Collin044

1) Publications (1 first author, 1 as a co-author) - I really believe that this gave me a massive advantage in this process. 2) LORs from well-known professors (I was actually told in an email from one PI that the fact I have a LOR from a particular professor would make me a very competitive applicant). 3) Contacting faculty by email before applying. I only applied to 2 programs and I contacted facutly about a month before the deadline for both. I received nice long replies from both PIs and kept in contact - talking mainly about research and their lab and not asking questions about applying/what are my chances as I think faculty are less responsive to these types of emails. I just gave them a brief background of my past studies, who I worked with - because I knew that they would know the names of my professors, what my masters thesis was about (I discussed this a lot with one PI who researches almost the exact same thing and he then shared some data with me) and telling them I was interested in their lab and asked whether they think I would be a good fit. If you talk research (and not applications) then you will get a MUCH better response. My GREs were not that great (mid 150s on both) and well below the averages of admitted students to the two programs I applied and was accepted to, and I think my SOP were okay, although I wrote each of them the day the application was due and didn't have anyone look over them so they probably could have been better. I got into two top programs and I encourage you to reach out to faculty and talk research and ask questions about their research and you will do well