Hello! I am a rising senior who is freaking out about PhD applications in the coming year (Fall 2018)... I'm not sure if there's a thread for the coming year yet, but I would really appreciate your opinion on my stats. I'm especially looking to see if my school list is good enough, and if I should have more/less middle-tier schools. I'd also really appreciate suggestions for middle-tier schools! I'm mainly interested in studying chromatin biology / epigenetics / stem cell and tissue engineering for my PhD. Thank you so much in advance!
Undergrad Institution: New York University Abu Dhabi, a recent branch of NYU that boasts 4% admit rate from 11,000+ applicantsMajor(s): BiologyMinor(s): -GPA in Major: 3.85Overall GPA: 3.92Position in Class: TopType of Student: International Asian FemaleGRE Scores (revised/old version): Taking it this summer!Research Experience:
Summer 2016 on DNA Repair at NYU New York
Summer 2017 full-time (present), projected to be a year-long work on my Capstone thesis about nuclear myosin and nuclear reprogramming (doing high content screening, will be doing ChIP-seq, RNA-seq, etc.), possibility to publish paper based on this thesis
5 months research as the 2017 student leader on the NYUAD iGEM team (developing a device to detect E. coli in food using LAMP amplification methods)Awards/Honors/Recognitions:
Full scholarship for all 4 years at NYUAD
NYUAD does not do Dean's List, but projected to graduate with highest honors and NYU Founder's Day Award for my GPA
Awarded $5,000 NYUAD Research Funding, GNU Summer Undergraduate Research Program, NYU Dept. of Chemistry (2016)
Awarded $1,300 NYUAD Research Funding at NYUAD (2017)
Aiming for Gold Medal on the 2017 iGEM Synthetic Biology competitionPertinent Activities or Jobs: Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help:
Third Place in Public Health Think Tank 2016, Abu Dhabi, UAE
2015 Communications Internship at Pfizer Africa Middle East (AfME), Dubai, UAE (way before I knew I wanted to do research)Special Bonus Points: Southeast Asian female international student? I'm also the fifth graduating class at my school. My school is super young, and although it is affiliated with NYU, the fact that its students are thriving internationally shows its standards of excellence.
Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter:
Mentorship Coordinator for Women Empowered in STEM at NYUAD
Volunteer for 2 years (3 years by the time I graduate) at the Abu Dhabi Science Festival for children 5-12 years old
Applying to Where:
Rockefeller
NYU Biology (looking at the Abu Dhabi fellowship as well)
Duke
UNC-Chapel Hill BBSP
UCSF Tetrad
UCSD
USC PIBBS
The Graduate School of the Stowers Institute for Medical Research
CSHL Watson School of Biological Sciences
