greenertea

Congrats! Although I would pick schools based on how many faculty are there that you'd be interested in working with and whether the location is minimally livable, I would say one thing about Caltech. I live in the city of Los Angeles and I wouldn't consider Pasadena really a part of LA. I wouldn't let the proximity of Pasadena to L.A. be a selling point for you. If you don't have a car, forget it completely. If you do, the traffic will be enough of a hassle to keep you from going very often. Potentially you could live in L.A. and commute, but it'll be a pain.

Just thought I'd give some advice in case you were partially drawn to Caltech because it's "in LA". Hope it helps.

Also, I would have to respectfully disagree with Spew - every Caltech student I've met (grad and undergrad) has been really unhappy with their work-life balance and couldn't wait to get out. Caltech is a place for type A personalities to thrive, but can be a bit much for everyone else.

Scripps is an exception. They definitely will not look at your app until they've received your GRE subject scores. I took the GRE Biochem in November but scores don't come out until December and they emailed all applicants in my position to let us know they would start reviewing our applications AFTER they received the official subject scores.

Personally, I wouldn't do either Masters or post-bac and just keep working. If you're working in an academic lab now, maybe try to start networking with the faculty in your department. I know people who have worked as techs with low GPAs and test scores who have been able to get a little nudge into the program because they've worked in the department for a while.

I would also have a sit down with your PI now and talk about what you can do to improve your chances at graduate school in the next cycle. They will no better than anyone else. If you're working not working on an independent project now, maybe your professor can give you one and give you a chance to submit a first author paper. You didn't mention your publication history but I think it could make the difference if you don't have any publications currently.

Also, I notice all the schools you applied to are top tier. Maybe apply to a few more mid-tier schools if you don't make it in this round. Although the prestige of a school is important, if you work under the right professor you can have just as successful a career as someone who graduated from an Ivy. Where you do your post-doc also makes a big impact on your career so where you go for grad school is not necessarily fate-sealing.

This is just my opinion though, take it with a grain of salt. But personally, although I can't imagine a life where I wouldn't want to get a PhD, I wouldn't go into debt for it. The stipend you get as a grad student and your eventual post doc salary will make it very hard to pay off. That's 8 years minimum of carrying around debt, if not more. If I had to choose though between Post-bac and masters, I guess I'd pick masters and fight like hell to get a tuition waiver w/ a teaching or research assistantship.

I wouldn't give up hope yet though for this cycle of apps!