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Alright, then here we go. Any comments or discussions are welcome. For reference I graduated in '16 and will have two years out of college before entering a PhD program should I be so fortunate. _________________________________________ Undergrad Institution: Top 5 public Major(s): Bioengineering Minor(s): GPA in Major: 3.197/4.00 (didn't calc.) Overall GPA: 3.197/4.00 Demographics/Background: Asian of the southeastern variety, aka vastly overrepresented. GRE Scores: Q: 163 (84%) V: 170 (99%) W: 5.5 (98%) LOR: 1. undergrad PI - "truly exceptional" 2. sr. scientist/ undergrad lab mentor - decent I guess, know she took the time to read about the research of the Profs I was interested in and wove that info into her letters. 3.Postdoc mentor at lab where I was a tech after undergrad - No idea, nothing spectacular, probably okay-decent. Research Experience: 1 yr in undergrad - nanoparticle drug delivery ; 1 yr as technician - immuno-engineering ; ~4 months at a small biotech that is making large waves working on things very relevant to my research interests. Publications/Abstracts/Presentations: 1 first author from undergrad. couple of poster presentations from undergrad (all the same poster though) 1 at international conference. Awards/Honors/Recognitions: nothing really. should've applied for those dean's undergrad research awards I suppose, but always thought they were rather meaningless (no $). Represented my state at national mathematics olympiad, but this was high school, mentioned it anyway to offset gre q. Fellowships/Funding: none. applied for NSF and NDSEG, very last minute though, not expecting anything. Pertinent Activities or Jobs: worked for 1 year at rather renowned research institute, as a technician. working currently in R&D at a biotech. Other Miscellaneous Accomplishments: nothing mentioned Research Interests: nanotechnology, drug delivery, immunoenginering, tolerance induction Institutions/Programs: All BioE PhD: Stanford, UCSF-Berkeley, Caltech, UCSD, HST (Harvard SEAS), HST (MIT IMES), UChicago, WashU, Cornell, Upenn. Also applied to Yale BBS-Immunology track. Comments: Pros: I think my application and my SOP weave a very consistent narrative about my research interests and the steps I've taken towards them - The research experiences I've accumulated fit together nicely in serving as a foundation for the research I have proposed to conduct in graduate school. I didn't get any feedback on my SOP before submission though, and kind of wrote it in one sitting (though it had been building in my mind for quite a while before that, so when I plopped down to write, the floodgates broke through and it was quite enjoyable). Even though the deadlines have passed now, I would like to swap SOPs with someone with similar research interests/fields to see if it does indeed work the way I intend. Cons: Not so worried about low GPA as much as I am by the fact that I collected all the letters on my transcript including two Fs. No real excuses, DGAF until senior year, before I started research and had some context for, and therefore interest in what I was learning. didn't bother to mention anything about it in my SOP - had no space after writing about more important things. Good luck to everyone and feel free to reach out!