atlai21

Hi all, I am also wondering if my profile will be sufficient for the programs I am interested in, or if I should wait a year to really boost it. I want to know if I'm underestimating or overestimating myself, since so many people here have posted stellar profiles! Undergrad: Neuroscience and Statistics double major at an HYP Ivy. GPA 3.94 GRE: Have not taken GRE Research Experience: None freshman year (I was an applied math major lol) Research assistantship in a biological psychiatry lab during sophomore spring, followed by an independent research project in the same lab. Switched to a reinforcement learning primate lab junior year where I was an assistant in the fall and did an independent modeling project this spring. Completed an independent deep learning research project with another undergrad for a graduate class this spring. Just finished a literature review on computational psychiatry for a clinical neuroscience seminar. I have no publications--neither of the labs I've worked in have published in the past two years. I had a poster for my sophomore project, which won 2nd place at an undergraduate symposium. In, 2,3, 4, and 5, however, I have written full research papers but the substance was likely not enough to submit for publication. Future research: This summer, I am remotely working in a neuroengineering lab at Emory. I will also be working on a literature review with my Neuroscience PI. Next year, I will be continuing my spring RL project as my thesis, and likely doing some computational research for my Stats thesis in a related topic. Awards / Honors: 2 school fellowships for independent research. Extracurriculars: I was an EMT for a semester, and proctored the school's training course. I founded a music group freshman year, managed it up to this semester, and was a member of a few others. A few other unimportant ones to this discussion. Others: I have taken 3 graduate level classes with relevant topics to my application. LORs: Research PI, Professor with whom I took two classes (one graduate, one the clinical neuroscience seminar mentioned previously), and Post-Doc/Prof from Sophomore Lab. I haven't yet asked them, but I believe they will all be strong. I have not drafted my SOP yet but have a strong concept. Applications: Princeton (QCN, joint PhD in CS), CMU (joint Neuro/ML PhD), UCL, Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, MIT are my top choices, and I have a shortlist of professors for all. I'm asking because these are super competitive programs, and I know finishing senior year before applying would really help my application, by strengthening experience, letters of rec, and a more clear reserach interest. Also, I could potentially submit my lit review to an undergraduate journal, would this help at all? If I didn't apply this round, I would still be applying for master's and post-graduate fellowships. Thoughts?