eeee1923

@ Horb, depending on your budget and seeing that you mostly use your mac for article reading and nothing too RAM intensive, you may want to look at investing in the new 13 in macbook airs. With student discounts I believe they are ~$900 (don't quote me on the price). Another option may be investing in a nice used or refurbished 2014 model. If you want to leave the Mac environment all together, the lenovo Yoga is a viable option (though the price would be pretty comparable to the macbook air).

thunder Jack

^^ ditto

If it's like most of the Bio PhD programs in the US, the usual process is: Turn in application -> application package is reviewed by admission committee -> applicant invited to an interview weekend (sometime between Jan - Mar of the year one would matriculate) -> Adcomm assesses applicant's interview talks w/ various PI's -> Adcomm accepts applicant and extends formal invitation to the program -> Applicant chooses to accept the invitation -> Applicant matriculates into the program and starts grad school. Overall - every accepted student usually (~95% of the time) was interviewed by the program before attending. Special cases are grad students that may have chosen to move the institute with their PI, or research Techs that have been with the PI for quite a few years and have a more informal interview process.

One of the most true statements I've ever seen. I was a ChE undergrad, and I took quite a few advanced mathematics and stats courses during that time but it took me studying for more than just one night (about 3 wks of prep) to eventually get a 165 on the quant section. I don't believe that it meant I had a weak mathematical foundation but in a lot of engineering sub-disciplines, you just don't utilize some of the math you see on the GRE (same goes for the vocab used in the verbal section) so it takes a bit of revision to score in the 90th percentile (especially if you came into college with a lot of advanced math credits and you take the exam 4-5 yrs later).

I don't think that always matters since some STEM grad programs don't require a subject exam. IMO I have to agree with TakeruK - the verbal and AWA sections are usually used to filter some of the weaker applicants when most of them have exceptionally high Quantitative scores.

jerk chicken

hat trick

I feel that you don't owe them an answer honestly.

Gaming console

car windows

There's no real way to answer this but for the most part students tend have pretty high GPAs (3.8 - 4.0) in MA/MS programs

It's a good idea to get an LOR from a prof in a different department (I definitely did), but if you only took that one physics course during your freshman year and haven't really worked with him since then (research, independent project, TA, etc.) then I'm not sure how much weight his letter would have to an admission committee. Just food for thought.

off white

What's your overall GPA? Since a C+ is kind of bad but not enough to destroy your chances if you display an upward trend in your math electives and courses.

house special

Your background is fine. It's not expected for applicants coming from any undergrad to have publications, even from domestic U.S. students. A few students are able to publish - but it is not a requirement to get into a top ranked program. I had not publications and did not run into any real issues. Make sure you do well on your subject GRE, write a strong statement of purpose and get strong LORs and you should be able to do well.

Your thinking is correct. Try to publish during your MS. Also retake your GRE before you apply once more to the IMBG program. Good luck.

weird look

camera aperture

Your list is fine for now (roughly the right number of programs). What you have to do now is look up the research occurring at each of those programs. This means looking at the PI's research summary and reading some of their papers. You will have a better idea of whether you could see yourself working on these sorts of projects - i.e. finding your research fit. Also since you're a sophomore I doubt you've taken any advanced inorganic or organic courses, so I would say take those types of electives in order to see which field you can see yourself in since they are quite different. Overall good luck with your preparations (also aim for th 85-90th percentiles on the GRE and take the subject GRE as well).

coded message

I'm a permanent resident and the admissions haven't really brought it up (see my sig). Now the only issue you will have is applying to any military (i.e. DoD) fellowships or anything with a need for some sort of security clearance. But many training grants are open to both citizens and permanent residents.

I wouldn't believe that a B/B+ is detrimental enough to knock your chances of getting into a PhD program. The usual cutoff at the grad school level is a B (or GPA = 3.0). I think you'll be fine.

dance club