biotechie

Flux, depending on the type of engineering you want to do, you may still be better off staying in a Biophysics or even a science interdisciplinary program. There are all sorts of students getting their PhDs around me who are working on different modeling systems or even pH responsive biocomputers. Maybe dig around in the Life Sciences thread to see if you can find anything pertinent to your research interests. I would also spend some time looking at specific programs and specific professors. Find the professors you would love to work under, and select programs that have a few professors you would be interested in working with. Look at the coursework requirements. I don't think I would want to go into a program that had absolutely no biology input and focused only on engineering when I wanted to go into industry that will be highly biology-based.

Xieming, WUSTL is super competitive, so make sure you work really hard on that application. It needs to be immaculate. They're ranked high in our field. I got rejected from there with a 3.65 masters GPA and 6 years research experience. You may have a better chance than me as you have more publications. I would probably take the GRE again to raise that Writing and Verbal score... These guys use a cutoff since they get so many applications, and I'm fairly certain the writing score needs to be a 4 or a 4.5 for most schools. If you do retake the GRE, spend a week or so going over one of the prompt books and learn to write in the format they expect. My writing score went up when I took it to go from masters to PhD. I'd also suggest adding Baylor College of Medicine (Their Integrative Molecular and Biomedical Sciences program (used to be CMB) is super awesome and is interdisciplinary), University of Florida (Interdisciplinary Program in Biomedical Sciences) and University of Utah (MCB). The last two aren't quite as highly ranked, but they're still great programs, and they might not be as strict with GRE or GPA requirements. BCM and University of Utah are also FREE applications. I'm happy to help if anyone has any questions about the application process and picking schools. I have the next week off from classes because I survived my first term of classes!

I talked to a representative at school, today, who gave me information on a bunch of fellowships, but they were the same that I'd previously looked at. It looks like there aren't any that I can apply for, but I will be eligible to apply for research funding once I progress to PhD Candidacy. If anyone hears of fellowships that are available, I would love to apply.

I have spent a lot of time talking with professors about this since I started school in July. Unfortunately, the grants their previous students have obtained are mostly those for which I cannot apply. I was in your shoes during my masters, and the reason I didn't apply was because I wanted to be sure I could get funding during my PhD. Whoops! I think there are a great deal of smaller 1-2 year grants that you could apply for, possibly getting a couple of them in conjunction if they do not conflict with each other.

Here is the dilemma: I am a first year PhD student who has a better chance of getting into the lab she wants if she can be competitive for funding (like all of us). However, a problem I recently discovered with this is that I cannot apply for most fellowships. This would be because I have completed a masters degree in cellular physiology, so not only do I have previous graduate coursework, but I have two years of coursework. Most applications state that you must have a year (sometimes two) or less total graduate experience. This immediately makes it impossible for me to apply for things like the NSF fellowships or those through the department of defense. Have any of you experienced this problem or have some advice for me? Do you know of any fellowships that I could still apply for? I feel like I could be a strong applicant with a decent GPA if I could find things to apply for. I've spent time looking, but I come up empty. My research area will be in physiology, cell and molecular biology, translational biology, epigenetics, and potentially a little immunology.

I agree that it may be very difficult for many of us to be so general. I didn't apply to any computational or psychology-based programs, so I have no idea how those types of programs look. Mostly biomedical science, interdisciplinary programs, and cell biology. I would personally avoid applying out so broadly and narrow myself in a little bit more. I know psychology programs are going to have very different types of applications than neuroscience at a medical school, and those are going to be different from programs that are computationally based. I would probably pick something like computational biology through a medical school-based program or a programs that are interdisciplinary. Knowing your background (previous degrees, experience, etc.) would help to figure out where you may best be able to apply, and then maybe we can help figure out the types of SOPs you will need based on the others' experiences.

Science PhD programs actually encompasses a large number of different fields. Can you be more specific? Are you biology, cell bio, microbiology, biomedical sciences, chemistry, biochem, physics or something else? We might be able to give you a more general idea for your field because applications will vary.

My advice is that if schools don't require it, don't take it. But seriously, as long as you know basic prokaryotic and eukaryotic biology, you'll be fine. I like Campbell's stuff, but I also like Brock's Microbiology and Boron's Medical Physiology.

For those of you trying to solidify your final choices for biomed type programs, this virtual grad school fair happens one last time on October 24. It is how I finalized my list, and also where I found out about my dream program. Even if you think you have your list finalized, it is a good idea to still participate. Generally they have admissions officers at the very least, but many programs also have current students and professors for you to talk to. It was really helpful to me when I was making my choices, and it is FREE. Just register ahead of time. Many of the schools on your lists are listed on the site. http://biomed.careereco.net/virtual-fair/chat-with-organizations/ Let me know if you have any questions about the fair or anything I can help you with as far as grad programs go. I'm currently approaching finals for term I at my dream program, so I will be here procrastinating!!!

