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sm1592

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I am currently a junior so I will be applying for grad school this fall and I am interested in joining a grad program in biochemistry (MS or PhD). I am simply unsure of how I stack up against other students (i.e. which schools I can get into, etc). I obviously won't be applying to MIT or Harvard, but I'd just like some feedback about the types of schools I should be applying to. Also, roughly how many schools should I apply to? I have the following credentials:

 

Cumulative undergrad GPA - 3.4

1.5 years (so far) of research in Biochem/photobiology

3 months as a physical chem research assistant

GRE - 147V,154Q (still waiting for AW)

Presented research at the 245th ACS National Meeting

A few volunteer experiences

 

Any help is greatly appreciated.

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You seem to have a pretty good resume. Your GRE scores are a little low but that can be circumvented with a great LOR. I would say shoot for middle tier (US news overall rankings can give you a starting point), but make sure when you choose a school, you do so based off of the professors at the university. 

 

I've been told that 8 schools is a solid number. Enough to give you a chance of getting into at least one or enough to give you a solid choice of schools, but not too many where you could be overwhelmed during apps/decision time. If you feel uncomfortable with your application, maybe 10? But I would absolutely not apply to more than 10. 

 

Good luck!

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Your GRE is very low for STEM. Idk what percentile that is but both Q and V dont look good. Consider retake GRE. Since your GPA isn't stellar (what's your major GPA?). Do you have any publications? Are your LoRs awesome? Volunteer activities only count if they are science related.

Good luck!

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  • 4 weeks later...

Your Statement of purpose is the most important factor in an application, along with letters of recommendation. If you can layout your vision of research and show the school how you will make them look good in a statement of purpose, and the recommendations support that, you can get in anywhere.  Your GPA is high enough to where you wont be automatically eliminated from any program you apply to. Your GRE scores are fairly low, in both Q and V but those can be overcome.

 

Here is the dirty secret with most PhD applicants, almost none of them really know what types of problems are currently being researched and how they want to solve it. You show that, and it shows an infinite amount of more research potential because it means you have done a somewhat strong of a general lit review. You don't know how many fellow masters students have done a lit review.

 

A lot of people like to focus on research experience, but, in general, undergrad research experiences are not true research experiences and come from the following 2 categories : Unorganized problems where the student learns some rudimentary skill sets that the graduate student might learn in a month (inconsequential in a PhD program) or a very cleverly crafted problem in which the advisor sets the student up for success so that he/she might publish or present at a national conference. Neither of the two are how real research at the graduate level is conducted, unless you have a very nice advisor. Generally, the advisor says i want you to study X, so do a lit review and tell me some of the problems that you might want to answer that can address X. Then you constrain it into a thesis, which may be the product of the thesis proposal. 

 

Generally, a dissertation is 3-5 published papers during your PhD that revolve around the same subject, but answer different problems. Today, they are almost never 1 giant problem but rather a few smaller important problems that might be address by some innovative technique or a totally new result to begin with.

 

If you could even show a semblance of that sort of though processes in your SOP, it would be amazing, amazing enough to get into graduate school. What the other stuff, grades, gre, and honors do is qualify your voice. I think you have a barley strong enough application to at least have your voice heard. Make it count, it could get you into a great PhD program.

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