Wow I see some really qualified people here. I would like to know where I stand and if I have any chances at the schools/programs I am applying to. Thanks in advance!
Undergrad Institution: Low tier Cal State (This might hurt me coming from a not so good state college) Major(s): Cell and Molecular Biology Minor(s): GPA in Major: 3.89 Overall GPA: 3.92 Position in Class: I dont know, I graduated Summa Cum Laude Type of Student: Hispanic Male
Research Experience: 3 years experience at my undergrad's core facility (focus on sequencing technology) Most of the work was learning wet lab techniques and troubleshooting involving next gen sequencing, but I did conduct two projects through this lab, one involving sequencing clinical samples for identification of polymorphisms in hemoglobin, and another project I presented as a poster at the Bay Area Science fair that involved identifying microbes in public areas through sequencing. I also helped lead new students in teaching them wet lab techniques as well as teaching a biochem professor wet lab techniques for sequencing.
I did a Summer Internship at UCSF in a viral diagnostics lab with a focus on next gen sequencing and bioinformatic pipelines. I presented my summer project to the UCSF community during a poster session and a talk.
Doing a 2 year NIH PostBac IRTA in two collaborating labs in the fields of retroviral gene therapy and neuropharmacology. I have presented 3 posters through these labs and have one publication on the way.
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Summa Cum Laude, Golden Key International Honors Society, Deans list. Pertinent Activities or Jobs: I tutored students 8th through 12th for 3 years in Biology, Physics, Calculus, Algebra, History, English, Zoology, and Chemistry.
I also T.A'd for a year a general studies cluster made up of Pre-Nursing, Pre-Med, and Biology students, where I devised and presented lesson plans for careers in medicine and science with the focus on increasing college retention for disadvantaged students. I also met with these students one on one for academic advising, counseling, and tutoring. This was through my leadership and development program where I learned all the necessary skills to do this. I Also helped train the next generation of Leadership students and as a result was selected to help implement this program in our sister Tech College in Japan during a two week cultural exchange program.
Special Bonus Points: My P.I. for my UCSF internship is on the board of admissions for UCSF. He offered me a job on the spot at his lab but I chose to go out to the east coast and work at NIH for two years instead (I hope this didn't hurt my chances). Receiving one letter from my undergrad P.I. and Professor, and two from NIH P.I.'s, although they are not exactly in the field of studies I am applying to, but I am applying to interdisciplinary programs so I wanted to show that I am capable of interdisciplinary studies as evident from my work in different fields.
Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: Interested in interdisciplinary work, primarily in genomics, systems bio, and computational bio, although I lack a computational biology/bioinformatics background other than taking one bioinformatics class and my summer internship which was mostly focused on the wet lab side of things.
Applying to Where:
Weill Cornell- Tri institutional Program in Comp Bio and Medicine UCSF-Tetrad Rockefeller
Scripps
University of Irvine- Mathematical, Computational, and Systems Bio
NYU- Genomic and Systems Bio
University of Washington Seattle- Genome Sciences
Columbia- Computational and Systems Bio
I would greatly appreciate any input.
Well I'm micro and applying to some of the schools you are applying to(UIUC, Vanderbilt), although you have like 10x better stats than me. My username is also a joke off of your username(although gram neutral bacteria do exist). So look at that. I find it hard to imagine you would not get an interview to almost every school you applied to.
No, you're not aiming too high at all. You look like a strong applicant to all the programs you're applying to. Even if your GRE quant score is a little low, the rest of your application more than makes up for it. As for Cancer Biology, Vanderbilt and MD Anderson are certainly quite strong. That Columbia program is more of an umbrella program, but they definitely have some strong faculty, especially in Systems Biology, as well.
