Chimeric Phoenix

Haven't really been keeping up with this year's application cycle, but anyone interviewing at Johns Hopkins SOM feel free to message me with any questions. I'm a 2nd year Immunology student, I'm done with qualifying exams and into my thesis research (more or less).

I would second her response. Address the subpar grades in a positive light by explaining how you grew from the experience or whatever spin you like, and then get back to why you're such a great applicant. Your more recent grades and GRE are both outstanding. I don't think you need to spend more than a few sentences letting them know those first couple years were an outlier.

I don't know what field you're interested in, but you will have a competitive application at any program. I'd say apply to any school that interests you. You're probably going to have a fun interview season =)

If you have a strong application outside of your undergrad GPA (research experience, publications, presentation, GRE) it might be worth waiting awhile to take some graduate level courses before applying. I don't know your personal situation, but it's worth remembering that a PhD is a 5 year program (or so we're told lol) and the career path is highly competitive. You may not want to settle for a tier 3 program when you could wait a bit and get into a school like U of Chicago. On the other hand, if you don't have a stellar GRE, a good reason that your UGPA was low, and a plan to make sure your grad GPA is much higher, you might not want to waste your time and money delaying a PhD application.

As an international applicant, you might not be in a great position for the top tier schools; however, I think that you have a decently strong application considering your publication.

Some PIs can get very prickly about not applying to their school. I wouldn't necessarily say you shouldn't apply to a safety school or just apply to appease that PI. However, you don't have to accept the interview and if you get interviews at any of those other schools you should probably decline. Nobody is looking for 5 publications. I interviewed at UDub Immunology a few years back, and most people had 0 publications. I also know people with interviews at Stanford, Princeton, Harvard, and UCSF. Most of them had stats similar to yours. TL;DR keep the safety school, but decline the interview if you have a bunch of others from schools you like. If you don't have an acceptance offer before UofT interview weekend, it's not rude to still attend and just decline UofT acceptance later. These schools have a wait list for a reason.

I think it's worth applying, but I do believe she is definitely on the outside chance of getting in if the Nature paper isn't published by the time she submits her application. Even with the Nature publication those are very difficult schools to get into, and her GPA is going to be probably .6 to .7 below the average accepted student. Having said that, you'll never know if you don't try. Not to mention, if she is really dedicated to getting in this is only 1 application cycle. If that paper gets published and she spends the next year taking graduate courses wherever you end up, she shouldn't have any trouble finding a good school. Final two thoughts: 1) She needs to ace the GRE. If she thinks she can do well on the subject test, that could help (or hurt if she does poorly). 2) Why hasn't she considered Johns Hopkins? (Andrea Cox, Bob Siliciano, Stuart Ray, Joel Blankson) [shameless plug]

If you use google maps it gives the area. That's pretty close to inner harbor and a good neighborhood. Those apartments are pretty expensive though, unless you've got a roommate in mind or SPH pays better than SOM lol

If anybody attending the Johns Hopkins Immunology interview weekend has any questions feel free to send me a PM

I pretty much had the same experience when I applied last year.

Another option is to just apply to more schools this cycle. I had a friend that went 0/4 for their first round of applications. They then applied to a few more schools whose deadline hadn't passed and they ended up getting into a pretty good school. I had a pretty bad UGrad GPA as well (my stats are in my sig) and I will echo the advice about getting an MS. I ended up paying for only 1 semester of school for mine, and getting a scholarship or TAship for the rest. Total extra loans was about 15 - 20k for living expenses. I have no idea why people are saying a MS is useless. It is absolutely useful. You would enter the job market with 3+ years of experience and a MS as opposed to a BS. You'd go from 30-40k/yr to 50-60k/yr just like that. Your UGrad is going to make getting into a MS more difficult, but from my experience you DO NOT need to do your MS at a top tier research university to get into a top tier PhD program. You will need to do a thesis option to prove that you can do research/teach/study all at the same time. TL;DR Apply to more PhD programs right now or Get your MS. Apply again, this time to a better spread of schools. If you're in the same place 2 years from now, it might be time to reconsider your career goals.

