meguca

GPA: 3.93 Major: Biochemistry GRE: 97% Verbal 97% Quant 6/6 Writing GRE Chem: not taken yet.... should I take it? I'll sign up for the November test if I should. I'll probably score decently but not spectacularly, I don't really have the time to study intensely I attend a major state flagship university which is quite strong in research. I've done research in three labs. Computational biology research for one summer, aging research in a pathology lab for 1.5 years, and EPR/organic photovoltaics research for >1/2 year. I may have some publications submitted by the time applications are due, but that stuff is still up in the air (and depends on how much I get done in the intervening time, which is why I'm hesitant to take time to study intensely for the Chem Subject GRE unless I really have to). I really want to have papers submitted to journals before December but we'll see how that goes. The 2nd and 3rd PIs will be writing two LORs (quite strong IMO - even though I only have >1/2 experience in the 3rd lab I've known the prof since last autumn and was the top score in his pchem class) and the third LOR will come from an organic chem professor. I did quite well in his class and have talked with him about stuff outside of class on various occasions. I think my SOP will be quite strong. I'd rather not post it here but I've had it looked at by a ton of professors/grad students/etc. I'm hoping to apply to top-tier chemical biology program. The Harvard Chemical Biology department is EXACTLY what I am looking for, basically. I am in love with the program. I also have interests in organic synthesis and drug discovery. The strange situation I'm in is that I'm finishing undergrad in 2 years. To be specific, I started undergrad last autumn, and I'll be graduating next June. So I only have one year of classes on my transcript. On one hand, it's not much to look at. On the other hand, it's basically all STEM, with organic chem, some physical chem, some math, some other random computational stuff, and biology... And obviously I haven't done too badly in them. Your thoughts? Do I have a chance at top programs? If I get rejected I'll just reapply next year.

GPA: 3.93 Major: Biochemistry GRE: 97% Verbal 97% Quant 6/6 Writing GRE Chem: not taken yet.... should I take it? I'll sign up for the November test if I should. I'll probably score decently but not spectacularly, I don't really have the time to study intensely I've done research in three labs. Computational biology research for one summer, aging research in a pathology lab for 1.5 years, and EPR/organic photovoltaics research for >1/2 year. I may have some publications submitted by the time applications are due, but that stuff is still up in the air (and depends on how much I get done in the intervening time, which is why I'm hesitant to take time to study intensely for the Chem Subject GRE unless I really have to). I really want to have papers submitted to journals before December but we'll see how that goes. The 2nd and 3rd PIs will be writing two LORs (quite strong IMO) and the third LOR will come from an organic chem professor. I did quite well in his class and have talked with him about stuff outside of class on various occasions. I think my SOP will be quite strong. I'd rather not post it here but I've had it looked at by a ton of professors/grad students/etc. I'm hoping to apply to top-tier chemical biology program. The Harvard Chemical Biology department is EXACTLY what I am looking for, basically. I am in love with the program. I also have interests in organic synthesis and drug discovery. The strange situation I'm in is that I'm finishing undergrad in 2 years. To be specific, I started undergrad last autumn, and I'll be graduating next June. So I only have one year of classes on my transcript. On one hand, it's not much to look at. On the other hand, it's basically all STEM, with organic chem, some physical chem, some math, some other random computational stuff, and biology... Your thoughts? Do I have a chance at top programs? If I get rejected I'll just reapply next year.

I will be sure to look into TA opportunities - I believe they do exist.

Ah - sorry about the vitriol. It's just that there are some places on the Internet where genuinely asking for advice with an unconventional/unorthodox situation leads to 90% of the replies questioning the premises of your inquiry... Thank you all for the advice. It's much appreciated, and I will reply later with a more thorough response/more questions after I am more rested. ======= "I've stated this several times, so you're confronting contrived arguments with the fury of a woman scorned. Nobody is accusing you of lacking maturity," Again, I really am sorry... I definitely overly misinterpreted your statements. ======= - I'd be continuing at my current (aging) lab if I did a gap year. The professor is well-known and has a ton of grants. - For my 3rd LOR, I did very well in a theoretical mathematics course my 1st quarter so I would probably ask that professor for a LOR next year. If I decide to apply next year then I'll, in all likelihood, start approaching the professor soon, asking him the occasional math question and making sure he remembers me - and while it won't be as strong as actual research, I think that if I'm able to demonstrate a pretty high level of genuine mathematical curiosity (which I do possess! it's just that there are only so many hours in the day...) I'd be able to get a fairly strong LOR.

