Bioenchilada

For your SOP you should focus on big picture stuff. Give enough detail about your experience just so the adcom knows that you know what you're talking about, but also make sure that you talk about how your experience helped you grow. Focusing on the technical stuff alone is bad, and beating around the bush with your personal experiences about the research is also bad. It's all about a balance. PS. I think you have more than enough space to focus on your most relevant one, but stil describe your other experiences. In my experience, not many adcoms read your CV, so this is the place to tell them you did something more than your main project.

Yeah, but it's a research statement, not a proposal. Even professors can give a 10 minute talk about their research when they can spend hours doing so. The ability to concisely depict your research in an eloquent manner and know it's broader impacts is one that every graduate student should have. Besides, I don't think there's any benefit into getting too technical in a research statement. PS. The document tells you to describe all research experiences.

While that might work, I believe this person might be talking about Penn's research statement, which tells you to describe your research preparation. If you had multiple experiences, I think it's best to discuss all of them since you have more than enough space to be slightly more descriptive in each than in the SOP.

I think your GRE was more than fine the first time. If you get rejected, the GRE not be the reason. Has your list of school changed? What would you say are your top 3?

The latter.

I think you have to cut down your list to 7-8 but, besides that, your list seems pretty balanced. Your GPA is not dangerously low, so I feel that your GRE and LORs will compensate for it. Just make sure you have a great SOP in your package as well

I don't think that not publishing GREs is equivalent to a school not caring. Most schools just dont do this lol I'm certain that schools like Yale and Harvard have GREs around the same as UPenn, especially considering how much they care about numbers for undergrad. I do agree with you and @blc073 with regards to the GPA and research experience. I think that your main problem, @DGD4L, will be your GRE since it's just too low. As the other people have pointed out, adding more backup schools might be beneficial. Not saying you definitely don't have a chance in the schools you applied to though lol (I'm pretty sure that @blc073 has brought it up, but using Cornell's guidelines can be helpful. Typically, a score beneath a combined 308-310 is bad news.)

You seem to have very impressive credentials, so I'd be surprised if you didn't get interview invites from most, if not all, of your schools. Your LORs also seem like they will be amazing. Just make sure to write a good SOP, this is more important than your numbers.

Where did you hear this? A google search led me to find that Trump actually wants to increase science spending, Newt Gingrich called on Congress to double NIH spending.

I really don't know if you guys are being for real or not lol It is too early to know the impact of a Trump presidency, and I personally don't believe that moving away actually fixes the problems this country faces. I suggest you continue your lives normally and apply to the schools you were previously considering.

You don't need experiece in the field you're going into to be a strong candidate for a specific program. Just make sure to state how each experience made you grow scientifically and how your exposure to neuro then led you to apply your skills to a neuro setting.

I don't really know much about the process, sorry. I just saw that they didn't state that you had to be a US citizen, but I never applied nor am an international student.

I mentioned being gay in diversity statements whenever a school had one, I think you'll be fine if you do so in your personal statements.

I don't think there are a lot of guaranteed funded Master's out there, given that skipping this degree and going straight to PhD has become much more common. Also, Master's also tend to be course heavy. Are you looking for top schools with a master's program or any school? I think Purdue has a guaranteed funded Master's, so you could check that out It's in the form of assistantships though. EDIT: Follow-up question. Do you want a Master's to increase your GPA or just get more reserch experience? If it's the latter, you could just look for a lab tech job. I think many schools, even top ones (i.e Harvard, UPenn), have openings and won't care about your citizenship status. I might be wrong, but it might be worth checking out. Getting research experience at a top school might help you out more when applying for a PhD than getting a Master's from a less recognized institution for what you want to study. Also, you'll get paid--sometimes even more than PhD students themselves-- just for doing research without having to juggle your time with classes and TA-ing.

Yeah, I don't think that e-mailing PIs gives you any kind of advantage when it comes to admissions, and it is still too early to ask about rotating in labs, though I guess it could be helpful to know if your PIs of interest are taking students. With regards to school choice, I think it's best to approach the process with an open mind rather than looking at researchers that are doing EXACTLY what you want to do. Interests are very likely to change during grad school, as many people have said here, and a PhD is mainly geared towards teaching you how to conduct independent research effectively. You can specialize later in your post doc. You have 5 years of research experience yet say that you lack training? I don't think so, and I also don't think you should be painting yourself in such a negative light. Have confidence in yourself and paint the best picture of you and your interests in your SOP, and make sure that your letter writers can do so as well. Your GRE should not be a problem, but your GPAs are rather low, as I've pointed out before; however, SOPs and LORs are more important than numbers. If you need any help with your SOP or more advice about school choices, I can try to help

I don't think the Stanford app lets you go over the limit. Just choose your most relevant ones or look for ways of abbreviating it. If you have a publication, you could mention it in your SOP as well somewhere, if relevant.

I think that, with your credentials, you could aim much higher with respect to your school choices. Of course, that is unless you are already applying to all the schools you are interested in.

There's no benefit to submitting early unless the program does rolling admission.

Most schools don't care at all. Interviews come out before grades are available for the most part, and they ask for FINAL transcripts before you enroll.

UPenn's CAMB received 503 applications, interviewed 121, and accepted 108. This yields a ~90% acceptance rate post-interview and a ~20% overall acceptance rate. Many umbrella programs at top schools have acceptance rates of more or less ~20% , unlike undergrad admissions. This does not tell you a single bit about their credentials though, and applicant pools are VERY different. Also, if you manage to get multiple interviews at top schools, odds are you end up seeing familiar faces throughout!

They do. Some have a reimbursement policy but they'll pay for you upfront if you tell them you can't afford it.

Actually, acceptance rates post-interview are typically higher than 80%, at least the places I interviewed at. Of course, this means their pre-interview standards might be more stringent. Generally, if they invite you, they want you (It wouldn't make sense to pay everyone to go to a school to interview to then reject half of them. And, stats dont matter post interview)

I guess that's a good combo, just make sure to write a really good SOP

How many of your recommenders are familiar with your labwork?

Undergrad Institution: Big 10 SchoolMajor(s): Double Majoring in Cell Biology and GeneticsMinor(s): Anthropology, Biotechnology GPA in Major: 3.9Overall GPA: 3.96Position in Class: Top Type of Student: Domestic Minority (Hispanic) GRE Scores (revised/old version):Q: 159 (75%)V: 155 (67%) W: 4 (56%)B: N/AResearch Experience: 6 semesters of research (3 in a pharmacology lab and 3 in cell biology) 6 semester of involvement in HHMI-sponsored research project (SEA-PHAGES). 2 of these were spent as a student (project is actually presented as a research-oriented course) and 4 have been spent peer mentoring. 5th Annual SEA-PHAGES National Symposium Speaker and Poster Presenter Summer internship (SHURP) at Harvard Medical School (BBS) Summer internship (SUIP) at the University of Pennsylvania Oral Presentation (2X) at Leadership Alliance National Symposium (LANS) Coauthor in research paper published in eLife on HHMI Phage project Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Recipient of multiple competitive (and merit) scholarships at home institution. Recipient of 2 4-year "external" scholarships.Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Peer mentor for HHMI funded project for 4 semesters. Member of selective undergraduate advisory group for the school of biological sciences at home institution. Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help:Special Bonus Points: I've taken several grad classes at home institution, made connections while doing my internships, and one of my recommenders is famous. I'm also Hispanic and gay, if that helps hahaha