Organic synthesis/Transition metal catalysis
GPA: 3.67, 3.87 in chemistry, at a big public university.
GRE: 168V, 161Q, 750 chemistry
Lab experience:
* One year plus a summer in a natural products lab
* One year plus a summer in a synthetic lab, studying TM catalysis. I'll have another year in here by the time I start grad school, so that would be three years of research.
* A summer internship at a pharmaceutical company
Awards/Accomplishments:
* One institutional award for "outstanding undergraduate research"
* One institutional summer research internship with a substantial stipend
* Poster presentation at a regional meeting
* Honors thesis
No publications It's not for lack of trying, though.
I'm applying to: U CA Santa Cruz, U CO Boulder, Purdue, U-Mich, U NC Chapel Hill, Princeton, CalTech, UT-Austin.
I think that all of my rec letters should be good. I like, and have a good relationship with, all of the professors who I asked. One of the letters will be from someone who is fairly well known in the field I intend to study. It's crazy to see people in here with 3.9+ GPAs. What the hell? I worked my ass off for my almost-3.7. Maybe I'm just not as smart as you guys I'm assuming that I probably won't get in to Princeton or CalTech with my low GPA, but I would love to go to Austin or Purdue. There are groups at all four of those institutions that I have had my eye on.
