ballwera

I would also add in here, that generally in a medical school you will not be required to teach. If you are in a basic science department, you will likely be required to TA.

What's the median? Std deviation? Average is pretty much useless here...

Seriously. Based on the above advice I should never have wasted my time applying... To those out there with low GPAs. There is hope... you just have to make your app shine in other areas. Don't let this site discourage you either.

Just a quick note about interview invites, don't sweat it if you aren't getting any right away. A lot of schools send out invites in waves. I didn't get invites to some of my programs til late January.

Really depends on what I'm reading for, but I've really just started reading abstracts and looking at figures. If you don't understand the figure, read the associated sections. If it's directly relevant for my research I'll read a bit deeper.

Dealing w/ this right now in my rotation. Working with one of the biggest names at our university. It's literally impossible to get anything accomplished because I can never get a hold of the guy. I knew about a month or so into the rotation that it wasn't going to work, but I'm stuck here til next semester.

That's a rather broad brush you are painting with. Every lab I've been associated with has treated techs as grad students, because to be honest there isn't a whole lot of difference between the two...

There are a few of us that got in with bad GPAs (mine was < 3.0), but I had three years at a tech to make up for it, there are a few others on here with your situation that could attest to this as well ( one of them got into Hopkins). I'm not saying don't apply to safeties, but don't be afraid to apply to some prestigious programs. I know I didn't and am regretting it now. I actually got an offer from the "most prestigous" school that I applied to and ended up turning it down.

To be honest, I would not at all be surprised if you got into MIT. This isn't med school. These programs are much more holistic in looking at these applications. In a lot of circumstances experience and letters are enough to get you in (assuming your gpa is over the auto cutoffs). As long as your app gets to a human you'll be ok.

I was in the same boat. Was a tech for 3 years, got into grad school based on my letters and experience. If you are super concerned about a masters, take a tech job at a university they usually offer free tuition.

Had the same issue. Luckily he had a demanding assistant.

Pretty sure I just bombed an exam lovely... 6 weeks worth of lectures by 5 different professors all condensed into 51 Multiple Choice questions. Not sure how that's legal..

Quick question. I'm currently a first year in my PhD program and looking to apply for this award. I was a tech. for 3 years and took 2 grad classes online because my job paid for them. Does this make me ineligible for this award?

I suppose this belongs in the 2015 thread but I'll throw it in here instead. Just got a rejection letter for an app that I submitted last Nov. hahaha

There are a number of schools that offer free admissions to everyone, Vandy and WashU come to mind.Be sure to apply to those as well. Also look at each department you apply to, some have waivers that are independent of the admissions office. Good Luck!

I had a huge upward trend in my gpa (3.5+ in my upper level electives), which helped a lot. On top of that I got As in a couple graduate courses I took later on. I had 3 years full time as a research tech which vastly improved my application ( I easily had 2 - 3x more research experience than the people I met on the interview trail). I personally did not address my low gpa in my SOP. Instead I tried to highlight that vast experience I had as a tech. Good Luck!

Same situation with my rotation right now. Advisor is super busy and hard to get a hold of. Basically wasted a week because I couldn't get in touch to ask a question.

I had virtually identical stats, I did not get into vandy or uiuc but we may be looking at different programs. Be sure to highlight your time as a tech in your SOP, because that is more experience than the vast majority of other applicants will have. Also be prepared to answer questions about your gpa.

Wish I was able to start rotations in the summer. I've done nothing but read literature for the past week to get caught up! I will say it's a bit of adjustment to have work once I get home (I've been out of school for 3 years). Also got married a month ago so still trying to get used to that as well... fun stuff.

You could wait to release scores till after the test, I think. You will be paying for it though. The only reason you give schools is so that they release the scores for free.

You'll likely get into a lot of PhDs right now. Are you having cold feet about completing a PhD? Honestly an ms is pointless if it's not a terminal degree. I cannot advise anyone at all to do one unless it's free. If you are seriously concerned about your research experience, take a few years and work as a tech. I don't see the point in taking on debt if PhD is the end game... Just my 2 cents

I don't know how important it is to you, but Tennessee's Medical School is not on the Knoxville campus. I was a bit disappointed with Knoxville in general when I visited.

Honestly I wouldn't bother with that too much. Most of those bioinformatics course will start out with some basic coding. I'd also check out Rosalind http://rosalind.info/problems/locations/ It basically teaches one had to code in python in the context of solving biological problems. That's what I use to train our summer students. I'd also look into Beginning Perl for Bioinformatics ( there is a similar book for python). This again will teach you to code in a biological context. Have fun..

Have to admit I'm a bit confused...are you applying as a backup in case you don't get into medical school (adcoms can see right through this by the way..), MD/PhD?

Based on the above posters idea. Here is a paper I found last year about an Online Comp. Bio Curriculum Abstract: recent proliferation of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and other web-based educational resources has greatly increased the potential for effective self-study in many fields. This article introduces a catalog of several hundred free video courses of potential interest to those wishing to expand their knowledge of bioinformatics and computational biology. The courses are organized into eleven subject areas modeled on university departments and are accompanied by commentary and career advice. http://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1003662