Drdlee

Thanks again for the reply and generous comments. I wouldn't say my UG gpa (a little above 3.4 overall) is decent at all among PhD applicants but my postbac record at Harvard (the most recent academic record) is pretty good (~3.9 out of 5 UG courses). I hope this can compensate my rather weak UG GPA. I don't have much time left for the next schedule for GRE test but I'll try to follow your advice on verbal practice.

Thanks bsharpe269 for the reply. I did my UG in US and this makes me exempt from having to take TOEFL or other English proficiency test. And GRE writing score is not available yet because I took it a few days ago. What would be a compensating W score? I'll have a few of my American colleagues read my SOP for some feedbacks.

So how low can your GRE verbal score be for top neuroscience programs when you are an international? My score is 151/170 and the verbal score constantly worries me that it may really hurt my chance for the admission. Other than GRE score I have two years of full time postbac research experience and two good letters of recommendation from famous Harvard professors (one research PI and the other course professor). By the end of this year I'll have one publication as one of middle authors which I'll mention in applications. Do you think it is worth spending time to practice on verbal and maybe increase the number to 155 by the end of this month?

Thanks, Gvh. I haven't talked to my PI about MS programs that fit my interests. But I'm trying to interview some grad students here to see whether spending 2 years for masters in related field is a good idea. For some of them 2 years of masters is not really an exciting idea since the first year in PhD is designed to make up individual weaknesses in coursework and you'll be able to learn most of what you learn in MS in PhD.

Thanks a lot for your point, biotechie. Thesis-based masters programs slipped my mind entirely when I commented above. I will definitely consider doing masters program if the program offers a great research opportunities and coursework. So Biotechie and GVh, other than masters in biology (which I think is pretty rare in US), what other masters programs might be a good option? I actually have some interest in masters in bioengineering. Any thoughts on this program? Also do schools allow people to apply to both MS and PhD when the degrees are offered by different department (or division)? I will definitely contact schools to ask about this, but I would love to hear your answers now.

Thanks Gvh for your slightly more optimistic view. I guess my back up plan for right now is to do one more year of lab tech (very likely in a different lab that does very different kind of research) and take some classes at the same time. 2 years of Masters should prepare me with a lot of background knowledge for sure but I'm a little afraid that I won't be able to engage in research as much as I'm right now.

Thanks for your reply, Macchiato. I've been out of college for 4 years now. For my post-bac study I took two biology courses and two neurosciecne courses. The other one was math course for life sciences. I don't think I'll be taking any biology subject test this year as I don't have much time for it. What are good masters degrees that are highly relevant to neuroscience? I know there are some biology masters programs but am not sure if doing those programs are better than doing 2 more years of technician. I noticed that my boss is not very excited to talk about graduate school and his mood somewhat affects his opinions.

I've been working as a lab technician at Harvard for more than a year now and I would like to go to grad school for neuroscience (neurobio) programs (applying this year). I graduated from a large public school with B.S. In math with gpa 3.41 (which I know is below average among PhD applicants). For this gpa I have a very high ambition for where I want to end up with for PhD and I want you guys to tell me if the goal sounds reasonable/unreasonably high. I'm also thinking about the possibility of staying one more year as a tech to further polish my application and reapply next year. I'll appreciate any advice. To summarize my stat and schools I apply: UG study: math UG gpa: 3.41 (better gpa in the last two yrs) Post-bac study at Harvard: took some relevant UG courses and got 3As and 2A-s (~3.85) GRE: haven't taken yet but expect Q >164 Research: about 2 years at Harvard so far (~1.5yrs as a tech) Publication: one submitted (accepted) paper on journal Cell (4th author) LORs: 2 good letters from Harvard profs and one letter from a prof at a different school (one thing most likely to be mentioned about me is that I work very hard) Network: have not contacted any faculty yet as I havent developed very specific research interests (working on it) Schools: Harvard MIT Stanford Columbia Yale JHU One thing I'm worried about is that my background in biology is weak for grad study in neurobio and the set of skills I have developed as a lab tech is too specific. As mentioned I'll appreciate any advice on how to improve my chance in remaining weeks or for next year.