[2015 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results]

First post ever - a little late but I figured why not.

 

Undergrad Institution: Mid-tier state school
Major(s): Neuroscience

Minor: Chemistry
GPA in Major: 3.75
Overall GPA: 3.60
Position in Class: Not sure

Type of Student: Domestic, White Male

GRE Scores (revised/old version):
Q: 162

V: 158
W: 4.5

Research Experience: Summer doing unrelated clinical research, two years in a cognitive neuroscience lab at my home institution, SURP program at a top university with a well known PI in systems neuroscience, and in my 2nd year as a lab tech/manager with a PI who is one of the most famous and largest contributors in systems/computational neuroscience.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Fellowship for integrative brain research, scholarship for my home university, and dean's list most semesters.

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: As described above, 2nd year as a lab tech.

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: No publications just yet. Audited multiple classes while working as a lab tech.

Special Bonus Points: As described above, my current PI is one of the most well respected neuroscientists in the field and his connections will be extremely helpful - my other PI in systems neuroscience is also somewhat of a big-shot.  I'll have very good recs.  Also, my research interests are already pretty developed and every school I apply to is a great fit for those interests. I've had some slight contact with professors at most of the schools I'm applying to.

Applying to Where:

 

Interested in systems/computational visual neuroscience and sensorimotor integration.

 

MIT - Neuroscience

Stanford - Neuroscience

Caltech - Neurobiology

UCSD - Neuroscience

John’s Hopkins - Neuroscience

University of Chicago - Neurobiology

Harvard - Neurobiology

UC Berkeley - Neuroscience

University of Washington - Neurobiology & Behavior

Columbia - Neuroscience

NYU - CNS

Duke - Neurobiology

 

No particular order, but I'm particularly interested in MIT, Stanford, Caltech, and UCSD.  Clearly my list is ambitious, especially when it's so hard to gauge how competitive I actually am (home institution, gpa, and GRE's are all a little subpar).  Any thoughts? Am I totally nuts?