Biology applicants Fall 2010

[takshila]

I was wondering if we could all share our profiles and worries that come with them, in the process of applying for the Fall 2010 term. It would probably be helpful for us all. The confused and the confident alike.

[ScreamingHairyArmadillo]

Here's hoping this section livens up a bit. Where are all the biology people?

Applying to Entomology MS programs, plus one PhD program as joint Organismic and Evolutionary Biology/Entomology. Subfields of study - plant/insect interactions, urban areas, biological control, and conservation.

3.72 GPA, 3.56 biology major GPA (which should be higher by the time I graduate - a lot of the bio classes are taken senior year)

GRE 710V 770Q 4.0 AW

GRE Biology 730 (72%)

LORs from two research project advisors and one professor from a scientific writing class.

Pretty much done with SOPs, just polishing and personalizing the remaining 3 to be turned in.

My worries? My last LOR. My advisor is such a procrastinator, and I found out today that he turned in a recommendation late for his PhD student. I have two Dec 1 deadlines, and all they're waiting on is his letter.

Another worry is burnout. This has been by far the craziest semester. Applications are consuming most of my energy, but I have multiple lab reports, two research papers, and a poster presentation coming up. I think I'm just going to black out come Christmas.

[gremot]

Hi!

I'm an internation student from europe

Going for translational research - something inbetween biology and biomedicine

GRE 560/750, don't have the essay score yet

TOEFL 115 out of 120

GRE Biology - just did it on the 7th Nov (how come you have your score already, Armadillo? from last year?)

GPA.. close to 4.0 I guess, It's difficult to say exacly as we have different systems out here

All my paperwork, recommendations etc is almost done as I had to prepare it in spring for Fulbright scholarship.

Been in the lab since 2004, 1 publication, hoping to get my first first-author paper published next year

My worries... GRE verbal... it's just inhuman if you're not a native speaker. And of course the difference in background. It must be really different in US.. And, I'm not too familiar with the whole application process, never had to do anything like this before.

I'm graduating from master's in a couple of moths, so there's enough pressure on me as well and i should buy some xmas decorations for my lab... because that's where i'll be spending the holidays.

[ScreamingHairyArmadillo]

GRE Biology - just did it on the 7th Nov (how come you have your score already, Armadillo? from last year?)

I took the October test. I'm not sure how often it's offered overseas. I also called in for my score cos I couldn't wait another two weeks for the results to be mailed.

[takshila]

so here I go:

 

 

My profile:

 

Undergrad: Transferred from an Indian university to a state university in the u.s., in Biotechnology

GPA: 4.0 throughout

Aiming for programs in: Biomedical sciences, genetics and molecular biology

GRE general : Verbal-740, Quant-760, AWA- 4.5

Research experience: 1.5 years in a plant molecular biology lab with a possible pending publication, working on genetic mapping of wheat chromosomes, 8 months including a summer undergraduate fellowship (and another 6 months after graduation as lab technician) in a molecular biology plant lab performing gene transformations and genotyping plant populations. 4 months in an Animal sciences lab performing Western blots and protein analysis.

Recommendations: 2 from research advisors one of them with a publication in science magazine, expecting at least one to very good, 1 from a professor with whom I have had only minimum research experience, but she will certainly have a very good recommendation for me, she is well known in her field too.

 

Universities applying to:

 

Dartmouth -MCB

U of Wisconsin

Northwestern

Johns Hopkins University

Penn State

U of Chicago

U of Texas, southwestern medical unit

I am still debating applying to Washington University in St. Louis, even as a dream school as I see the chances to be pretty slim

Purdue

Wake forest

I am still looking for safe schools, but the problem is I don't know how low i need to look into the rankings to find a school that is safe for me, or ones that I should even have a chance of getting into.

 

I am also looking for Masters programs, but I need funding, so I having a hard time finding masters programs that are ready to fund me.

 

 

I am worried that I am overshooting by a huge margin, I have no clue where to look for safe schools, its already mid November and I dont have my final list yet.

Oh, and my biggest concern - no publications.

@ Armadillo - I know what you mean about procrastinating recommenders, not to mention, having 2 such people on my hands can be quite nerve racking indeed. where are you applying? I have some 1 Dec deadlines too, and in many of the places, the recommendations are the only thing holding my application back.

