lmayumi

Hey fellow Grad ppl, my name is Luisa and I am from Brazil. I am a MSc. student at a prestigious university in the capital of the country (Brasilia University). I finish my dissertation in February next year so I will apply for 2014 fall semester at this end of this year. Here in Brazil we have funding agencies that enable us to go abroad to pursue a PhD degree. I have been in the lab since undergrad and I had the chance to know several prominent researches of my area. One of them recommended me for the EBI director and Berkeley professor Chris Somerville. I have been early accepted into Illinois( Urbana/Champaign) and Berkeley since I have brazilian funding and full scholarship, however my dream is really Wisconsin (Madison). I don't know any faculty in madison and every lab I sent an e-mail to did not respond. Do you think I should apply to Madison and risk losing Illinois or Berkeley? Is it really hard to get into Madison Biochem program (IPib) ? I have already taken the GRE and got average scores (V=157 Q=152) and my TOEFL is scheduled for next month. Help guys, what do you think I should do? Aww, my Undergrad GPA is 3.3 and my grad (masters) GPA is a impeccable 4.