Vene

I can't answer that question, but I can give you something to consider. The faculty that you meet with should be those who you are most interested in working with and these are the people who will tell the committee if they recommend you for admission or not. You're also likely to meet with a member of the admission committee.

It gives them the ability to see how they compare to other programs as well as aids in knowing how many students to accept as it helps predict how many are likely to turn down the admission offer.

As an FYI for people worrying about recruitment weekends. Last year I got one invitation to the University of Vermont on 12-9, I got another invitation to the University of Minnesota on 12-19. So, for those of you who haven't gotten notification yet there's still plenty of time. I also wouldn't be surprised if a lot of programs are waiting until after this semester's grades are due to make decisions.

For the first part of this question, no. For the second part, it depends. It depends on what the letters say, the opinions of who is on the admission committee, the strength of the rest of your application, and the strength of other applicants. The only thing you can do is wait and see what happens. It's certainly possible that if you were a borderline candidate this can put you in the rejection pile, but if that was the case you'd have a number of other weaknesses in your application.

Even though there's been some feedback already, I'll add my two cents. Interviews are as much them evaluating you as it is you evaluating them. A university wants the best students so they're going to be selective, but at the same time they want to attract those particular students to come to their school and not another one. You don't exactly want to slack off and assume you're going to get in, but you're certainly on the short list at this point. I can add that your academic credentials do meet their standards, so you don't have to worry so much about them anymore. The goal is to connect with professors and grad students and convince them you are the type of person they'd like to spend the next few years around. Oh, and good luck.

A lot of it is cultural. I can say that what I see here from your writing is that it looks like you understand English and can communicate in it, but your grammar is weak and that can stunt comprehension in both directions. Something you can do is read more material in English, and I don't mean scientific journals, I mean novels, as that can expose you to more of the language as well as the cultural cues that are a part of the GRE. You can also spend time at English-dominant websites communicating with native English speakers. Unfortunately, both of these do take a lot of time.

Hey, you got one, that's all you need. Congrats.

Based on my work in industrial research nobody gives a shit where you went to school.

Just as an FYI, the best way to handle this sort of situation is to contact the admin assistant. The responses you get here will not be specific to where you applied and so may or may not be applicable.

Anecdotally, after making flight arrangements with the travel agent the university provided the program put a hold on that plan as they weren't too thrilled by the cost. It actually ended up being approved though because it was the only flight. I was also way too far away for any other method of travel to be reasonable.

NWR is also a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy as the ranking means it is more likely for people to want to attend such programs which in turn makes them more competitive and they get better students. So, somebody with a high GPA and GRE score and a publication can look at the rankings and decide to start at number 1, look to see if the professors have matching research interests, do the same with number 2, and can probably find a good number of schools that align with their desires without getting past the top 50 or even top 30. And at least for undergrad rankings the same schools will recruit like mad trying to convince students who have no chance to apply so it'll look like they're more selective than they really are. This is related and I found it interesting.

Take the GRE whenever you feel ready, a course in biology shouldn't have an influence one way or the other on it. I can also add that my experience was industrial, not academic, and it wasn't seen negatively. If anybody complains just point out that the Student's T-Test came from a QA lab at a beer company. What matters is that you have some background in research (so, industrially this tends to mean product development). As for subject GRE, look at what prospective programs want. Don't send the chemistry GRE unless they request it and I doubt many will give a shit how you do on it.

Suits aren't necessary, but you won't be out of place if you wear one. Honestly, I didn't even wear a tie. I do recommend a dress shirt for the interview portion at least, but after that's out of the way wearing a nice sweater can work for colder weather. Naturally, bring a winter coat as well. And nobody will judge you if it's not a "dressy" coat as everybody living there knows the important thing is to stay warm. If the program plans on you going outside for any significant period of time do bring boots instead of trying to navigate snow and ice in dress shoes (one program I interviewed at was originally going to take us snowshoeing, but was hit by a warm spell and instead students went to tour some of the local craft breweries).

I doubt any professors will be examining applicants until after finals are over and their grades are submitted.

More likely than not you're going to be rejected. Your GPA is below the minimum requirements, it is possible to still get accepted with such, if somebody from the graduate program fights for you. That said, unless you have made contact with a professor who is willing to do such your GRE score makes it exceedingly unlikely that the program will take up that fight.

That's kind of strange considering that somebody could easily have half of their undergraduate degree completed at a community college.

If it takes ~5 days you still have plenty of time. It's not like ETS sends them the scores in the mail. Just call the program tomorrow and ask. If you were asking this past week you probably didn't get a response because of the holiday.

I'd actually still recommend you try for a PhD program. There's nothing unethical about changing your mind during it and deciding you're satisfied with a MS (a lot of people do this). Besides, PhD programs are better funded.

In a word, no. I calculated it last year by looking at the courses required for my major and figured out what my GPA would have been if I had only taken them. Functionally, this meant I included any science or math class I took regardless of when.

I'm inclined to say it may be wise to put off biochemistry until after you completely finish organic chemistry.

A 3.5 GPA isn't a bad one it's a good one. I'm in a PhD program and that was my undergrad GPA. It's only on the low side, maybe, if you're from an institution with rampant grade inflation or if you're limiting yourself to top 10 schools.

Cite the original source and then read this. Not hunting down the original source lead to the "fact" that bacterial cells outnumber the number of human cells in the body, but in reality there is no evidence to confirm this assertion. Instead, an estimate was quoted as fact and then people got lazy and didn't track down and read the original paper.

That's great news. Good luck.

The university I'm attending gave us so much free alcohol, it was great.

Congrats and good luck. Don't forget to have a little bit of fun.