Hi!
I found the GradCafe a week ago and so far it is awesome. Interestingly its users, too, which is a little intimidating
I'm an international student, too. I have a scholarship from my goverment which is covers almost everything (tuition, travel, book, insurance, etc.) and gives enough money for other personal expenses. I was planning get an MS degree before starting a PhD for streghten some of my weak points (which is GPA, Toefl and GRE verbal score) and I just learned that my scholarship mandates the getting MS degree before PhD, too. Since most of the top universities only takes students for PhD degrees, I hope those weak points won't be such a nuisance. Well, my stats:
GPA: 3.23/4 (Molecular Biology and Genetics BS degree from one of my country's well-known universities)
GRE: Verbal 400, Quantitative 800, Writing 3.0
TOEFL: 87 (Reading 26, listening 24, speaking 17, writing 20)
Worked over 2-years at the departments different research labs.
Completed three undergraduate research projects and all three funded by country's most prestigious goverment unit about science (unfortunately, there won't be any publication by the applications), made a good summer intership in related area.
Attended over than 12 different symposiums, courseworks, panel discussions; organized 3 of them (as a part of the committees; one professionel, two students symposiums).
Planning to apply : UCDavis, UMinnesota, GeorgiaTech, UWisc., JohnsHopkins, UCIrvine, UGeorgia, UConn and UMaryland-Baltimore > Most of them
Those are only ones that have my interested research subjects and a master's degree till a rank at USNews. What do you think, should I lower the bar a little more?
