joeypotatoes

I agree, I think my productivity has gone down like 10 fold in the past week from the anticipation and nerves about interviews.

A very close friend of mine was accepted to UCSF, Duke, UPENN, Columbia and MIT last year, all for neuro. She really was one of the smartest people I have ever met, but as far as being the overachieving type, that wasn't her. She said she had an okay gpa from Princeton, psych major, perfect GRE, summer research in Mexico, 2 years of post bacc research at a top institution. I would say the thing that got her interviews at these schools was her LOR from her PI, who is very well known in the Alzheimer's disease field, it probably said something along the lines of "so and so is in my opinion a genius, one of the most creative people I have ever met and has on her own developed a novel method of distinguishing tauopathies from post mortem tissue." What I'm trying to say is that these schools get all of the best applicants as far as statistics, and in my opinion awards and grades don't matter, what they are looking for is who can set themselves apart as a scientist.

My post-bacc research has been studying the effects of concussive brain injury on the accumulation and aggregation of tau intra-axonally specifically in injured axons, and developing a reliable and reproducible way to quantify tau oligomers. I think I want to continue studying neurodegenerative disorders, I don't think I can leave the game. I would like to perhaps look at the epigenetics in alzheimer's disease, or the metabolomics of axonal injury.

Well that's good to know in my situation. Everyone in my lab says that post-bacc research is the most important thing and they all seem to think I'm going to get into a few schools. So hopefully that's the case.

Undergrad Institution: University of Missouri-Columbia Major(s): BS- Biochemistry Minor(s): Chemistry and Biology GPA in Major: Undergrad 3.0 Overall GPA: 2.75 Position in Class: No clue Type of Student: Domestic male GRE Scores (revised/old version): Q: 152 - 48% V: 157 - 74% W: 4.0 - 56% Research Experience: 1 year undergrad research in fish toxicology lab of USGS 2 years postgrad research in a neuro lab at a top 10 institution, 2 independent projects, one middle author publication Applying to Where: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai- Neuroscience Weill Cornell - Neuroscience NYU- Neural Science CUNY- Bio/Neuroscience OHSU- Neuro UW-Seattle- Neuro WashU in STL- Neuro Worried about low undergrad GPA, almost everyone here has stellar gpa and gre scores. My research experience is solid, I talked about it in my SOP, I think my LOR are quite good. Not hopeful about OHSU seeing the the other applicants stats here. Thoughts?