Note that I didn't say that humanities classes in general are BS, but rather I'm saying that I'm picking them specifically so that I choose ones that are BS. No need to misinterpret what I said as an attack on the humanities, which I respect just as much as anyone here... Also - like I said in the OP - I've identified specific PIs with whom I'd like to work in the universities that I listed, and of *course* I know that there are PIs elsewhere doing good research and I know that there are many PIs at those generally prestigious universities with whom I'd like to work - and yes, I'm aware that departmental prestige matters a lot more, etc.,etc. So if you're going to accuse me of being fixated on top 10 schools then I invite you to re-read my original post and cite specific parts of it which explicitly demonstrate that I am aiming for general top-10 universities because they are in the general top-10 rankings. ====== The purpose of my gap year would be to strengthen my application for grad school. Please - don't second-guess what I said and tell me to relax or do soul-searching or whatever. I don't mean to be rude, and I appreciate the advice - I truly do - but I've had 18 years of soul-searching and relaxing and thinking about what I TRULY want to do thus far. I hope you can understand how irritating it can be when I'm asking for direct advice and a significant portion of the stuff that's posted is about whether or not I'm mature enough. ====== Apologies for any rudeness or incoherence - I haven't slept in *quite* a long time, I just spent an entire night dealing with a laptop that decided to BSOD/crash 5-10 minutes after booting consistently and corrupted one of my homework assignments, I have multiple commitments to worry about today and tomorrow, and again, I am rather fatigued.

The thing about a "break" is that I've managed to do a pretty splendid job of planning out my schedule. Aside from research, here's what my 2nd and last year of school is going to look like: Autumn: biochem, biochem lab, bullshit 4.0 humanities class (required) Winter: biochem, BS 4.0 humanities Spring: biochem: BS 4.0 humanities As you can see - not exactly bad. ============== How much money does it cost to apply to a school, on average? ============== What about applying to my undergrad university for graduate school? The PI in my lab is a *major* rising star in his field, has *lots* of money, and is doing *very* good research - but I don't know if that's good enough to counteract the fact that a lot of people seem to dislike people who don't go to a different school for their PhD.

Hi, I haven't done much research into the grad school application process. I'm definitely going to finish undergrad in two years. I'm currently in my 1st year of undergrad (but I'm *very* advanced for a 1st year student). Would it be viable to apply to graduate schools for a PhD *directly* after undergrad? Here's some basic info about me: - I have two fields of interest: (1) slowing and delaying aging and the onset of aging-related diseases, especially using C. elegans as a model to explore particular ways to combat oxidative stress, and (2) applying novel stem cell-based research to combat Alzheimer's and other neurogenerative diseases. (Can go into more detail but would rather not.) I am *strongly* biased towards working on the former but I will admit that (2) has been on my mind for a while so I just thought I'd list it here as well. - I have been working with two research groups/labs. The first one focuses on aging and the second one is a physical chemistry lab (I have done projects with EPR, studying the effects upon the anisotrophy of the g factor when the molecule possesses various functional groups/changes/etc.). Both PIs will be willing to give me a good LOR. I don't know about a 3rd LOR - is that usually required? I can definitely find one of my course instructors who will be willing to write me a good LOR, but it would definitely not be as good as the other two LORs. - My GPA is above 3.9, my general GRE score is above 95th percentile for both verbal and math, and my GRE subject test in Biochem is above 95th percentile. Majoring in Biochemistry. - I go to a large public state university strong in research. - I am 18 years old and will graduate at 19 - I don't know how much graduate schools care about age. - NO PUBLICATIONS YET, UNFORTUNATELY! But hopefully that will change next year... I have been considering taking a "gap year" after I graduate but I want to get into a top PhD program ASAP for personal reasons. Would it be a waste of time for me to start thinking about applying or should I do the gap year? Again: I *absolutely* do not want to waste my time applying to graduate programs if I don't have a good chance of getting into universities/departments/programs which are strong in my research interests (especially (1)) and are good/prestigious. I want to get into a HIGH-QUALITY graduate program and definitely do not want to "rush" getting into grad school and end up at some mediocre program with a PI who doesn't really care about my research. I'm just VERY curious to know if it's even worth my time applying next year or if there's ABSOLUTELY NO CHANCE that it's worth it. Schools that have PIs who I would be interested in working with (I just did a cursory search, this isn't very refined): Caltech, MIT, Stanford, UC-Berkeley, UWashington, UCSF, Harvard, JHU On that note - how many programs/schools do people usually apply to? Thanks, everyone!

