Astaroth

Does anyone know whether any of the Biology/Biomed grad programs offer to pay for international students' airfare to attend interviews? I read somewhere that MIT might do that but couldn't find that anywhere again. In any case, if MIT invites me to an interview, the airfare will seem completely insignificant

Keep in mind, that's $10 in 1966 prices. That actually translates to about $60-70 if you factor in inflation. So application fees haven't actually changed. I think one way to reduce the number of people applying for PhDs is to convince employers that people with MScs, or even BScs could be well worth hiring for more than technician positions! I think that this is really the problem. People want PhDs because they don't want to be stuck doing repetitive work. I don't really see why someone with an MSc couldn't supervise a research project in an academic lab. Sure, it wouldn't be a tenure track position, and perhaps funding might be harder to come by, but it's better than the current situation whereby if you have anything less than a PhD and at least one Post-Doc, you have little chance of working as a researcher in academia. I know lots of people really just want to get a job and settle down, but still apply for PhDs because of the gap in academic employability. Given such a situation, at least some of those people will choose the halfway solution instead of going all the way with a PhD in order to speed up their career. Personally, though, I'd still do a PhD. I guess I'm ambitious, or maybe I'm just trying to emulate my supervisor, but I know it's what I want to do.

My guess is that admissions teams will look at letters but will not pay as much attention to them in the first stages of selection. They would only be looked at carefully and factored in, for example, when an applicant is close to being accepted/invited for interviews, or has been placed on a waiting list. Also, they would probably only pay attention to letters that seem like they were written in earnest and where any praise is supported by evidence or at least a sound argument. A letter of recommendation that is 100% positive will probably be ignored, but one that is 80%-90% positive has a much better chance. You know, "nobody's perfect" and all.

Harvard! Brilliant! Well done!

Yes, also consider exporting your Word document to PDF first and uploading your PDF, to make sure it retains your layout (which is quite an issue with CVs). You can use a free app called PrimoPDF which installs as a printer and if you print to it, it will save your document as a PDF. Or, of course, if you're using OpenOffice, the PDF function is built-in.

Wow, it's like they're describing a different planet... so different. I wonder whether it will keep getting tougher in the future?

Thanks! That is a very impressive set of credentials you have there :shock: I'm sure you'll have no trouble at all getting into your top choice. What's annoying me about applications is they come at the worst time, pretty much, because just a couple of months after deadlines I'll have a whole bunch of new grades that will push my average up, I'll have progressed a lot on my final year project and would be able to talk more about it in my SoP, and the way my project is going I could even have a publication in preparation! If I wasn't already 24 years old I'd consider taking the year off and re-applying next year with stronger credentials but that would make me over 30 years old by the time I finish my PhD... that sounds quite terrifying and I don't want to delay it any longer really.

Not sure where you would find specific rankings for neurosci, but for what it's worth here are the USNews biological sciences rankings: http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandr ... bio/search

There is no GPA in the UK. The value I quoted is an equivalent which I calculated using some rough guidelines. My actual average is 59%, which translates to roughly B/B+, which is somewhere around 3.3.

I started thinking about applications and looking at schools around August. I started preparing for the GRE in September, and took it at the beginning of October. Throughout October I basically went through a long process of looking closely at every school and evaluating my shot at each one so that I could narrow them down to 7 or 8 choices. I then updated my CV, wrote my SoP and filled in all my applications in November. I did have some problems with a particularly busy recommender who needed lots of reminders to fill in their reference so give your recommenders as much warning as you can, preferably a month before the first deadline. Keep in mind that your SoP should reflect you as closely as possible, and therefore should be kept up to date. You will most likely be a very different person by the time you'll actually submit your SoP, so I'm not sure there's much point in working on it now. I wouldn't really even bother thinking about it before, say, August, and that's still playing it quite safe. Just to give you an idea, if I were to re-write my SoP now, only weeks after having filled in all my applications, I'd say it would be about 10-20% different. This is mostly because I'm halfway through my final year, which is easily the most stimulating and exciting time in academia for most people. My interests are being re-shaped and augmented on a daily basis. Your situation may be different, but it's something to keep in mind. Your CV is definitely worth getting to work on now, though.

