kshrestha Posted June 23, 2017 Share Posted June 23, 2017 Hi everyone, I'm planning on applying to a Biochem program for fall 2018, but I am very much concerned about if my situation will even put me in the game or if I have a chance at admission and interviews. So I have been working in a small government chemistry lab for almost 1 year, with possibly 1 publication in the near future. I was hoping taking two years and getting some experience in the field would help my application, but I am not sure if working in a chem lab is any helpful since I want to be in a bio lab. Will this be disadvantageous towards my application? This is one of my main concerns, which is the reason I am looking for positions in a bio related lab. I also interned as a research assistant during my undergrad at a clinical research institute and was also a lab assistant for my undergrad Bio department. I graduated from a liberal arts school and had a cumulative GPA of 3.63 and science GPA of 3.68, obviously not much different. I'm planning to take my GRE at the end of this month, but I'm terrified that if I don't get around the 80% percentile, then I won't have any chances with everything else in my application. I would love to go to UC Davis, but I also have many other schools in mind like: - Temple Uni- Uni of Colorado- Bolder -UC San Fran - UC Santa Barbara - Indiana - Wakeforest Uni - Rockefeller - NYU - Uni of Florida - Darthmouth Does anyone have any advice for this daunting process? Feel free to share any experiences or impressions about schools and programs. Thank you!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hopefulgradstudent999 Posted June 23, 2017 Share Posted June 23, 2017 With the stats that you've listed and a possible publication I think you will be competitive at most of the schools you've listed. I was accepted to some of those schools with worse stats than you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kshrestha Posted June 23, 2017 Author Share Posted June 23, 2017 I'm mainly worried about my GRE scores. What percentile do you think is a good range for all program? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hopefulgradstudent999 Posted June 24, 2017 Share Posted June 24, 2017 I mean some of the programs you have listed like UCSF are probably going to require elite scores at or above 80% I would guess. Some of the others you could probably get away with scores in the 55-65% range but obviously the better your scores the more competitive you will be. That being said, I would not put too much stock into GRE scores. From what I have experienced and what others have said the GRE is typically used as more of a minimum. Your letters of rec, publications if you have any, and research experience is really what will be heavily evaluated. Please take all of this with a grain of salt, I was just accepted recently but did go through the process twice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aquamarine Posted June 27, 2017 Share Posted June 27, 2017 On 6/22/2017 at 9:15 PM, kshrestha said: Hi everyone, I'm planning on applying to a Biochem program for fall 2018, but I am very much concerned about if my situation will even put me in the game or if I have a chance at admission and interviews. So I have been working in a small government chemistry lab for almost 1 year, with possibly 1 publication in the near future. I was hoping taking two years and getting some experience in the field would help my application, but I am not sure if working in a chem lab is any helpful since I want to be in a bio lab. Will this be disadvantageous towards my application? This is one of my main concerns, which is the reason I am looking for positions in a bio related lab. I also interned as a research assistant during my undergrad at a clinical research institute and was also a lab assistant for my undergrad Bio department. I graduated from a liberal arts school and had a cumulative GPA of 3.63 and science GPA of 3.68, obviously not much different. I'm planning to take my GRE at the end of this month, but I'm terrified that if I don't get around the 80% percentile, then I won't have any chances with everything else in my application. I would love to go to UC Davis, but I also have many other schools in mind like: - Temple Uni- Uni of Colorado- Bolder -UC San Fran - UC Santa Barbara - Indiana - Wakeforest Uni - Rockefeller - NYU - Uni of Florida - Darthmouth Does anyone have any advice for this daunting process? Feel free to share any experiences or impressions about schools and programs. Thank you!! I got into Indiana University's medical school Ph.D. program with a 3.47 GPA and a 70th percentile quant score. I also had a friend with similar statistics get into NYU's program. I don't know if that eases your mind or not, but IUSM at least seemed to not care very much about my GRE; no one even mentioned it in my interviews. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kshrestha Posted July 6, 2017 Author Share Posted July 6, 2017 So, I just took my GRE this past weekend, got above 70th percentile for Quant but around 60th percentile for Verbal. Will this score and my shortage of experience in a biology lab be a disadvantage? I'm mainly concerned because schools seem to put a lot of emphasis on evaluating students on their prior research experience. Thank you for your responses! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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