drosoanxiety

Thank you Ioffire. I wish you the best of luck in your applications! If I have any other questions, I'll definitely come back to this post! Thank you so much for your suggestions and your help/clarification!

I'm glad there is someone who is similar to me! In terms of research experience, I've been given my own experiment to run by my PI, and that's actually the potential publication! From start to finish, I've been there almost every step of the way (barring a few steps) but I've done the steps either on my own or with a graduate student helping me. However I will admit, I haven't partaken in the writing of the manuscript or designed any experiment, but I have run my own experiment, and analyzed and collected data with the help of graduate students. I will definitely look at some "not so premium schools" as well, as I am open to options. I've found 3-4 POIs from each school I've looked at so far that I would really enjoy working with, so it's not just because I'm attracted to the school, I'm attracted to the research interests of others! I definitely have to refine my CV, so thank you for your suggestion! Do you know approximately when during the year I should reach out to these POIs?

Hi loffire, Do you have any suggestions as to how to improve my application? What am I missing from my application that would in turn improve my chances at these schools? Also, what schools would you suggest that I look at? Thank you for your honest opinion.

Hi guys, I'm currently in my 4th year looking at molecular biology grad school programs (PhD) to apply for. I'll be graduating with a double major in Psychology (B.A.) and Biology with emphasis in Molecular cell Biology (B.S.). My GPA is at a 3.5, but hoping to graduate with 3.6+. I've been in 2 research labs, and both of my PIs have already agreed to write me a letter of recommendation. I should have one publication this year, and I have a good amount of lab experience (qPCR, producing cDNA, biotinylation/purification of RNA, dissection of Drosophila) I haven't taken my GRE yet, but I know for a fact I suck at taking standardized tests, so it probably won't be anything special. I plan on applying to: UC Berkeley, UCLA, UC Davis, Scripps, Stanford, and Caltech. These will not be the only schools I'll be applying to, just schools that have 3-4 PIs that I'm interested in working with. How well would I match up to these schools? Do I have any kind of competition here?