Hey there, I would think you have a very strong application. You're planning to apply to a LOT of schools. I would suggest looking at all of the additional schools you're planning to apply to and making sure that there are at least 2-3 faculty with whom you'd like to work. Good Luck! (but I doubt you'll need it) =)

From personal experience (clearly not statistical significance) the overwhelming majority of people who I interviewed with got acceptances where they interviewed. I've also been told by faculty who are part of the admissions process that it's mostly about making sure someone is going to fit in. Of course that's coming from an extremely small sample size, compared to the number and types of programs that exist. I would still say very confidently that the interview process is more about you deciding if you like them. Obviously you should know your research, be professional etc. etc. but you should seriously try to enjoy the process as much as you can. You're not going to get another chance to fly around the country and get wined and dined for awhile. Note on WUSTL: At least for immunology, they really seemed to have had some history of students wanting to attend schools on the coasts. So, they probably have a lot of invites/admissions to make up for location. Especially considering that many of the people I met there had interviews at Harvard/UCSF/Stanford. Once you start the interview circuit you see a lot of the same people at different schools.

It is program-specific, but the majority of programs offer admission to most of the interviewees. It costs them quite a bit of money to fly each person out, put them in a hotel, and feed them for 2-3 days. In most cases, they're checking to make sure you're not crazy. You also have to think about the fact that they have to offer admission to more people than they can accommodate since most interviewees will have multiple offers to choose from.

Probably would've been good, but no sense in worrying about it now

I would agree. Your application should be competitive wherever you apply. Research experience is not about learning techniques so much as it is about learning the process of research. Even still, you've got plenty of the basics and you'll learn whatever else you need for your project when the time comes.

I think that you've got a competitive application. Your GPA might be a little low for some of the top schools, but I don't think there's anywhere that is absolutely out of your reach. Good Luck!

It's not like Med School where you have a long checklist of necessary activities: research, leadership, volunteer, etc. Working in a lab is not a required course, so I think they see that as a sort of ECA that is actually directly related to your career goals.

If your senior thesis is due the end of the Spring Semester your Senior year, I don't think you need to be in a crazy rush to get started a month or two earlier. It always helps to do something that interests you, but like Vene said it really doesn't matter much at this point. Depth of research will be more important. If you're shadowing somebody doing really cool research or designing your own very boring research experiments most adcoms will be more impressed with the latter. When you have interviews, they'll want to know if you understand the process of science. You'll be much better at articulating the depth of your understanding if you've had personal experience.

The program you plan on applying to is important. I know that the Immunology program here is funded through the NIH, so we have an international student this year that brought their own funding. You should definitely make sure that the programs on your list have funding for international students.

I think another important factor to consider is the length of the SOP. If you have 1 page to talk about all of your accomplishments, what makes you a good student, and why you want to attend that school, you may not have space to mention 1 grade.

There are pros and cons to every school, but in general more prestigious schools tend to have more money to spend. That can be nice if your research requires expensive equipment, or if you want to have some of the big names in your field give a talk. There are going to be great professors and not-so-great professors at every school, same with the students. In the end, nobody will care where you did your PhD after you do a post-doc. Just like nobody will care where you did your post-doc after you get your first job. It's all about getting to the next level and every school expects you to be the driving force for your success.

Good luck this year. Since you've already stated that you're willing to try again if things don't work out, my only advice would be to focus on your GRE/GPA. Your research experience is definitely the strength of your application. Acing some graduate level courses and shoring up your general GRE would put you right in the mix with the other applicants. Having said all that, you could get 5 acceptances this year lol

I was in a similar position, but with not too terrible of a loan situation. I ended up only paying for 1 semester of my MS and taking out minimal loans to live off. If you check the mega-thread you'll find someone else that found some funded MS programs. If you do your best on the GRE now, and then devote yourself to your classes when you take them you'll be in the best position possible. Good Luck!

I have to agree, UC schools can be pretty tough to get into. The GRE is definitely your achilles heel. You still have time to get a good deal of studying done before retaking the GRE if you're only working full-time. Add 7-10 points to those scores and you'll be golden =)