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Congrats you earned it, that must truly feel amazing

Man I am getting anxious, still no word, maybe thats not a bad thing though. Who is the person who go accepted to Berkeley witha 3.53 gpa? Your scores are almost identical to mine, you are my hero! Crossing my fingers right now.

Thank you! When did you receive the notification if you dont mind me asking?

To whoever posted in the results section as accepted to Columbia, would you please mind sharing your stats here? Thanks in advance, I am getting a little anxious!

When did you hear from UIUC? and what were your stats and specialization?

well here is a little heads up, to the best of my knowledge Holton does not take graduate students anymore only postdocs and if by Tyler you mean Dr. Tyler McQuade he does take graduate students however he moved to Germany a few years back and talks with his students via skype, he is a great chemist but this is something to take into consideration. Dudley is probably your best bet. I would switch out Holton for a different option, Alabugin and Zhu are both great organic chemists to look into.

What advisers are you interested in at Florida State University? I currently work in their chemistry department and have good insight to their admission selection. They put a strong emphasis on GRE scores with a minimum of 70% on the quantitative section and I think 50% or 60% on the verbal. They put much less emphasis on GPA so as long as you're above a 3.0-3.2 you're pretty good and if you have research experience on top of that then you're doing great. As far as Polytech NY goes I am not sure. I received the same letter and on it they said they would wave the application fee so it couldn't hurt to apply!

now that all my applications are in should I let the professors I have been in contact with know?

For those who applied to UC Berkeley, is there a verification that your recommenders have ulpoaded their LoRs or can you just submit after you sent the request?

Ah! Gotcha. I didn't even take this into account so thank you.

Thanks for the motivation. What do you mean by someone will take my spot? If I apply next year will I not have the same or better chances if I improve my scores and maybe get another publication?

So my general GRE scores came in 156(65%)Q and 153(58%)V. While I believe I could get +90% for the Q section I don't think I have enough time to retake the gre and send in my applications in time. Is this too low considering the rest of my application to be admitted into the programs I am applying to? I have contacted some of the professors I want to work with and they showed a lot of interest in having me in their groups but they are not aware of my test scores. Should I let them know? Should I just wait to apply next year after I retake my GREs? Feeling discouraged but I would be willing to take a year off if it meant a chance to work in the groups I am interested in.

You would have to post the statistics for average GPA, GRE scores, years of research, etc. of a large population of applicants to chemistry graduate programs to make this a legitimate argument. Not saying its not true, but its not relevant to the argument without the minimum data to make it relevant. Even still, its a bit of a poke at egos/condifence considering if you had all that data you wouldn't need that article to prove your point. We are future scientists here, lets act that way . For the record, compared to most people who post on here, I am not above average in GPA and GRE scores, it just irks me to see misused citing.

I appreciate your encouragement. I have been letting it get to me a bit but its not in my control anymore. Talked to my PI today and he wasn't impressed either, but he has let me know that his LOR is very strong. Thanks for your kind words, I just hope it doesn't knock me out from the schools where my top groups are at.

Welp, scores are in. I'm rather disappointed with my scaled score of 600 (20%). I expected low because I'm not a good standardized test taker, but not that low. Oh well I'm not going to let it get me down, just going to keep pushing forward.

From what I have been told, Goldwater scholarship almost guarantees acceptance anywhere, plus you have much longer experience than most people do if you have been in school for 4 years.

Thanks for this! I intended on applying to these but was wondering of other external fellowships available. Could you list several others you are aware of? Also do you think GPA and GRE scores are the most heavily weighted in this application or could a great personal statement really overcome these areas similar to grad apps?

Yea 2 pages should be a max, and there is nothing wrong with that length, however take into consideration the number of applications that must be read by admissions committee. If you are taking 2 pages to say what you could fit in 1 page, what do you think will be more thoroughly read? For me, my 2 pages was cut down to 1 once I removed a lot of the fluff that I thought made my sop flow well, but after removing everything I have 1 page that flows well and is directly to the point. Make a separate sop and try doing it, maybe you'll like it better maybe not.

