Internation applicant from Germany here, might need some help and advice from you guys.
Undergrad Institution (approx. rank/reputation in STEM): German university with a very strong research background, Top 1/2 for life sciences & Top 3 overall in Germany, Top 50 in the world.
Major(s): Molecular Biotechnology (3-year Bachelor's degree via Bologna Process, specialization in Biophysical Chemistry) Minor(s): - GPA in Major: 3.75/4.00ish? (not sure yet how the conversion from the German grade to the GPA works...) Overall GPA: see above
Demographics/Background: Asian male with German background. Parents were first-gen immigrants in Germany, spent half of my life in Germany and the other half in China at a German international school.
GRE Scores: Q: 163 (85%) V: 161 (88%) W: x.x (xx%) (tba)
LOR:
One from my undergrad PI where I wrote my thesis, who is the Director of a renowned German research institute and very respected in his field internationally
One from the head of my major's department, who has witnessed my engagement as the semester representative and my work in the student association of my major
One tbd, probably from my supervisor of my current startup internship (which is completely unrelated to biology tho, so it would be a letter emphasizing my abilities outside uni and bio and my personality I guess)
Since we're talking about German universities, where the relationship between students and professors is very anonymous (I've talked to my undergrad PI <5 times), I can't say that my LORs will be strong. The only thing I can "rely" on is the rather high-profiles of my recommenders.
Research Experience:
Not really sure how to evaluate this, since we had a lot of practical lab courses starting in 2nd semester. If I had to break it down, it would be something like
2.5 years research experience in academia and industry (both dry & wet lab), including an 8-week spring internship at a local Biotech company (peptide microarrays) followed by 1.5 years of research assistant experience in the same company, a 6-month internship at the microfluidics lab of a well-known German research institutes (under my undergrad PI, where I wrote my thesis too) and several lab courses throughout my studies (inorganic/organic chem, biochem, microbio, molecular bio, bioinformatics...)
Publications/Abstracts/Presentations: No publications. Have written a thesis, a review and held numerous presentations at the uni, but nothing "official" in the American sense I guess. You usually start with these things in your Master's here in Germany.
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Applied for a Fulbright Scholarship for the 2019 Fall sem, should get a notice until end of Sep and hopefully be invited to an interview in Nov. Apart from that that none.
Fellowships/Funding: None, German unis don't reward you for studying and doing research lol.
Pertinent Activities or Jobs:
Lab intern and later research assistant at a young Biotech company for 1.5 years (microarrays, immunoassays, data quantification & analysis)
Lab intern at a very renowned German research institute for 6 months, where I later wrote my Bachelor's thesis (microfluidics, liposomes, biomimetics)
Other Miscellaneous Accomplishments:
Elected as the semester representative for the entirety of my studies (3 years), with tasks such as the coordination of important internal affairs for more than 80 people in my semesters and the communication between the student body and the department. Also worked very closely with the student association of my major.
Been a coordinator (1.5 years) and one of the first members of a university-affiliated society that organized volunteering projects in the global south. We've successfully organized two projects from scratch, running fundraising campaigns and lecture series/workshops to promote our agenda
Anything else in your application that might matter (faculty connections, etc.):
Since most of the German students continue their studies in Germany and some in Europe, I'm one of the very few that actually wanna go outside Europe. Thus, I don't really have any connections to the US itself.
I'm currently taking a gap year to prepare my applications (would definitely not have had the time to do that during my studies) and do some internships. As I wanted to explore the world a bit, I purposely applied for internships completely unrelated to my field of studies (doing business development at a FinTech startup right now) and plan to travel for at least 5 months beginning next year.
Feel like I'm not the best at writing SOPs (hate presenting myself on paper and not used to the US-style essays), but I do believe that I can convince most schools in a direct interview, if I do get invited to one.
Research Interests:
Still pretty undecided tbh, I have been working a lot with microfluidics, biomimetics and liposomes. But I'm also interested in nanotech & nanodevices, biosensors & bioelectronics and biomaterials. Geriatrics seems like a cool research field in general.
Institutions/Programs:
In descending priority:
1. Stanford MS BioE
2. Berkeley MEng BioE
3. UCSD MS BioE (prob have a better chance at MS than at MEng)
4. UW MS BioE
5. Columbia MS BME
Comments:
Need you guys opinion on a few things:
1. Should I retake my GREs for my intended schools? Scores were from my first take yesterday, was aiming for 165 in quant but performed a bit poorer than I hoped. I really don't feel like retaking them bc I'd basically spend extra 200$ on trying to get a few more points on quant (I assume that my verbal score is ok and AWA should be fine too). But I also don't wanna risk being cut off immediately due to a more average quant performance.
2. Am I reaching too high with my choice of schools, based on my background? Tbh I don't know that much about the top programs and top schools for BioE in the US and what their requirements for incoming grad students are. Only thinking about applying in the US bc the topic of BioE is not really existent here in Germany and the US offers a much better ecosystem for this discipline.
3. Would be German application background be of a disadvantage? Most of the German students remain in Germany (or some in Europe) for their Master's, so the German system is not optimized for applying outside Europe at all. First, I only have a 3-year Bachelor's degree. On the one hand, the grading systems are totally different (still struggling with the GPA conversions) and I don't know how much stricter the grading system here/in the US is and in what way that will be weighted out in the application. On the other hand, since German unis imo are more about letting students fend for themselves instead of actively fostering and supporting them, we didn't really have any incentives throughout our studies (no awards, honors, grants, presentations, conferences, competitions...) and don't really know our professors and lecturers either for a strong and personal recommendation, so I'd probably have a worse standing on these application criteria compared to most US students.
4. How problematic is my switch from Biotechnology to Bioengineering in regards to the application? As some schools stated that students with an engineering background are more competitive, would that put me at a great disadvantage compared to BioE/Eng undergrads? I only realized during my studies that I'm more interested in bioE related stuff than conventional drug research (hence the biophysical chemistry track), but am unsure whether my training is enough to switch into this more engineering-heavy major
5. Do you think the gap year would constitute a problem in my application, since I'm not doing anything related to biology? I'm probably gonna argue with something like "I wanted to educate myself interdisciplinarily and holistically" or "I wanted to learn more about other subjects to see the role of biology in a greater context and to think about how I can use my scientific knowledge in positions that bridge multiple disciplines", but I feel like most of the schools are looking for students with a very distinct and purposeful research background?
I'm pretty keen on going to the US for my Master's, since the entire biotech ecosystem sucks here in Germany (and in most of Europe). So these applications kinda matters to me, even though I'm not entirely enthusiastic about writing all the applications and going through this complicated process...
Thanks in advance!
