools this disqualified). The schools I ended up with were University of Georgia, UC Berkeley, UW Madison, Rutgers New Brunswick, U Minnesota Twin Cities, Michigan State, U Mass Amherst, and Arizona State University. Now obviously I have a couple of crazy prestigious schools, but others I can't find microbiology rankings for- should I be worried about the schools not seeming hugely renowned after a quick google search or am I being (characteristically) neurotic? I'm not planning on going into academia, as of now.
2) As for not wanting to go into academia... is that something I should shy away from mentioning on my application? Right now my dream career would be working in industry (I'm interning with the DOE this summer, and hopefully I enjoy the environment as much as I think I will), but I see a lot of people here saying that grad admissions committees want to admit future professors.
3) Letter of recommendation by post-doc? Pretty sure this is a no-no, but just thought I'd get confirmation. The post-doc who oversees my work in lab offered to write me a great letter, but I figured it would be better for me to ask the professor who I've taken an upper-division biochemistry course with and am going to TA (an upper-division biochem lab) for next semester. (My other two will be my lab PI and the overseer of my summer project at the DOE- keeping my fingers crossed on that one)
4) Subject test: okay so tricky one: a couple of the programs recommend I submit either a BCM or biology subject test with my app. I was planning on taking the BCM test until... it got discontinued. I tried a practice biology test instead, but I know literally nothing about plants and neuroscience, and I landed in the 60th percentile. With scores like that, is it worth me trying to study and take the test over the summer?
Honestly I'll be happy to get into any graduate school. Whew, that was longer than intended. Anyway, thanks for reading my novel, and I'll appreciate any input (unless you suggest a gap year... then you're dead to me)!