UBCbiograd2009

I wouldn't fret. I applied to the University of Miami, to their Marine Bio & Fisheries Program. Submissions were due Dec. 1 and I did not hear back until just last week when I was invited for a recruitment event at their Marine and Atmospheric school campus. This was only two weeks in advance of the recruitment event. So it took 7 weeks to hear back from them. I don't think I'll be hearing back from the other schools until later because their deadline for submissions were all Jan. 15th. I also have the feeling that larger universities like the U of Miami take longer to review applications simply because they have many more applicants due to the size of all their programs. The smaller universities don't have as a large of programs, so fewer applicants to review. (Obviously I'm not saying that larger schools are better because Cornell is smaller, but has a much better research reputation than the U of Miami).

Hi! Thanks for all the replies. I contacted all the professors from the schools I listed and they encouraged me to apply to their institutions. They all said that my research experience, along with my publication, letter writers and GRE scores were positives for my application. Those professors also know at least one of the people who are writing my letters of recommendation very well, with one of my letter writers having met with the profs from Miami and LSU at a conference and put in a good word for me (the profs seemed very interested in my potential apparently). One of my other letter writers is a world leader in his field, so having a letter from him will hopefully go a long way. The professors from Miami, LSU, Portland and WSU also said that my GRE scores were high and not a detriment. The only blemish is my gpa, but I added the reasons behind this as an addendum to my SOP. My senior year gpa is pretty high! @NeuroNerd86: I am an international applicant. Hope I've cleared up my earlier comments. Thanks again!

Hi everyone, I want to enter the Biology/Zoology PhD programs at the following universities: University of Miami, Louisiana State, Portland State, University of Hawaii, Washington State, UC Irvince My stats: I have an undergrad GPA of 3.01 from the University of British Columbia and earned a 1320 on my GRE (770Q, 550V, 5.0AW). I have 2.5 years of research experience in the lab I did my undergrad thesis (have a co-authorship on a paper that includes significant data from my thesis). I will probably get another co-author on a paper as I am pretty much doing the pilots for the grad student's experiments. My GPA is low because I came out to my family and I was pretty much rejected by them. This caused me to become depressed and I just couldn't handle it, so my 2nd term sophmore/1st term junior year grades dropped (C+ avg). However, my grades increased in the 2nd term of my junior year and dramatically in my senior year. I also took a genetics course that was composed of graduate and undergrad students (essentially a graduate level course, except that us undergrads didn't have to do a presentation) and I earned a B+ in it. I have three strong letters of recommendation: the first from my current PI/thesis supervisor, the second from a prof who is very well known and respected in his field and the third from a prof who is internationally known (all comparative physiologists know his work). My SOP is solid and covers everything, but it's concise and not verbose. So what are my chances of being accepted? I'd really like to go to Miami since they have awesome facilities and a great research team in the lab I want to join. The second professor I mentioned talked to the profs from Miami and Louisiana on my behalf at a conference, and they said they were interested. Does this mean they'll go to bat for me? Any advice would be helpful. Thanks! P.S. I'm Hispanic and an immigrant from South America, and I hold Canadian citizenship. Will this help my chances as well?

Hi everyone, I want to enter the Biology/Zoology PhD programs at the following universities: University of Miami, Louisiana State, Portland State, University of Hawaii, Washington State, UC Irvince My stats: I have an undergrad GPA of 3.01 from the University of British Columbia and earned a 1320 on my GRE (770Q, 550V, 5.0AW). I have 2.5 years of research experience in the lab I did my undergrad thesis (have a co-authorship on a paper that includes significant data from my thesis). I will probably get another co-author on a paper as I am pretty much doing the pilots for the grad student's experiments. My GPA is low because I came out to my family and I was pretty much rejected by them. This caused me to become depressed and I just couldn't handle it, so my 2nd term sophmore/1st term junior year grades dropped (C+ avg). However, my grades increased in the 2nd term of my junior year and dramatically in my senior year. I also took a genetics course that was composed of graduate and undergrad students (essentially a graduate level course, except that us undergrads didn't have to do a presentation) and I earned a B+ in it. I have three strong letters of recommendation: the first from my current PI/thesis supervisor, the second from a prof who is very well known and respected in his field and the third from a prof who is internationally known (all comparative physiologists know his work). My SOP is solid and covers everything, but it's concise and not verbose. So what are my chances of being accepted? I'd really like to go to Miami since they have awesome facilities and a great research team in the lab I want to join. The second professor I mentioned talked to the profs from Miami and Louisiana on my behalf at a conference, and they said they were interested. Does this mean they'll go to bat for me? Any advice would be helpful. Thanks! P.S. I'm Hispanic and an immigrant from South America, and I hold Canadian citizenship. Will this help my chances as well?