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LilyMira

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  • Location
    Moscow, ID
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    Microbiology/Molecular Biology

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  1. Undergrad Institution: R2 state schoolMajor(s): Microbiology and BiochemistryGPA in Major: 4.0Overall GPA: 4.0Position in Class: TopType of Student: Domestic white femaleGRE Scores (June 2017):Q: 94%V: 93%W: 93%Research Experience: 2.5 academic years plus one full-time summer at my university doing molecular biology, mostly One full-time summer at the DOE in Oak Ridge (also molecular biology) One semester in a computational biophysics lab in my university No authorships, but have written and presented posters at 3 regional conferences and 2 local/university-run events Wrote and received funding for three undergraduate grants, one of which funded my summer of full-time university researchAwards/Honors/Recognitions: Won an award in one of the poster presentations for best undergraduate poster Full-ride at my university for National Merit Scholar status (Other generic academic scholarships/Deans List but nothing too special/interesting)Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Lab TA in two lower division bio courses (intro to biology and intro to microbiology) and in one upper-division course (Biochemistry I)Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: I work in my university's Volunteer Center as an Alternative Service Break Coordinator- I've spent my three spring breaks so far volunteering in a classroom in a rural, underserved area (once) and in a minimum security prison's math classroom (twice). I was also a team leader for one of these trips I've been an active member of the honors program- I was elected to be on the Honors Leadership Council, and I was the editor-in-chief of the literary publication. I was also an honors ambassador.Applying to Where: I want to do genetic engineering for value-added compound production/detoxification of environmental contaminants. I'm also interested in microbial communities, and how we can use them to better understand and take advantage of natural transformations in the environment. In all the schools below, I'm applying for the microbiology PhD program... these are my top 10 choices, they just happened to range from the spectrum of "never gonna happen" to "yeah, probably" in terms of how good a chance I stand. So I'm pretty happy with that. 1. UC Berkeley 2. MIT 3. UMass Amherst 4. Rutgers New Brunswick 5. University of Georgia 6. UMinn Twin Cities 8. Michigan State University 9. Arizona State University 10. U Wisconsin Madison
  2. Wow thanks to everyone for the thoughtful and EXTREMELY useful/pragmatic responses. Based on the advice, I'm going to go ahead and skip the Biology GRE, and not worry about switching up my list to add prestige. As for the reason I eliminated programs where microbiology is part of the medicine department, I started by looking through every program, but found out a few dozen in that faculty in the micro programs in the medicine department are (reasonably) slanted towards research in virology, immunology, etc., which I have no interest in. So I started "reading books by their cover" and just knocking them out right off the bat. Micro at UW Seattle seems very cool, though, so maybe I should go back and check out some of the ones I knocked off... still, I feel pretty happy with my list how it is (would be genuinely happy to get into even one of them, and I think I have a good chance), and I still have plenty of time (well, 4 months until I start putting everything together at least). Thanks again!
  3. So... I'm applying to grad school next fall, and I've got a big bag of festering questions (don't know how many of them are relevant to this particular post, so ignore/exile me if I'm out of line). Me: attending medium-ish R2 state school, majoring in microbiology/molecular biology- ~2 years of research (and counting), with one funded summer program at my home institution, 4.0, a couple of poster presentations and undergraduate grants, but nothing published. I'm interested in environmental and community microbiology, and in genetically engineering microbes to solve problems (detoxification, biofuel feedstock breakdown, value-added products). 1) The elusive question of "Prestige": so I picked my favorite 8 schools with the conditions that (1) they have to pay for me, (2) they have to have at least 5 faculty I like, and (3) their microbiology program can't be part of their medical school/program (shocking how many schools this disqualified). The schools I ended up with were University of Georgia, UC Berkeley, UW Madison, Rutgers New Brunswick, U Minnesota Twin Cities, Michigan State, U Mass Amherst, and Arizona State University. Now obviously I have a couple of crazy prestigious schools, but others I can't find microbiology rankings for- should I be worried about the schools not seeming hugely renowned after a quick google search or am I being (characteristically) neurotic? I'm not planning on going into academia, as of now. 2) As for not wanting to go into academia... is that something I should shy away from mentioning on my application? Right now my dream career would be working in industry (I'm interning with the DOE this summer, and hopefully I enjoy the environment as much as I think I will), but I see a lot of people here saying that grad admissions committees want to admit future professors. 3) Letter of recommendation by post-doc? Pretty sure this is a no-no, but just thought I'd get confirmation. The post-doc who oversees my work in lab offered to write me a great letter, but I figured it would be better for me to ask the professor who I've taken an upper-division biochemistry course with and am going to TA (an upper-division biochem lab) for next semester. (My other two will be my lab PI and the overseer of my summer project at the DOE- keeping my fingers crossed on that one) 4) Subject test: okay so tricky one: a couple of the programs recommend I submit either a BCM or biology subject test with my app. I was planning on taking the BCM test until... it got discontinued. I tried a practice biology test instead, but I know literally nothing about plants and neuroscience, and I landed in the 60th percentile. With scores like that, is it worth me trying to study and take the test over the summer? Honestly I'll be happy to get into any graduate school. Whew, that was longer than intended. Anyway, thanks for reading my novel, and I'll appreciate any input (unless you suggest a gap year... then you're dead to me)!
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