Hi everyone! I'm very interested in Penn State's (not UPenn) Bioengineering PhD program, but I have not been able to find much information regarding admission stats or applicant profiles. If you have been accepted to this program or know any info about the selection process, replies would be great! I'm looking to apply for the Fall of 2018.
I also have heard that some applicants to this program that were rejected were offered admission to Penn State's 1-year non-thesis masters program in Biomedical Engineering, which I wouldn't mind at for a back up situation. Have any of you participated in this program? I ultimately want to get my PhD, so I'm curious if this program would be a good segue into Penn State's PhD program.
Also any opinions on how I stack up among the applicant pool at Penn State or other PhD bioengineering/biomedical engineering programs would be great. Here's an overview of my application:
Overall GPA: 3.6
Major GPA: 3.8
GRE: Taking in August
Research Experience:
1 semester of nanotech research for drug delivery applications
summer undergrad research assistant for unrelated field (don't even know if I should include on my application)
summer research assistant for bio-membrane science lab (professors both very established in the field of membrane science)
will be starting and completing my honors thesis this fall (use of polyelectrolytes for virus inactivation, applications in downstream biopharmaceutical processing)
Publications/Conferences: None. Honors thesis will be submitted for publication at time of application.
Letters of Rec: 2 Strong LOR from well-known professors in separations science, 1 strong LOR from post-doc (probably not as strong since not from professor?)
Grants/Awards: Several university scholarships and prestigious state government scholarship in my state, no grants. Don't feel competitive enough to apply for grants, thoughts?
Research Interests: Biopharmaceuticals, drug delivery, regenerative medicine
Extracurriculars are mostly related to leadership experience: tutor within sorority, peer mentor within College of Engineering
Other schools interested in:
Rutgers
CSU - Fort Collins
University of Arkansas
Duke?
Still looking around, if you have others that you think would be a good fit let me know
Any input is appreciated!