I am in the process of applying to Masters in Biostatistics programs and would like some application advice/profile evaluation:
Undergrad Institution: one of the UC school (top 50) Major: pharmacological chemistry GPA: 3.265
GRE: First attempt: Q: 160, V: 163, W: 4; plan to retake it next month to improve math score.
Relevant Courses: Calculus 1 (A), Calculus 2 (B-), Vector Calculus 3(B+), Multi-variable Calculus (A), Linear Algebra(B), Introduction to Probability (B-), Intro Statistics (B), Mathematical Proofs (C), Introduction to Analysis (A) On-going: Applied linear algebra, Intro to Numerical Analysis, Intro to Computational Stat
Skills: know some basics of R, Python and Matlab
Research Experience: working for a bio lab on one year, doing basic wet lab work (pcr, staining, cell culture, mouse colony). Went to the other bio lab in school, stayed until now. Working on pretty much the same thing, without much related to biostatistics (data analysis or computation).
Letters of recommendation: - School research Lab (biology-focus on neuro- degenerative disease) PI - strong - School research Lab PI(biology-focus on prion disease) - strong - School research Lab (biology-focus on prion disease) post-doc - strong
Concerns: I had some bad grades in math courses and my quan section of the GRE was not that strong. But I might be able to improve the GRE quan in next time when I am taking it. Also my research experiences are not that related to biostatistics, but focus more on the biology aspects; have no papers or presentations, only participated in a small project. I am applying to a lot of schools because I am afraid I will not get into any because of my low GPA. Should I add one or more lower ranking school to my list?
Schools:
University of Florida
University of North Carolina
University of Minnesota
Emory University
Brown University
University of California, Los Angeles
University of California, San Diego
University of California, Davis
University of Texas Health science center at Houston
Yale
Rutgers University
University of Texas MD Anderson
Tulane University
Washington University in St. Louis
Thanks in advance for your help!