Hey yall,
I graduated spring 2016 and currently work in a lab at wustl medical school. I plan to work for 2 years then return for grad school. I'm planning on applying the next cycle - fall 2018. I've been doing some small research on different programs. Targeting schools with great virology research opportunities, b/c 2 of my 3 research experience worked on virus and i LOVE it. Any feedback or suggestion are welcomed and appreciated!
thanks!
Undergrad Institution: top 10 US school known for biomedical research, public university Major(s): microbiology (top 3 in US, according to US news) Minor(s): applied mathematics GPA in Major: slightly below 3 but upper level course is 3.2 (took as many math/computational courses as microbiology course) Overall GPA: 3.15 Position in Class: N/A Type of Student: international male GRE Scores (revised/old version): Q: 166 V: 153 W: 4.0 B:
gonna retake GRE and subject test due to my low GPA... (thoughts on subject test?) Research Experience:
1.5 school year + summer of HIV-1 research in my undergraduate institute. No publications or presentation. Although lab is well known, LOR is likely not a good one due to PI's lack of attention to undergrads.
1.5 school year + full-time summer of bioengineering research in my undergraduate institute. No publication, 1 undergraduate research symposium. paper in submission..
Currently work as a research tech (almost 8 months) at a immunology lab at wustl school of medicine. 2 major papers (JVI or even nature/science, probably third or fourth author out of 8-10) will be submitted by the time I apply this fall/winter.
So a total of 3 years undergrad research, 2 summer research, and 1.5 years full time research tech (by the time of application submission). Awards/Honors/Recognitions:
Dean's List (1 quarter only) Special Bonus Points:
My current PI is pretty well known and LOR from him would be a major plus.
Great at programming/ modeling, would be looking for labs that does a bit of both wet and dry lab. (viral evolution, deep sequencing analysis, etc.) Applying to Where:
Wustl
weill cornell
vandy
rockefeller
NYU- microbiology
Pitts
CMU (i would love to apply my computational background to biomedical research)
OHSU
Irvine
Honestly, I just started building up the list weeks ago so any recommendation is welcomed. I'm also trying to figure out if there's any relatively less well known school with great microbiology/virology research labs, i think stony brook, ASU maybe?
cheers!