[Don't do these things]

@ GradSecretary, Thanks for the advice. Please would it be inappropriate if I ask a prospective Grad School about how interviews for International applicants living outside North America are done. This have been giving me concern lately.

[2015 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results]

On 7/25/2014 at 1:19 PM, acetylcholine said:

So if you decide to convert a 4.06/5 to an n out of 4, that equals a 3.24, actually, which is not a terribly competitive GPA without considerable research to back it up. You have quite a bit of research experience in your favor.

That's the problem, I have been warned never to convert my GPA in that fashion as it will devalue my GPA grossly. Was told that 4.0 is higher than 3.5 and even then that it is still not a fair representation. For example when i used the guide on wes website and recalculated my GPA i ended up with 3.62.

On 7/25/2014 at 1:19 PM, acetylcholine said:

Out of MIT, Harvard, Stanford, and WUSTL, I suggest you pick two and replace two with more realistic schools.

ok, please can you suggest some program for me That is international student friendly.

On 7/25/2014 at 1:19 PM, acetylcholine said:

The fact that your choice of schools was greatly influenced by ranking is a bad sign. You need to pick based on the people doing what you want at each school. They will not accept you if you are not a good fit.

when i say that i was influenced by ranking, I did not just pick the school because it was ranked high, it just that I got to know the schools because they where ranked. For each school I would then look up faculties whose research matches mine, for each school i set a bar of atleast 5 faculties. That is how I came up with the list.

On 7/25/2014 at 1:19 PM, acetylcholine said:

Avoid Saudi Arabia like the plague.

Please any particular reason?

[2015 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results]

Can't believe I'm finally going to start all these

Undergrad Institution: No name State University in a foreign country of No name

Major(s): Biochemistry

Minor(s): Never heard about this. In my country you decide what you want to study even before applying.

GPA in Major: CGPA Rather 4.06/5.00

Overall GPA: No minor GPA, all courses from day one to your last count towards your CGPA

Position in Class: School don't give ranking, but I pretty well know where I rank. In my small department: top 10%, faculty: top 5%, graduands form all faculty top 2%. My Department(Major) was insanely competitive, it produced the best graduating student, and the only two graduands with highest honors, could've been more but our Faculties let us down with grade deflation.

Type of Student: International male with a foreign degree.

GRE Scores (revised/old version): Will give it by September. Started practice and am averaging 80-85% on both now, will towards above 90% on both.

Q:

V:

W:

B:

Research Experience: independent senior year honors research, working on the Antioxidants capacity of a plant. 6 months( first three months ~ 10hrs/week, final three months >20hrs/week).

3 months research internship a hospital Hematology/Chemical Pathology Lab. 35hrs/week

7 months as an Undergraduate Research assistant working on mechanisms of toxicity of bromate on rat cellular system. 5-10hrs/week

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Won several awards but nothing academic.

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Had a one year fulltime teaching job during my National service.

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: Don't know if this really matters but I've always had to lead in every group I've joined. Be it Academic, at work and other extracurricular activities.

Special Bonus Points: Minority? Don't know if I'm one though I've not had it smooth, being the first in my family to navigate college.

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: I'm worried about my GPA. Reason is I don't know how Adcomm will compare it with US GPA. I've tried converting it and ended up with 3.6. Going by the stats of applicants here, this will be considered average, but in my country my GPA is really good and considered more than ok for top institutions and for all top jobs. A friend of mine now in US said I should never convert my GPA that oftentimes it is devalued which happened to him when he did his.

Please what do you suggested I do about this do I just leave it as is or just put 3.6. Am really confused about this.

Applying to Where:

MIT biology

Vanderbilt IGP

UTSouthwestern

Harvard BBS

Stanford Bioscience

WUSTL DBBS

Emory GDBBS

City of Hope

Baylor GIBBS

UPenn CMB

KAUST Bioscience

My choice of schools have been greatly influenced by ranking although I've done my fair share of research on each school on my list. Being an international I really have little or nothing to decide what school to choose other than the ranking and perceived international presence in the given schools, also my mentors know very little about US Grad School application.

I'm thus open to any advice concerning my school choices whether to add or remove, just anything.

