Hello everyone!
I'm starting the final year of my Biochemistry BSc program this fall so I've started to look at PhDs. As I'm doing my degree in the UK (although I'm an international student) I'm not familiar with most of american universities and that makes things a bit more difficult.
My grades are not great (2:2 in the UK system which is about 3.0) but I have taken part of 2 summer projects (iGEM) and an 8 weeks summer internship in a lab. I don't have any scientific publication whatsoever and I don't think it is very common to have one before graduating here in the UK.
I want to do a PhD in Microbiology or Bacterial Pathogen related topics (also, I would consider virology but I don't have experience on it yet as it's a final year module). So at the moment the only programs I've found interesting are:
University of Virginia, Charlottesville - Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program (<5% internationals are accepted)
University of California, San Francisco - Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program ("small number of international students")
I don't know how realistic these two options are so any thoughts are much appreciated. Of course I've had a look at places like The Rockefeller University but some posts on this forum of people with 6 publications being rejected made me see I was being too ambitious (if there is such a thing ).
To sum up: I'm an international student, I want to do a PhD in Microbiology and I'd love to hear suggestions on good places or any sort of advice.
Thanks!
