PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology

[signalmytransduction]

Hi all,

 

I am finishing my senior year of my undergrad.  I have applied to several universities for their biology PhD programs.  I have yet to get an acceptance.  As I am anxiously awaiting I am planning an alternative route if need be.  I have been told by professionals in my field to work in a laboratory if I am not accepted and then reapply.  However, I am considering the master's route.  My undergrad performance is not that great and my GRE is average.  I have 1 year of experience in a microbio research lab and am in process of my second semester of being a TA.  I do not know what to do.  Should I apply for a masters or try to get a job in a lab?  If the latter should I focus my job search on academic labs or on industry/pharmaceutical labs?  Thanks!

[ilovelab]

If you haven't heard about interviews at this point you are probably rejected at the schools you applied to. Some schools have already finished their interview weekends. Some schools have multiple interview weekends that last into march so there's a small chance at those schools.  How bad is your undergraduate performance? What were your GRE scores and where did you apply? I personally wouldn't go the masters route unless you can finish the degree relatively debt free. Its not worth going 100K in debt for a masters. An MBA maybe but not and science masters. I would personally look for jobs in a research lab. Either academic lab or industry is fine. Chances are you won't get an industry job with just 1 year of microbio lab experience. The MOST important thing is finding a lab that is conducting research you are interested in.

  Personally what I would do is look for PI's whose research interests are similar to yours and email them to see if they will be hiring lab tech/research assistants. A lot of job openings for lab tech/lab managers will be opening up come may/june as the current tech/managers will leave for graduate schools. Another thing I would do is ask your PI if he/she knows any new labs that are starting up. If so, they will definitely need staff and hopefully since you PI knows the new PI their word would hold more weigh if they recommend you. You are going to get a lot of PI's who don't respond to you, who say NO. All you need is one who says yes. I emailed close to 40 labs till I found a PI who wanted to interview me. Now I'm working in a lab that does research I enjoy and a PI whose one of the leaders in her field.

[EelPoweredHovercraft]

There are some schools with later admissions, so it's possible that you could hear something. It just depends on which schools you applied to. If not, I would second what ilovelab said. If you can get funding, a master's could be very helpful,  but it's not worth going into debt over. There could be funded master's programs still accepting admissions at this point, but I'm not sure that there would be a lot of them. I know there have been some discussions about that elsewhere on the forum.

 

If you can find an academic lab to work in, you can increase your research experience and you may be able to take some courses for free or very cheap to help boost your GPA. I think getting more research experience could be one of the most important things you can do. It seems like so many people now are going into grad school having started doing research as a first year undergrad, so a year might not be enough to be competitive. You may also want to retake the GRE depending on where you want to apply.

[amaretto]

I agree with the other posters. I graduated with a low Biology GPA. My overall GPA was 3.48, but my Bio GPA was closer to a 3.1 (I even failed and retook a class). I got a job as a technician in an academic research lab for 2.5 years before applying. After a year of working I took two graduate level classes (for free). I went to every talk and seminar I possibly could, and spent most of my free time reading publications and taking some MOOCs. I worked really hard, but it paid off, especially when I was interviewing for programs. Because I went to a lot of seminars in various topics, I developed some knowledge of what types of questions researchers are interested in in various fields. When I ended up interviewing with someone in virology (my background is in cancer biology), I knew enough to hold a decent conversation for the hour interview. Basically, because I wasn't committed to a topic I found it easier to explore various fields.

 

I got into three top 50 programs, so I think it was the right decision! (I also was able to accrue some savings too!)

 

I would recommend checking out university job boards, and writing to the head of some research departments to inquire about openings. I actually found my job through Craigslist, but I don't think most PIs recruit that way.

[Vene]

My undergrad performance is not that great and my GRE is average.

Some numbers would be nice, actually. Not that great could be a 3.1 or a 2.1. If you're above a 3.0, experience is probably enough. If you're below 3.0, you need a higher GPA and either post-bac courses or a MS would be best.