Nns91, I think we talked about your scores in chat recently. We told you to quit stressing; you're not going to have to retake it with enough time to have official results comfortably ahead of the deadlines. As long as your writing is okay, I think you will be fine. I don't put a lot of stock into the general GRE, and most programs just look to see if you're above a certain cutoff. You should be above this with those scores for most programs. Exceptions might be UCSD which requires 80% (though that isn't set in stone as I was offered an interview), UW Seattle, or UCSF (which requires subject GRE). UT Southwestern will probably accept those scores, as well as the other programs I previously mentioned.

I applied to six, was offered interviews at four (declined two), and got accepted into both that I attended. I picked my schools based on research and faculty rather than rank, though I still ended up at a school ranked in the top 20. I personally wouldn't go more than 10. I was originally only going to go for five, but I decided to apply to a safety school, which I later found out had some really great stuff going on. I might have considered it if my top choice hadn't blown me away! I would say 5-6 schools is a decent number. You can do one school that is a stretch this way and still apply to schools you know you're going to be able to be happy at. That is extremely important.

ilikeargyle, WashU is going to be a tough one, and so are the Ivy Leagues. Those are incredibly competitive (yes, most programs are, but those are cut-throat). Your grade profile/GREs look very similar to what mine were. I applied to WashU (who said they had close to 1000 applicants) and didn't make the cut. I also applied to UW for Immunology. They had hundreds of applications for 2 spots, as did the MCB program, so be careful, there; I know UW does do a cutoff before they look at applications. I think you'd stand a good chance at some of the others, including UT Houston and Baylor. Probably the best thing for all of you to do right now is take some time to NOT think about the name of the school. It is debatable how important rank really is, but make sure you're not picking a school just for that. Before you do applications, go through the professor profiles for each school. Look up their recent publications because odds are what is on the school website isn't updated. Make sure there are multiple professors you could see yourself working under. This is important... don't go somewhere where you find out nobody is doing what you want to do. Also check out where their students end up and how long it takes them to graduate. How do classes and qualifying exams work, and how do you feel about that? For example, Baylor's IMBS program has 10 months of classes and rotations, then qualifying exams, and you're in candidacy by your second year while UF's Interdisciplinary program spaces classes out over two years and then you do qualifying exams... I know that for myself, after completing a Master's, I felt like I wanted to limit the time I spent in classes. The last part you might only be able to determine at interviews, but feel out the environment of the students. Are they constantly competing with each other for everything and are looking over their shoulders? Or do they have a friendly competition with a camaraderie that allows them to have fun and help each other out?

The additional experience of a Master's Degree will definitely help your chances if you perform well, however you will find that most US programs are not funded. Generally funding is reserved for PhD students who will be a longer contributor to the lab while a Master's is usually two years or less. Do you know the reasons you were unable to get a place in a PhD program? I did a MS, and I am positive it helped me get into my PhD program, but I also think that my 6 total years of research contributed. I think that is you do very well in a masters program, you may also be given the opportunity to accelerate where you are studying into their PhD program. Otherwise, strong grades and strong research should help you get into a PhD school. Just be prepared for the cost and try to get scholarships to cover it.

I ended up shoving everything I could into my little car, and then a few things in my parents' car (they came down with me for a couple of days). The only thing I didn't get to bring was my big TV. I sold/donated all of my furniture before I left, so when I got here, I hit thrift stores to buy what furniture I could. I bought other furniture at Walmart and Target for decent prices. I have the essentials, now, and can get more things, later, once I get paid. That was definitely the easier option for me since my apartment complex in the middle of the city would have been really difficult to get a truck into. That doesn't work for everyone, but I didn't have nice furniture to begin with, and I'm okay with having cheaper stuff since I know I will be making enough to replace it and also since I will be moving again within the next 6 years.

I took my GRE in November... which was way too late, and I didn't have time to retake it. I would take it either in July (this month!) or in early August, but no later for a first attempt. You can only take the computer test once ever 30 days, so you would have to wait until September or October for a second attempt if you wanted to get your scores on time.

