Undergrad Institution: Well known public university, India
Major(s): B.Tech, Biotechnology Minor(s): None GPA in Major: We dont have major/minor, only one overall GPA Overall GPA: 3.7
Position in Class: Above average
Graduate School: Average ranked public university, USA
Major: Biology
Overall GPA: 3.22 (this is a major problem!! )
Position in Class: Not sure Type of Student: Domestic, Asian GRE Scores (revised/old version): Not yet taken ( debating whether I should take subject test or not ). Taking in Sep. Research Experience:
a. Summer internships: total 2 - 6 and 3 months each summer internship at a major research facility and biotech company in India - did mass spec and molecular, tissue culture and assay development
b. One year research experience in an academic lab, studying mice models for diabetes, animal work, cell culture, biochemical assays
c. One year in a bioanalytical core facility in a major biotech company doing biochemical and mol bio work.
d. 8 months working in a bioanalytical lab in a major biotech company doing enzymatic assays and chromatography work
e. 4 years in an academic lab in a teaching hospital focusing on autism and neurodevelopmental work - crux of work focuses on stem cell work, genome editing, several cell, biochemical and mol bio assays.
- I have no first authors, but 1 2nd author in press, 4 middle author publications.
- Given some talks at the institute
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: (Such as tutor, TA, SPS officer etc...)
a. Currently a research tech in a lab specializing in autism and neurodevelopmental deficits.
b. Part time genetics instructor at a US middle school for one semester - Genetics outreach volunteering program - Designing syllabus, teaching and teacher mentoring.
b. Teaching assistant during undergrad for 2 years.
Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help:
a. A new volunteer coordinator for a non-profit supporting grassroots movements in India for land, livelihood and social justice.
b. Project coordinator to support grassroots in India working on seed conservation for rural farmers. Special Bonus Points: (Such as connections, grad classes, famous recommenders, female or minority status etc...)
a. I am getting LOR's from 2 Harvard faculty members. One of them is a tenured faculty, director of my institute and super well known. The other one is well- established non-tenured faculty at Harvard.
My 3rd LOR is from a senior research investigator/director of a stem cell core facility with 20 plus years of research experience and patents.All three have supervised me directly.
I am mostly applying to universities with labs that do similar work to the above PI's so that the LOR's can be recognized.
Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter:
a. My low GPA during my masters: I have tried my best to make up for it by showing my ability to conduct independent research and being an author in published articles in high impact factor journals.
Applying to Where:
Still narrowing down departments as I am looking at universities which have labs focusing on autism work.
This is not a finalized list.
Harvard - BBS -
Univ of wash Seattle - Genetics - several PI's there who are doing work that I am very interested in.
Univ of Oregon Health Sciences
Stanford - TETRAD
UCSD - Dept?
Duke - Genetics
John Hopkins
Baylor college of medicine
Univ of Texas, South western medical center
With my low GPA, is it even worthwhile applying to program in Stanford/Harvard ..its killing me thinking about this :(..
