Thesbane

You seem like you have good stats for either the BioE or ChemE program at Stanford; ChemE would probably demand more in terms of the quantitative aspect. If you are interested in genetic engineering / biological circuit design, then Stanford BioE has a couple labs active in those areas (Smolke, Endy, Qi labs). BioE offers self-paid masters position (about 5-6) every year, where Chemical Biology does not. Also suggest you looking into MIT BE program. Weiss, Church, Collins are a few labs that come off the top of my head. In particular, Weiss and Collins labs are probably as deep into genetic circuit engineering as one can get. From what I understand the Chemical Biology program research focus concerns itself either with the chemical aspect or the system level. Genetic engineering is a vastly different field than that. Regarding do you stand a chance: It's a crab-shoot when you are an international student applying to Stanford or MIT. That being said, your GPA is definitely great (in top quartile at Stanford BioE I'd say). GRE Quant could be better (ideally 90%+) but not a deal breaker, nobody really cares about general GRE. Did you graduate from an international school? If so, faculty may have a hard time calibrating your GPA and the quality of your courses. I'd suggest taking a GRE subject test in Biochemistry / Chemistry / Physics / Maths, whichever you can do well on and try to get above 85%. Do you have quality publications? Probably the single best indicator of whether you stand a chance is whether if you have published on well-respected journals as first or second author.

Thank you! I am still waiting to hear back from Columbia Integrated program before I make my decision. UT Southwestern is definitely one of my top choices considering the number of faculty they have there who work on research topics I am interested in.

Just finished my interview at UTSW for Division of Basic Sciences on the past weekend. Received phone call today from the Dean to extend offer! Good luck to all those who I met during the interview!

To add on top of M-index. A very general rule of thumb is: M ~ 1 (good research scholar), M ~ 2 (excellent research scholar, likely to be found at R01 research institution), M ~ 3 (research superstar, there are only a handful of them e.g. Edward Witten in Theoretical Physics).

I know that in my field, faculty often use H-index and M-index to evaluate other PI. H-index is the X number of publications a PI has with at least X number of citations. M-index is just H-index divided by the number of years since that PI's first publication, it measures the rate of H-index increase. I also know that titles and awards like "HHMI investigator", "NSF CAREER Award" etc. are used as calibrators. People also look at sub-field conferences (e.g. Gordon Research Council) and see who lead the conferences. They are usually the big dogs of the field. If your PI publishes frequently on NCS journals, I'd assume he is likely very well recognized in his field. Hope this helps.

I have gotten only two interviews this season. I guess I kind of expected that given my very borderline gpa (3.46). I have been thinking about backup plan in case I don't get accepted anywhere (the one program I interviewed at a month ago hasn't gotten back to me, so I suspect I am either waitlisted/rejected). I have had quite a bit of research experience as an undergrad (probably more so than my peers at my school) and have a pretty good idea of what I want to study for graduate school, although I really would not mind doing postbac research for a few years and explore other options. I am just not sure if my situation will get better at all after even more research experience, or maybe I should just lower my expectation in the future.

Bostonbio, thanks for sharing! Did you apply to grad school when you just graduated? If so, how did it go?

Hey all, I would like to hear your opinions on the pros/cons of postbac research experiences. A few rumors I have heard is they can make up for a mediocre GPA when applying to very competitive programs. Is there anyone who can testify to this with their personal experience? Thanks in advance!

Sorry to hear this Eco, I was wondering if your status on the application has changed?

Congratulations! There's only so few of you who heard back =)

Interview dates are Feb 6-8 (Quantitative/Comp Bio, Biophysics,BME focus), Feb 20-22 (Cell regulation, Biochem focus), and March 6-8 (Cancer Bio, Molecular Microbio focus). Good luck, hope you hear back soon!

My track in order of preference was: Molecular Microbiology -> Cancer Biology -> Cell regulation.

Just for those of you who applied to UT Southwestern, I just got an interview invitation two hours ago. Fairly surprised that their office still sends out emails on sunday, but delighted to receive the invitation nonetheless =)

Hey Immun0, can I ask which home program did you apply for at Stanford? Thanks in advance.

From what I know, Goldwater scholarship is quite competitive, but it is an extremely prestigious award. There are also a ton of other research fellowships (e.g. REU) for undergraduate students from NSF / NIH. I am an international student myself and hence ineligible for any of these awards/fellowships. I have limited information regarding competitiveness of applications for these programs. I suggest you look up requirements on the internet and inquire your faculty adviser or a career service office if you've got one at your school. The most important task for you right now is to get in touch with a faculty of interest via faculty member at your own institution. If you succeed in making contact and receiving positive response from the faculty member, inform them that you are in middle of applying for awards/fellowships. I am positive that a lot of faculty members at well-funded labs are willing to cover partially, if not fully, expenses for a visiting undergraduate student. Just make sure you stay in good communication with the faculty members regarding statuses of your fellowship application.