[2018 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results]

11 minutes ago, Nick1452 said:

Try Duke also. Great school to go to and in line maybe reach for this list. 

Thanks for the idea. I'll take a look at it. I'm really trying to limit myself to only 2 or 3 reach schools, but Duke seems like a good program. 

[2018 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results]

Hi everyone, good luck with this application round! I'm hoping to get some advice regarding whether or not I should apply this round/what schools I should apply to. I'm trying to target middle/lower tier schools. I plan to apply to a ton of schools to increase my odds. 

 

Undergrad Institution: Big, R1 state school with a good reputation in the sciences
Major(s): Biochemistry
GPA in Major: So far 4.0, but lacking some of the upper division classes. Will be taking them at the time of application.
Overall GPA: 3.6
Position in Class: No exact numbers, but I have been told by a couple professors that I was in the top 3 or top 10 of their classes.
Type of Student: Minority - Mexican American/Latino, first gen, "non-traditional", community college transfer

GRE Scores (revised):
Q: 160 (76%)
V: 166 (97%)
W: 4.0 (60%)

Research Experience: I will have about 10 months of research experience in a biochemistry/chemical biology/protein engineering lab at time of application. I don't know how many hours this equates to, but I work a lot. 

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Phi Theta Kappa, NIH - MARC, Scholar award from the university's hispanic alumni association, random student of the month award, 

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Peer mentor for other community college transfer students, preceptor for intro mol. bio. course, frequent panel speaker on student success and diversity

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: I don't think so. I have an abstract submitted to ABRCMS, but I won't know for a while if it's been accepted.

Special Bonus Points: Latino student, MARC scholar, I think that's it.

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: My main concern is a lack of upper division classes and research experience. Because of transferring from a community college I have had limited research experience and I will be taking the bulk of my upper division science courses while I am applying. I also had a terrible GPA my freshman year (like 2.5), but have since gotten a 4.0 every semester. 

Applying to Where:

The list of schools that I want to apply to is probably too long. I'm targeting mostly mid-tier to low-tier R1 schools. I'll also be applying to pretty much anywhere that I can get a free application waiver to, assuming they have faculty that I'd want to study with. That being said, these are my top schools, including a few super-reaches:

University of Washington - Biochemistry

UCSF - Tetrad

Harvard - Chemical Biology

Ohio State - Biochemistry

University of Michigan - Biochemistry

Vanderbilt - IGP - Biochemistry

West Virginia University - Biochemistry/Biomedical

University of Nebraska - Lincoln - Biochemistry

University of Arizona - ABBS

University of Georgia - Biochemistry

University of Maryland - Biochemistry

University of Rochester - Biochemistry

University of Virginia - BIMS - Biochemistry

Columbia - Biochemistry

Penn State - Biochemistry

Indiana University - Biochemistry

University of south Florida - Biochemistry

UC Davis - Biochemistry

Louisiana State - Biochemistry