Prospective computational biology/genetics

[DecCat]

Hi guys, 

This is my first time posting on this forum. I'm a junior looking to apply to grad school this fall. I'm mostly interested in the intersection of computational biology and molecular biology, i.e. I'm not a big fan of benchwork, but I want to have some wet lab component in my future grad school research because I don't want to spend all my time sitting in front of computer. Currently I'm a biological sciences major, but I've taken stats, probability, linear algebra and multivariable calculus and three computer science classes (2 programming + 1 theory). I'm about to start a research that is purely computational biology (no wet lab involved). I had a significant summer research involving wet lab and my last research at school is computation biology but not very sophisticated as I didn't have much knowledge back then. 

I think I'm most likely to apply to biological sciences programs that offer the option to focus on computational biology but I realized that I actually don't have a lot of traditional biology classes like microbiology under my belt, although I'm expecting to take higher level/grad level genetics classes. I wonder if this situation will make me look bad since after all, I'm applying to a biology program?

My other concern is that I started my computational biology research relatively late because I have to accumulate cs/math knowledge before I can get in one. Will that be a disadvantage?

My last question is how important is GRE score especially verbal? I'm not concerned my quantitative part, but I've read that the average verbalxscore for top tier biological sciences programs are really high. 

Any input will be much appreciated!!! Thank you so much for your help!

[Oddich55]

Will it make you look bad? Nope. To be honest, you have more math and computational background than I do and in this current application cycle I'm getting interviews at Columbia, Yale and Cornell, to put things in perspective. I know several people from previous years get into Comp Bio programs with almost no Biology knowledge - so you shouldn't have a problem. 

Comp Bio is a cross disciplinary field. Got to know a lot for it. Don't worry about "starting late". I started research my junior year, and currently have 4 papers out, with 1 first author - with another 4-5 projects that can turn into papers. Show off what research you have and get involved. Present at conferences, etc. grad schools care more that you know what you're getting yourself into than if you took microbio or not (I never did).

General rule of thumb- aim for 160+ for both Quantitative and Verbal. I'm applying with a 166Q and 160V and it seems to be fine. 

All in all, I would say the best thing to do to boost your chances is do research. Don't worry about the classes. Don't stress too much about the GRE (practice though). Focus on research.

[DecCat]

On 1/4/2017 at 10:38 PM, Oddich55 said:

Will it make you look bad? Nope. To be honest, you have more math and computational background than I do and in this current application cycle I'm getting interviews at Columbia, Yale and Cornell, to put things in perspective. I know several people from previous years get into Comp Bio programs with almost no Biology knowledge - so you shouldn't have a problem. 

Comp Bio is a cross disciplinary field. Got to know a lot for it. Don't worry about "starting late". I started research my junior year, and currently have 4 papers out, with 1 first author - with another 4-5 projects that can turn into papers. Show off what research you have and get involved. Present at conferences, etc. grad schools care more that you know what you're getting yourself into than if you took microbio or not (I never did).

General rule of thumb- aim for 160+ for both Quantitative and Verbal. I'm applying with a 166Q and 160V and it seems to be fine. 

All in all, I would say the best thing to do to boost your chances is do research. Don't worry about the classes. Don't stress too much about the GRE (practice though). Focus on research.

Are you applying directly from undergrad? You are really productive! Thank you for your answer!

[Oddich55]

3 hours ago, DecCat said:

Are you applying directly from undergrad? You are really productive! Thank you for your answer!

Yep :). I'm in my last semester of undergrad at the moment.

[bornea]

I agree with @Oddich55, I applied to grad school with only dry lab/computational biology experience and it worked in favor for the most part. Honestly, wet lab is super teachable, the computational component is harder to teach. I didn't start my research until half-way through my Junior year and had 3 publications 1 first author. Doing computational work means your greatest limit to how quickly you can produce (papers, poster, etc.) is how much time you invest and how hard it is to get data.

As for the GRE 160+ on both is good goal. Also look into schools that have a focus on the crossover. I know that BU and UVa both have specific NIH training grants for bioinformatics and biomedical data science, Columbia has a department that specific for computational biology as well.