@gremot - i get what you mean about not being familiar with the process. i was absolutely blindsighted when i started off, no idea where to begin, which is why I happen to be pretty confused even now, about the universities i am applying to. where are you applying?

[gremot]

On 11/15/2009 at 3:11 PM, takshila said:

@gremot - i get what you mean about not being familiar with the process. i was absolutely blindsighted when i started off, no idea where to begin, which is why I happen to be pretty confused even now, about the universities i am applying to. where are you applying?

I

It will sound crazy, but as I got the fulbright ST award, the policy is: 4 great schools, 2 safer schools. So my greats are Yale, Harvard, Stanford, WashU. And safe ones U of Michigan and Case Western Reserve University. Don't have a clue how to get into the greats. Fortunately I have help from the fulb. people to get through the process and also the comfort that i already got the scholarship, so maybe it's not totally impossible...

[takshila]

Whoa! FB, won't you cruise right through!

[dzk]

I am worried that I am overshooting by a huge margin, I have no clue where to look for safe schools, its already mid November and I dont have my final list yet.

I think your list is quite safe already.

[hamster09]

hey guys =) good stats mine is..okayish...

biology major at a UC.

cgpa 3.94 and major 3.96

GRE 670Q 520V 4AW yeah i kinda crashed during the real test. too late now.

1 year in a telomere lab doing yeast 2 hybrid assays. co author in a paper published in an undergrad journal

Amgen scholar with 2 published abstracts and 1 co authorship in a manuscript

2 years in an immunology lab with 2 undergrad grants from an honors society and the university i am attending

still working on a publication (my lab is currently low on funding and research is pretty slow)

ohhh i almost forget..letters of rec. coming from my past mentors who are professors at my uni and 1 from a professor with a pretty high position from another UC.

so far im applying to pharmacology programs at

yale

u mass med

suny buffalo

nyu

u rochester

columbia

ucsf

uci

mount sinai

cornell

unc

Edited November 19, 2009 by hamster09

[gremot]

so far im applying to pharmacology programs at

how come you ended up applying to pharmacology after all the telomers and immunology?

[grad101]

Heres my Profile!

Programs applied to: Biomedical Sciences (General Track); specific interests in Cancer Bio/Immunology

GPA: 3.5/4.0; Graduated May 2008

GRE: 740Q; 600V; 4.5AW

No Subject GREs

Citizenship: US

Research Experience: 1.5 years in Academia/Government (NIH); 1.5 year in Industry(more like non-profit vaccine foundation)

LORs: 1 from my previous professor from undergrad, 1 from my previous NIH Mentor, 1 from my current research supervisor

Publications/Presentations: Posters at National conferences/Symposiums, no pubs in journal

Past Fellowships: HHMI

Schools Applied to for Fall 2010:

UVA

UMD-Baltimore

Johns Hopkins

UT-Southwestern

Mt. Sinai

U Penn

WashU

Northwestern

Michigan

UCSD

Stanford

UCSF

Weill Cornell

[hamster09]

hey guys =) good stats mine is..okayish...

biology major at a UC.

cgpa 3.94 and major 3.96

GRE 670Q 520V 4AW yeah i kinda crashed during the real test. too late now.

1 year in a telomere lab doing yeast 2 hybrid assays. co author in a paper published in an undergrad journal

Amgen scholar with 2 published abstracts and 1 co authorship in a manuscript

2 years in an immunology lab with 2 undergrad grants from an honors society and the university i am attending

still working on a publication (my lab is currently low on funding and research is pretty slow)

ohhh i almost forget..letters of rec. coming from my past mentors who are professors at my uni and 1 from a professor with a pretty high position from another UC.

so far im applying to pharmacology programs at

yale

u mass med

suny buffalo

nyu

u rochester

columbia

ucsf

uci

mount sinai

cornell

unc

good question. i must say from working with the cell cycle in yeast a lot those proteins have human homologs which are targeted by various anticancer drugs.... so with that i ended up working in a lab as an Amgen scholar that does drug studies ie mechanistic studies. our lab had a collaboration with Abott so I tested on of their experimental drugs. I had 3 to test originally but one already took so long. lol.

and my research in immunology which is the most current one that I am working on is aimed at mechanistic action of cytokines and growth factors which serve as pharmacological targets for inflammation. having done so much research on signaling (the cell cycle is a downstream target of most signaling pathways too) i was drawn to pharmacology...i like drugs too. i just find their action on biological systems miraculous. (thats if they have small side effects and small dosage requirements)

What country are u from GREmot? and tell me about your research.

