onceinalifetime

Cool bro did you have internship experiince? Not sure if thats even important for a eng. person but still. I'm thinkin about putting in some masters apps late this month

The document does not open when I try to view it. Can u just copy n paste it?

The percentile has nothing to do with the 'grade' you got on the test , a 99 does not mean u got 99 percent of the questions right. It just means u scored better than 99 percent of other test takers. The fact that you can score a 740 on the biochem exam and still be better than 99 pecent of other ppl is a testament to how insanely hard it is! If u notice the 99 percentile for biochem starts the lowest out of any of the subj tests, thats because its the hardest one. Its pretty god damn hard! Did u take it yet>?

what is your own project working on?

Hey just curious what dept did you apply to at USC? I see you have an interview - I can't find anyone else who's applied there and not much comes up on the 'results search' here for USC.

Your GPA isn't bad man. It's not going to impress them, but it's certainly not bad either. GREs are decent too. Georgetown is def the hardest school on your list, and for them, you will be below the avg applicant and your chances are probably slim. Do you have research exp? That's a huge factor, possibly the most important factor. For GWU I think you have a shot, and for VCU I think you have a strong shot because they're not very exclusive at all. I got accepted to VCU as an undergrad and my high school academics were fucking horrendous lol.

Cool, so are u gonna fly? I'm coming from near Wash DC lol, so it'd be a hefty plane ticket for them if they invite me out lol... Btw, since you're from CA, does UCR have a reputation out there? Honestly the only reason I know of it is because one of my LoR writers went to Stanford so he knows that area, and he said UCR was a good LA-area school. So is that true, whats its reputation? I know NoCal and SoCal are considered prettydifferent areas right? But thought maybe you'd sistill know something

Cool. Yea I'm not too worried cus they obvs have just now put gotten my entire package together and who knows if they've even looked at it yet. Any word on whether they're going to pay for your travels? How far away are you?

Yeah I can tell they're working on processing apps again now, because as of this morning my status page said my official transcripts still hadnt been received, even though I sent them in a good 6-8 weeks ago. But just checked now and they are all showing as received. I guess they haven't even taken a look at my app yet, or have just started.

Shit I saw nothing about a Dec 1 deadline for UCR. All I saw was Jan 5th... Damn thats frustrating cus I had other apps due Dec 1 so my SoP and stuff was all ready to go. I easily couldve gotten UCR in by Dec 1 if I had just known

What program did you apply to at UCR and UCI? I applied to chemical biology (and CMB at UCI). Wow you applied extremely early, and I've noticed many others did as well. I'm hoping that's part of the reason so many are hearing back before me!

Yea I felt the exact same way as you, which is why I pushed my submissions back to the last few days before deadline. In some cases, I had the apps 95% ready a week or two ahead of time, but I just kept sitting on them because I, too, felt that my writing was getting better with each app. So I always had this feeling that I'd think of some way to improve part of my SoP or pers. history statment. Im pretty sure I submitted my SoP with a spelling error to my first two programs! Its hard to hit the submit button cus you just want to keep making everything as perfect as possible!

This is great news, because I bombed the hell out of it and really don't want to show them the score haha. I think everything else I'm bringing to the table is reasonably competitive, so I'm really hoping that subj GRE isn't going to be the one blemish that destroys my chances

I think your aim is right on target for you stats. If anything, throw in a couple higher tier schools, cus from what you listed it seems like all of those are right on par with what you're bringing to the table, so a stretch school or two could be a good idea. I'm not talking top 10, but like a couple top 50's. Your biggest asset is your massive research exp! Damn. For me, research is easily my weakness

Yea I put in 2 or 3 PIs who interested me. Just write two or 3 sentences about each so in total you have a small paragraph about that. Scour the departments website for info about what should be in your SoP. Some offer detailed instructions or at least a list of points they want you to hit in it. Also, for me, some of the sites explicitly said they wanted me to mention potential PI's in the SoP. But in any case, it's pretty common to mention a couple of names, so it won't hurt.

As some have said before, your energy should not even be focused on graduate school right now. What you should be focused on is maintaining your high GPA, figuring out what subfield (or two) you might want to get into, and studying for the GRE. You have wayyy more than enough research exp. Put that aside and focus on what I mentioned above. Since youre entering senior year, youll be taking a lot of bio electives that can help you realize specific interests a lot.