If you're pulling anything that has a DOI number (most will) or a Pub Med ID (PMID), you can also just enter that number and let it search. It'll be able to pill all of the information, and then you probably won't have any information to enter. @rising_star: Mendeley is free, and is like Endnote on steroids, so it might be a good option, even if you only use it until you can get Endnote. You can treat it like Endnote, and you have the added option of reading/highlighting/annotating/searching within all texts within Mendeley. I have both, and ended up preferring Mendeley. You can import your stuff from Endnote into it. If you ever have to export your stuff, it can export into formats that Endnote will take, and though I have my Mendeley organizing my files into folders by year and then naming files by year and last name, you can have it export those files later so you can back them up. You don't have to have the place always on your drive. The ONLY issues I've had were that since my professors don't use it, I had to check for their citations (not hard, since they weren't formatted the same and we used "track changes") and I had a little issue with the references at the end of my document inserting twice, but that second one was my own fault.

I used Mendeley for my masters thesis (which I just submitted, today!) and will use it for my PhD as well. www.mendeley.com You can bring in any PDF and match it to your citation information, and it will link to Word or Open Office to do your citations. It also gives you the option to search for keywords through your whole library, though I know that is no good for scanned things. It was a life-saver for me, especially when I could remember which article I'd read a piece of information in. If you have any specific questions about it, I can try and answer them.

I'm referring to the US News and World Report rankings. But some of them are med school rankings and others are science-based... depends on the school and I feel like schools aren't categorized to one or the other the right way. But I didn't pick my schools on rankings. I picked them because they had several PIs I liked. http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools I'm not exactly sure what the biggest deciding factor was. Classes and amount of time for research were definitely important. That just felt like the program for me. I picked schools that had at least three people I would be interested in working under, and I tried to make sure they would be taking students by looking through the websites. If given the opportunity to select faculty to interview under, I tried to get interviews with them. It has worked out well. Supposedly the subject GRE isn't bad... but I didn't want to take it, and you're right, as a non-bio major, you might not want to.

The programs I applied to are: 1. Baylor College of Medicine Interdepartmental Program in Cell and Molecular Biology (my final choice) They're ranked in the top 20, now, and take 14-17 students per year. Major points for this program is that I loved the atmosphere; it is in the middle of the largest medical campus in the US (with 6 schools right there and several hospitals) and is actually interinstitutional, working between schools in the area, not just interdisciplinary. The students seemed very supportive of each other, and though there is competition to publish, they're actively mentoring each other. The faculty were also great. Another plus is that you're done with classes and your proposal defense within one year, so you can really hit your research hard. Oh! And no teaching requirement, which I was bummed about. This program is changing its name, though. FREE Application 2. University of Florida, Interdisciplinary Program in Biomedical Sciences This program is in the top 50, ranked 36ish, and they pull in a huge class, more than 25 students each year. There were lots of interesting projects, and the area is beautiful. The students didn't know each other was well, but I think students could be successful there. $30 application 3. Washington University in St. Louis (WashU/WUSTL) DBBS Ranked in the top 15, but they get tons of applications. They have some of the best research facilities in the midwest. Entrance into this biomedical sciences program is competitive. I didn't interview. FREE Application 4. University of California, San Diego, (UCSD) Biomedical Sciences Also ranked in the top 15. This is also very competitive, and I received an interview off of the waitlist after I'd made my final choice. I've been to the campus, and it would be an incredibly fun place to go to school if you could be outside all the time. It is expensive to live here, so you'd almost have to live in student housing. $75 application 5. University of Washington, Seattle: I applied Immunology, but they have Molecular Biology Very competitive. They had hundreds of applications for just 3 immunology spots this year. They're ranked very near the top... but I was not impressed. $85 application fee 6. University of Utah, Molecular Biology Unsure on rank, and this was originally going to be a "backup" school, but they have some impressive faculty doing really cool stuff, especially epigenetics, which I like. I turned down their interview, but these guys are very quick to respond to e-mails, etc. FREE application. I didn't apply to other high ranking programs like UCSF because my GPA and GRE were too low, and UCSF requires subject GRE. If you like the program, though, consider taking the subject GRE on top of the required general GRE.

You will need to take at least the general GRE for nearly all US schools, and you may also need to take the subject GRE, depending on the school. For average schools, most want a general GRE above 70%, and high grades. Some require a set of core courses to have been completed, such as Chemistry through organic, microbiology, etc. You seem to be more interested in molecular biology than general biology? You may consider applying outside of just general biology programs as well. Make sure you find research you're interested in. Since you're interested in medical research (based on your mention of oncology), you need to push for more medical-based programs. Some general Biology programs are more environmental, bacterial, or zoology based. I applied only to cell and molecular biology, immunology, biomedical sciences, and interdisciplinary programs.

I have a second author publication that isn't even in my field. Any publications at all that occur during your undergrad are going to look great on your application, even if they're not 1st author.