Agree with this! dont worry about length till after your frist couple of drafts and some input from others.

I have been writing mine since mid summer. But its not like I'm spending hours on it everyday, basically I just wrote a complete one in a few days over summer and then had a few ppl look at it, changed it every couple days or weeks I will come back to look at it to work on it some more. Definitely not necessary to spend that much time on it but it is necessary to have it read by friends, professors, strangers, anyone! To get a good idea of what you can improve. I think the hardest part was getting a good template/outline down. I would try and keep it under 1 page if possible.

I am no expert but I will pass advice I have received from others and read online. My GPA is not that competitive to most people that post on here, but I have made sure to enhance my strengths through my experiences and representing my characteristics in my SOP. While your research experience is on the low side you still have some experience and you are submitting a paper so this is great. The admissions committee won't see it in the same light as a published paper but if you provide a clear description of the project and how you contributed it will definitely show the admissions you are a mature undergraduate researcher. Also do your homework! Look up the groups you are interested in at each school and mention them in your SOP along with why you are interested in them. Make sure that your research interests match the groups (ie if you are applying for a focus in organic synthesis don't mention a group in an unrelated field such as bioorganic). Read some papers by these groups and if you feel like you understand them well enough mention one in your SOP, briefly stating why you find it interesting (1-2 sentences). You can really show how creative and well developed your problem solving skills are if you can propose a hypothetical project based on observations from the project. Of course, you will want to make sure it is relevant to the group's interest and a relatively recent pub. I had written many drafts of my SOP, which started as describing my interest in chemistry and my experiences. Reading each draft, I thought they were all pretty good reads but I wasted a lot of space describing my history. My academic history isn't the greatest but there are lots of applicants who are in the same position so I ended up cutting my SOP from 1.5-2 pages down to 1 page flat. Now my SOP is right to the point with everything, talking about my interest in the program, my interest in a specific group or groups, my research experience, my career goals, my accomplishments and finishing it off with why I believe I would be a competitive student in their program. I think this shows maturity and rids of excuses which in research, PIs wont want to take someone who makes excuses. If you can show that your interests and goals have been well thought out then I think you will have a good chance at a lot of programs. Also, In my recent post I listed 8 schools but after a lot of thought I have cut this down to 5 based on where my true interests lie and ruled out schools based on prestige. If I get into any of my schools I know I have at least 2-3 groups that I would love to work in. While prestige is important for your career, a balance needs to be made and I think it will be obvious to the admissions committees who is applying for prestige and who is applying for genuine interests. Find a good balance and it will show in your effort. Basically, you have your scores, you have your experience, you have your LORs, the only thing you have control of is your SOP and contacting groups you might be interested in. Your SOP can either make your application by outshining your weaknesses or have a neutral effect and leave the admissions board judging you more based off your other parts of your application. DO YOUR HMWRK and write that winning SOP.

I am a very slow test taker even when I know the information very well so maybe this was just my issue. There are very few biochem questions that are essentially organic questions anyways. Didn't use the REA tests just old practice tests from ETS.

Took the one in sept. and if you become familiar with the sample test questions provided by ETS and pace yourself well you will do well. The test itself is not that difficult once you get used to the questions, its the limited time that makes it challenging so practice pacing yourself.

I appreciate your thorough input! I agree that I am seeking a quantitative measure, but of course, it is in my nature as a budding scientist. While I have read most of what you are saying many times before, your insight is organized in a way that gives a little more clarification to the process. Are you applying this round or have you already been accepted to the schools in your sig?

My biggest concern is actually Urbana-Champaign because my top choice group is there. While I believe I have a somewhat realistic shot at being accepted, I am still pretty nervous because of my GPA, although I have seen a number of accepted applicants with lower GPA than mine.