Edited November 25, 2009 by hamster09

[gremot]

What country are u from GREmot? and tell me about your research.

I'm from Baltics.

I have worked in human genetics mainly. last two years in reproductive genetics. Now I'm looking for more practical applications for genetics in medicine - therefore translational researsh

[bb9931]

Hey, I am applying to 11 PhD programs and was wondering what everyone thought of my chances for admissions. I applied all through med schools (except for CalTech and MIT), here is what I'm applying and my stats.

Stats: GPA 3.68 (BIO GPA is 3.83), GRE 510 V (65th) I'm obviously not an english major and 700 Q (71th %)

Basic Science research in biology lab for 2 years (presented at undergrad research conference but no publications) and clinical research for a plastic surgeon (vapid research but may result in publication). Also worked most of undergrad (worked at an adult foster care home 16-24 hours a week) and graduating in 3 years (so I don't have a 4.0 but I went through school fast, not sure how much that will help). Also U.S. citizen and did entire degree at U.S. school (Wayne State University). Here is my list of programs

Harvard, MIT, Brown, Columbia, WashU, BU, NYU, Tufts, Einstein, Umass worcester, and CalTech.

Was wondering how people think I'll do...I know my GRE isn't amazing but I'm not exactly sure how heavily it is weighted (as my grades and letters should be pretty good).

[imillan]

Hey everyone! I'm a senior at UC Santa Cruz applying to Neuroscience Ph.D. Programs.

GPA: 3.86/4.0; 3.85 in Major (Neuro B.S.)

GRE: 800Q (94%); 610V (88%) ; 4.0AW (41%)

GRE Biochem: 660 (90%)

Research Experience: 7 months in neurodevelopment lab. 8 months in axonal transport lab, developing a senior thesis paper.

No publications, some low-key presentations.

Letters of Rec are (I think) strong.

Schools Applied to for Fall 2010:

Stanford

UCLA

UCSD

UCI

UCSF

Columbia

Johns Hopkins

Harvard

MIT

[disco]

Applying to Molecular/Cell Biology Programs:

GPA: 3.45/4.00 (major in Biochemistry/Biophysics/Molecular Biology) from a small liberal arts college

GRE: V: 81% Q: 67% A: 4.5

Experience: I've been working for the past ~2.5 years as a technician in a lab studying chromosome segregation in S. cerevisiae. I also did a 5 month summer internship in a Drosophila lab studying germline stem cells.

Publications: 3-- all 2009 & 2nd author (Genes & Development, Current Biology, & Genetics)

Manuscripts: 1 in review at Nature (4th author)

Presentations: 2-hour long seminars & a poster presentation, no meetings unfortunately

Applied:

UCSF (Tetrad)

Berkeley (MCB)

Santa Cruz (MCDB)

San Diego (Biomedical Sciences)

UW (MCB)

Colorado @ Boulder (MCDB)

Interested in studying the Cell Cycle/Aging/Evolution.

Haven't heard from anywhere yet, but some of them aren't even due until Dec 15th.

Edited December 9, 2009 by disco

[disco]

Hey everyone! I'm a senior at UC Santa Cruz applying to Neuroscience Ph.D. Programs.

Did you like UCSC for undergrad? My boss is a big fan of Santa Cruz...seems like there are a lot of interesting PIs there. Hoping to get a chance to visit this Spring

[spectralScatter]

Hey everyone! I'm a senior at UC Santa Cruz applying to Neuroscience Ph.D. Programs.

GPA: 3.86/4.0; 3.85 in Major (Neuro B.S.)

GRE: 800Q (94%); 610V (88%) ; 4.0AW (41%)

GRE Biochem: 660 (90%)

Research Experience: 7 months in neurodevelopment lab. 8 months in axonal transport lab, developing a senior thesis paper.

No publications, some low-key presentations.

Letters of Rec are (I think) strong.