[International students applying for Fall 2015]

Yay! Prospective International student. Phd Biomedical Sciences Fall 2015.

[If I knew then what I know now...]

I don't know if this is the right place to ask this.

l'm a recent graduate of biochemistry interested in doing a research assistantship abroad -Germany or US.

I'm having difficulty in securing this probably I'm doing it the wrong way because I saw couple of people who said they went abroad for a RA job before coming back to apply for graduate school.

What have I been doing? Ve been searching for summer research programmes and they all seem to be taking Undergraduates only and also for US residents.

Should I just apply directly to the lab I'm very interested in?

please I need help on this.

thanks

[International Research Assistance Position]

I don't know if this is the right place to ask this.

l'm a recent graduate of biochemistry interested in doing a research assistantship abroad -Germany or US.

I'm having difficulty in securing this probably I'm doing it the wrong way because I saw couple of people who said they went abroad for a RA job before coming back to apply for graduate school.

What have I been doing? Ve been searching for summer research programmes and they all seem to be taking Undergraduates only and also for US residents.

Should I just apply directly to the lab I'm very interested in?

please I need help on this.

thanks

[International Research Assistant position]

I don't know if this is the right place to ask this.

l'm a recent graduate of biochemistry interested in doing a research assistantship abroad -Germany or US.

I'm having difficulty in securing this probably I'm doing it the wrong way because I saw couple of people who said they went abroad for a RA job before coming back to apply for graduate school.

What have I been doing? Ve been searching for summer research programmes and they all seem to be taking Undergraduates only and also for US residents.

Should I just apply directly to the lab I'm very interested in?

please I need help on this.

thanks

[Research Experience for Grad School -What really count as one]

Thanks everyone, you lot have been of

immense help.

Your advice would help me when applying in November

[Research Experience for Grad School -What really count as one]

Those count. And you quantified them just fine. You've been doing research since October 2011. You don't need to do anything as fancy as multiply hours by days etc. Your applications might ask you to list each research experience and the dates through which you participated. The way you listed it is just fine.

Thanks again for your help.

 

I also have this question 

How important is the relevance of your research to your intended graduate school program.

For example I do not any research experience in Cancer Biology, but I really do want to be a Cancer Biologist. I have only been reading and reviewing literatures in this field.

[Research Experience for Grad School -What really count as one]

Thanks Monochrome Spring and themmases for your prompt and insightful reply you have saved me a whole lot of thinking.

 

I have done other things outside of coursework find them below:

 

May 2012 – December 2012: Final Year Honors Research Project

Prepared and ran experiments, analyzed and evaluated data, performed comparative analysis. Documented finding details, wrote and defended honors thesis.

 

October 2011 – January 2012: Laboratory Technician Assistant –Clinical Chemistry/Immunology Lab

Ran tests, analyzed and evaluated various clinical chemistry parameters. Prepared and standardized  Laboratory Reagents

This was actually an Internship programme in a Hospital lab

 

August 2012 – December 2012:  Assisted my Lecture in his work

Sourced and collected research literatures/materials. Analyzed, evaluated and wrote reports on research literatures collected. Assisted in developing research papers.

 

I have also helped some graduate MSc student in running some of their experiments for about two weeks

 

I am also currently doing some independent research (Literature Review)

 

Please do these count? And how do i quantify them.

[Research Experience for Grad School -What really count as one]

Hi all, I'm considering applying for graduate school in Cancer Biology come Fall 2015. Over the past months I've been seen alot of article around the internet and several advice about research experience been extremely important for graduate school acceptance. I'm somewhat apprehensive as I often times see applicants having two to three years research experience how is this even possible studying full time. Are Laboratory courses considered as part of research experience? In my undergrad institution, we are expected to take Laboratory classes as part of the thought courses. For example I have a biochemistry degree, every semester, we are expected to take between eight to ten courses, four often are majors of which we are to take laboratory classes for two, the other four or five is usually in Chemistry, Microbiology, Biological Sciences and are accompanied with laboratory classes.

Do all this count as research experience? If they do how do I quantify them in terms of years as most applicants do.

I'm sorry about the length of the write-up I just want to give out adequate info