I am a freshman in college (well technically not yet since the term hasn't started yet, but soon) and I just took a practice test with the ETS PowerPrep software. My scores were 166 Verbal (97th percentile) and 167 Quantitative (95th percentile). Should I plan on taking the GRE this year, while I still have a lot of free time left to study and prepare, since my preliminary scores are already fairly decent? I know they're valid for 5 years and I plan on graduating from my university in 3 years so that shouldn't be a problem. I'm not so worried about Quant since I know I could've gotten 170--I was incredibly distracted with chat messages and such while doing the math questions on my computer, so both of my errors were just trivial arithmetic stuff (like 120/3=60) that I should've and would've caught otherwise. I'm kind of worried about Verbal, though, because even though my percentile is pretty high, I missed a disturbing number of questions (6 of them actually) and I don't like that at all - how should I best prepare? I'm most concerned about the Analytical Writing section. I'd like some advice about how I can handle that.

Hello, I am a high school senior planning on attending the University of Washington, Seattle. I would like to go to a high ranked PhD program for some subfield of chemistry or biochemistry. So as to ensure that I can maximize the strength of my application in the three years that I will be staying at UW, I have some questions and general inquiries about graduate admissions as well as what I should pursue during my undergraduate studies. Do graduate schools notice whether or not a course is 'honors'? I was considering taking the more rigorous 'honors' version of organic and physical chemistry my first year at UW; however, I am not sure if doing so would be a wise idea. While it would be more interesting and intellectually stimulating, at the same time, it would require a larger investment of time into problem sets and exams and would certainly decrease the amount of time I could spend doing research. I would appreciate comments regarding both the value of an 'honors' class over the non-'honors' version on my transcript as well as whether or not I should take the 'honors' version if it means that I will be spending more time on academics and less time on research. It is, of course, possible that taking the 'honors' version of organic and physical chemistry may yield lower GPAs than the normal versions of those courses - another consideration which I find is pushing me towards taking the non-'honors' versions even though I had initially planned on taking the 'honors' courses. What is the best, most effective way to find out what branch of chemistry or biochemistry I enjoy the most? Based on past experience with organic chemistry, I was considering pursuing organic synthesis; however, I would like to be exposed to more fields of chemistry, and I am unsure how to do so. What fields of chemistry are most likely to have opportunities for an undergraduate to participate in research, that is, what fields have the lowest 'entry barrier' in terms of both knowledge and lab experience for a person to be able to make useful, nontrivial contributions? I am planning on going into the industry after my PhD. What can I do now to prepare myself for that goal? I intend to self-study organic chemistry and physical chemistry over the summer. I am planning on using, respectively, Wade's text and McQuarrie's text. Are these the best undergraduate level texts available for those subjects or are there better textbooks that I could use? Moreover, I intend to study linear algebra - would it be advisable to begin with Axler's Linear Algebra Done Right? It seems quite difficult. How can I maximize the number of publications I can get my name on through undergraduate research and how can I maximize the efficacy of my undergraduate research in general with regards to boosting the strength of my graduate school application? How many of the GRE Subject Tests should I take? I was thinking about taking four: Chemistry, Biology, 'Biochemistry, Cell, and Molecular Biology', and Mathematics. For those that I should take, what textbooks and review guides should I be using to prepare for them? Is it true that Campbell's Biology text suffices for GRE Biology? That is what I have heard, and if that is indeed the case, then I will study it over the summer. Thank you, meguca