The sheer amount of time, money and effort you will spend applying to 17 universities will not be worth it even if you got a place somewhere. Not to mention that your referees will HATE you for making them submit 17 references (a lot of those will not simply ask for a letter but will make your referees fill in a form with ridiculous questions). You should really consider these factors. If you have nothing better to do with your time, have lots of money, and have referees who love you to death, then go ahead. If you don't, then I suggest you narrow your list down to 8, 10 maximum. Your profile is quite impressive, supplemented with a good GRE I'd say you'd have a decent chance in getting into most schools. I'd recommend you pick 3 or 4 top tier schools, 2 or 3 high tier schools and 1 or 2 mid tier schools that you would genuinely like to go to as security options. Maybe also 1 lower tier one if you're really that paranoid. 17 is overkill.

Yeah, I know. None taken. My GPA is low because I just don't do well at exams. I regularly get praise from the various supervisors I've had for my ability to do science and for being very bright, and my academic supervisor knows that my grades are not representative of my abilities and has emphasized this in his letter of reference. If some of the higher tier places I've applied to have some sort of cutoff that I won't make because of my GPA then so be it, but I feel confident that if they look at my application as a whole, I will have a chance of getting a place somewhere. I've applied to a range of places to give myself a fairer chance. I know that I have pretty much zero chance of getting into Mayo, but then again I don't really want to go there (I only realized this after I submitted my application, it was a bit of a rushed decision to apply there). As for UCSD, I knew I would be rejected early on because it's one of the highest ranked public schools and they have limited funds for international students. I'm pretty sure they just looked at my GPA and said "nope". As for MIT and Rockefeller, yes they are very prestigious but for example I know that the average GPA for people who get into the MIT program is 3.6, which means 3.3 would presumably be low but still within range. I don't know much about Rockefeller (other than I really want to go there!) but I wouldn't be surprised at all if I was rejected from there. Kind of a similar story with Michigan even though it's not quite in the same class as the others I've mentioned. As for UT, UVA and Brandeis, I think I have a fair shot, and I would be more than happy with any of them, although UVA would really be my last choice. Even if I get rejections from all of these, by April I'll have 5 more grades to show on my transcript (year away report and 4 exams in january) which I expect to raise my average quite a bit, and I'll have a good chance of getting a decent PhD here in the UK. All the funded 4-year programs are going now so it'll just be a regular non-program PhD, but hopefully I'll find a funded one.

Please post your profile, where you applied and what responses you've had so far. Feel free to comment on people's profiles/applications or ask anything about the application process if you still haven't applied. International student 4-year BSc in Genetics (with a year in industry) from University of York, UK (graduating in 2009) GPA so far - 59%, or 3.3 GPA equivalent. Predicted degree classification: 2:1 General GRE scores: V: 670 (95th), Q: 740 (81st), AWA: 4.5 (58th) No TOEFL. No publications. Research experience: 1 year in industry (pharma), and currently doing my final year research project Applied to: UT Austin (Cell & molecular bio) Mayo Graduate School (Biomedical sciences) UMichigan (MCDB) MIT (Biology) UCSD (Biology) (Pre-app) UVA (Biology) Brandeis (Molecular/cell biology) UVM (Cell and molecular biology) Oxford (CRUK molecular oncology studentship) Bristol (MRC bioimaging studentship) Accepted: UVM (after interview) Rejected: UCSD (at pre-app stage, didn't make it to applications! how sad) MIT (e-mail) Rockefeller (post) Bristol (e-mail) Mayo (e-mail + post) UMichigan (e-mail) UVA (website + e-mail) UT (website)