mejkor

Is there any benefit to submitting your application early if the program doesn't have rolling admissions?

I'm currently a tech and have been at my current position for a year now (2 years total). Most of the positions I saw and applied to last year before graduating had 2 year commitments. I think 1 year is more normal at the NIH so you might want to consider applying for a postbac IRTA there.

I've seen one of these threads for general applications, but what about biology specifically? Do people who recently went through the application process have advice for choosing schools, interviews, GREs, GRE subject tests, SOPs, etc...?

How were you sure you wanted to apply to graduate school? What degree of boredom, tedium, and/or hopelessness is normal or acceptable to experience while doing research full time?

Thank you all for the advice! I'm working hard to try to wrap my current project up. I only have one full summer of research from undergrad (at another university) but I worked in a lab during the semester as part of a class. I don't have any papers or posters besides the one I presented at my school, so I definitely agree that getting a paper or experience presenting would be good to have.

I graduated with a BA in 2016 and started a research tech job a month later. I'm planning on applying to PhD programs this year (2 year tech job) and I was wondering what advice people have for what I can do to strengthen my application before December. I'm hoping to have a paper at least in submission by the time that I apply but the postdoc I was working with left to start her own lab and I'm working on the project alone. I'm worried that the project won't be far along enough come December to have a paper or present a poster. What other things should I be doing?

How strict do you think the recommended classes are for applicants? My major is in an area of biology and I'm looking into applying to more general PhD programs but I'm lacking the coursework a lot of program websites recommend (1-2 years of math, chemistry, physics). The sites usually say I can make up for it by taking classes but I'm worried because I'm missing so much.