alkaline262

okay ill skip the template and keep it short then, ill save the rest for my personal statement during application. Also, what should I title the email as?

thanks, that sounds like good advice

Looking for some constructive criticism about this letter, as you can see by my GRE score, English is not my strongest feature. I am not really even sure what the content of the letter should be, but I got a general idea from one grad school site. Hopefully indentation works. Dr. A, I am interested in entering the field of_____________, and I hope to find out if you have any room to accept graduate students into your lab. I looked into some of your work and found it to be very exciting; I especially took interest in the paper on_____________.(at this point I’ll take time to explain what was so interesting). I am a good student with strong work ethic. I took the general GRE and scored a 460 on verbal and 710 on quantitative; I have not yet taken the biology subject GRE, but I will be taking it in October. I currently hold a cumulative GPA of 3.797, and have taken many classes above and beyond the basic requirements for a biology undergraduate degree form (my college), including classes in math, physics, and chemistry. Furthermore, I have received over $10,000 in merit based science scholarships, over $8,000 of which came from the National Science Foundation’s STEM scholarship. I have a great interest in research, and I have been involved in an ongoing project in circadian rhythm and metabolism. I have learned a bit about how a research project goes from an idea to reality, from the logistics of obtaining materials, to the care of a running experiment and taking data. I have also committed to assisting in a molecular biology research lab this coming fall to expand my research experience in preparation for graduate school. I am also interested in learning if the department offers any support in the form of a stipend for graduate students who help out with research or teaching, and what conditions would need to be met for such a stipend. Also, if there is tuition funding by scholarship or research grant, I would love to hear about that as well. Thank you for taking the time to read this letter, and hopefully we will be in contact in the near future. Sincerely, Student A

oh thanks, I was feeling pretty down for a few moments there, whew.

I am applying for masters for now, but hope to get into a Ph.D program after that. I could retake the GRE, is that score for my quantitative really that bad? I was more worried about the verbal, I thought I did well in quant. , but i guess not. So what should I shoot for in each?

I am looking to be competitive for getting a TA stipend for grad school in biology or biochemisty. Biology is my undergrad major, and I am a senior. I will graduate with $10,000 in scholarships($8000 from national science foundation), one year of research experience in two separate labs, and 3.8 GPA(I might be able to bring it back up to 3.9), and a 490 verbal 710 quant GRE. Is that going to be enough? I am most worried about the GRE. Here are some of the schools I am looking at for biology/biochemistry graduate programs: oregon state university of kansas portland state university of oregon uw-madison purdue uc davis university of miami washington university in st. louis california state university I am worried about getting a stipend, I dont think I would go without one.