Really you didn't take a subj GRE? It is 'strongly recommended' according to their site and when i spoke to the coordinator she said you should definitely take it, BUT only report the score if you get a really good score. I asked her what would be considered 'good' enough and she said 80th %ile or better. I took the biochem GRE and bombed the hell out of it and immediately knew I wasn't going to be showing them my score. So hopefully that's not too big an issue. But like I said, getting in tehre was a stretch in the first place, and now that Im not sending in a GRE subj score on top of my already slim chances, I've basically given up hope.

Ok so if you got into an Ivy League school with what you believe was a relatively low GRE score, post it here along with the name of the school. We can do the same for GPA. Just keep trying to top the current low! Let's figure out the lowest GPA and GRE ever accepted into Harvard!

I'm sorry but I can't answer that either. But I applied to Caltech biology too, and am very curious to if I can gain a little insight into my chances of getting in. I am aware that they have sent out many of their interview invites already. This made me really worried, so I contacted the program director guy and he said they won't be done inviting people till Jan 6, so I guess I still have a shot! But tbh, I never felt I had a strong chance anyway; Caltech was my stretch school. What track are you going to focus in? I want to do biophysics. Mind sharing with me your qualifications? Sorry, I know thats a bit personal and if you don't want to I'd totally understand if you just ignore me. I just wanna know what caliber of students are getting invited lol. I kind of wanna know if I was out of line applying there in the first place... My GRE was V162/Q165, 3.62 GPA, 2/3 of my LoR should be strong, the other should be OK, but my research exp is really lacking. Oh, and one more big question I've really wanted to ask someone - what subj GRE did you take and did you do really well? Would really appreciate a little insight haha. A good luck at your interview! I'm a bit jealous

Thanks! @scarvesandcardigans

Damn I applied to a very similar lot of schools as the OP: UCLA, USC, UC Irvine, UC Riverside, and Caltech. However at USC and UCI i applied to the chemical biology program (which is in the Chemistyr PhD) as well as the molec bio programs. I was a bio major too, 3.62 GPA. At UCLA I applied to the BBSB home area, which is a new thing from what i can tell, but exactly the kind of program I'm looking for. All my apps are in as of a few days ago - UCR was my last one and the deadline is Jan 5. But I haven't heard a thing from any of these places yet. I'm very worried about my chances at UCI since I know LOTS of people have been getting interview invites there as early as 2 weeks ago. Caltech has also informed me that many of their interview invites have been sent out, but won't be completely done until Jan 6.... My confidence has slowly been waning over the past week. I'm gonna start applying for full time jobs in anticipation of being rejected everywhere, just to be safe.

You're bringing a great package to the table and I think your chances of admission are very high. You should feel very confident. I know economics students are expected to perform well on the quant section of GRE, but even so, you are still going to be well above the avg for that! Your verbal score is excusable since you are not from an English-speaking country, and besides that, like you said, its not important for economics

Admission websites seem so inviting and make it seem like it's no big deal to apply to a graduate program that wasn't exactly what you studied as an undergrad, as long as the two somewhat related. I'm sure that's just because they want to collect as many application fees as possible and give themselves the best possible pool of applicants to choose from, so I can't put too much stock in that. Has anybody here been successful in making a slight (or major) transition of disciplines from undergrad to grad? Did you apply to both programs that matched your undergrad degree as well as ones that were more focused in the new area of interest, and if so, was the rate of acceptance higher for the former? Do you recommend any strategies to help show admissions committees that you will be successful in the new discipline? I'm not making a major transition really, in my opinion. My B.S. is in biology, and I focused in molecular bio. But many of the programs I applied to are within the Chem dept because I want to get into the chemical biology and biophysics track of study. But do you think admissions will see my slightly mismatched background as a major issue, or is it not going to be a big deal? By the way I did discuss thoroughly my reasons for wanting to make this change in my SoP.

Same here - I'm from Wash DC area but applying only in/around Los Angeles because my gf's career is taking her there. There are tons of East coast schools that have excellent programs that I'm giving up because of this. But I've also found 7 programs in the area I need to be in that I'd be happy at. So yea, I know the stress of feeling limited, like I wasn't able to give myself the best chance at making it. But we'll see.

Wow third application cycle, thats tough! Way to hang in there though and keep trying. I can only imagine how the nerves must ramp up each year after getting rejection after rejection. Congratulations! Life is so unpredictable!