Schools Applied to for Fall 2010:

Stanford

UCLA

UCSD

UCI

UCSF

Columbia

Johns Hopkins

Harvard

MIT

how old are you btw?

[ma7eb4i]

GPA: 3.88/4.0 (B.S. Bio, Neurobio option)

GRE: 740 Q (81%); 710 V (98%); 5.0 A (80%)

GRE Biology: 760 (79%)

Research experience:

2.5 years in neuroendocrinology lab at large public university as undergrad; 1 pub in low tier journal, second author; 1 manuscript in review at PNAS

1 year in endocrinology lab as a research tech, unrelated to neuroscience

Presentation: 1 poster at an undergrad forum

Applying for Neuroscience Programs at (in no particular order):

University of Washington, Seattle

MIT

Stanford University

Rockefeller University

Johns Hopkins University

Interested in studying neuroendocrinology, learning and memory, how brains wire circuits. Birdsong seems like a good system for this. Was in Boston last month and visited/information interviewed a prof I'm interested in working with at MIT. Made a good impression? Who knows?

Wondering if I should have applied to more schools, gotten 100 more people to read the SoP, spent this year working in a neuro lab, etc. etc. etc. Terrified of the future.

[hamster09]

hehe i just noticed a lot of the people here do neuroscience.

i have a friend who is now attending UCSF and his profile looks similar to most of the ones i have seen here.

[hamster09]

Hey, I am applying to 11 PhD programs and was wondering what everyone thought of my chances for admissions. I applied all through med schools (except for CalTech and MIT), here is what I'm applying and my stats.

Stats: GPA 3.68 (BIO GPA is 3.83), GRE 510 V (65th) I'm obviously not an english major and 700 Q (71th %)

Basic Science research in biology lab for 2 years (presented at undergrad research conference but no publications) and clinical research for a plastic surgeon (vapid research but may result in publication). Also worked most of undergrad (worked at an adult foster care home 16-24 hours a week) and graduating in 3 years (so I don't have a 4.0 but I went through school fast, not sure how much that will help). Also U.S. citizen and did entire degree at U.S. school (Wayne State University). Here is my list of programs

Harvard, MIT, Brown, Columbia, Caltech, BU, NYU, Tufts, Einstein, Umass worcester, and Umiami.

Was wondering how people think I'll do...I know my GRE isn't amazing but I'm not exactly sure how heavily it is weighted (as my grades and letters should be pretty good).

My GRE's aren't stellar either. but my grades and letters should be good too. lets hope for the best

[imillan]

Did you like UCSC for undergrad? My boss is a big fan of Santa Cruz...seems like there are a lot of interesting PIs there. Hoping to get a chance to visit this Spring

Personally, I absolutely enjoy UC Santa Cruz. I find that I work really well in this environment, it's relaxing. The only drawback is that there are few undergrad biology classes, and only a handful of neuroscience-related faculty. Still, I've learned so much here and would recommend it.

how old are you btw?

I'm not sure why that is important, but 21.

[RootSlowTin]

Not a traditional biology applicant, but here it is anyway:

Institution: Small Unknown State School

Major: Physics

Minor: Mathematics

GPA: 3.66

Major GPA: 3.58

GRE: Q790 92%/ V680 96%/ AW4.5 63%

Research: Two years in a biophysics lab leading to one first author paper, one third author paper, and a few poster presentations at conferences. One REU in a more biochemistry oriented lab with no publications resulting.

Other: McNair Scholar, undergraduate poster presentation award from SACNAS

All of these are interdisciplinary programs with a focus on biochem/biophysics.

Applied:

Yale

Johns Hopkins

Washington University in St. Louis

University of Wisconsin - Madison

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

University of Rochester

University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill

Duke

Northwestern

Interviews:

Columbia

[disco]

Personally, I absolutely enjoy UC Santa Cruz. I find that I work really well in this environment, it's relaxing. The only drawback is that there are few undergrad biology classes, and only a handful of neuroscience-related faculty. Still, I've learned so much here and would recommend it.

Got my first invite to UCSC earlier this week. Coming to visit in late January

[Serric]

Got an interview invite to UMich PIBS today by phone, for the 1/28-1/30 interview weekend. First interview invite, and I am SO happy I can finally relax about this.