University Selection Help

[daspyki]

Hello. I'll be applying to umbrella Biosciences program (preference: cancer biology) this fall. 

Applicant: International, South Asia

University: Among top 5 of my country

Subject: Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

GPA: 3.81/4.00 Undergrad. 3.92/4.00 MS (4th in class)

Research experience:

• Over 4 years in Bioinformatics
• 3 years in Plant genomics and proteomics expression analysis
• 3 years in Biodiversity (Developed and maintaining an online database on country-wide existing odonates)
• 1 year - Histopathology analysis of hepatotoxicity induced rats

Publication: 3 (1 on Immunoinformatics, 2 on plant science - 1 PubMed indexed; First author in 2, Second in 1). Ongoing 2 but won't be published by the time of application. 

Awards: Govt merit scholarship, Honors with distinction, Award for poster presentation at an international conference

Grants: The explorers' club USA, Govt fellowship for MS thesis

GRE: V161(88%), Q163(83%), AWA4.0(59%), Didn't retake as GRE is becoming optional 

LOR: Should be very good, but not from famous scientists.

I couldn't work on cancer related areas as my country doesn't have that much research opportunities.

Current selection of Universities: All biosciences programs - MIT, Princeton, UChicago, UCDavis, Duke, NYU, McGill, Michigan state, Purdue, Penn state.

These are my stats including the drawbacks of my profile. I am having second thoughts regarding my choices of universities and am in need of assistance. Am I aiming too high? Should I include/exclude any university? Any kind of help or suggestions would be highly appreciated. Thank you.

[BabyScientist]

So long as there are at least 3 faculty at each institution that you'd be excited to work with, I think your list is fine. 

[cephalexin]

Taking a glance at your profile, it seems like you have a strong profile, especially for programs where the GRE is not looked at.

also, I’m not an expert in cancer bio programs, but your program list looks good. I would look at Wisconsin as I remember seeing cancer bio as an option when I applied for molecular bio. 

[DRMF]

I'd assume having a lot of bioinformatics background is a plus regardless of research area, so I think your list is probably fine. Like the first reply said, make sure you have a few potential people to work with at each of those schools.

If you're not dead set on cancer bio, I'd suggest you look at more "true" umbrella programs, ie programs that make everyone interview and do lab rotations together and let you pick a subfield after you've started the PhD. UTSW is one example, and it takes in a lot of international students each year. UChicago, on the contrary, doesn't really have an umbrella program; the "umbrella clusters" are just for administrative convenience as far as I can tell (you can rank more than one interested programs in your app, but you will only get interviews with one program, typically your top choice).

If you're actually very committed to doing cancer bio, then you must be able to use your SOP to convince the reader of your passion for (and knowledge of) the field. In terms of school selection, you might want to consider Sloan Kettering. I don't actually know if it's "easy" to get in statistically, but I do know of one international student who applied to 4-5 programs and only got into GSK. This program is quite new, small and more cancer focused than most others since it's a cancer research institute. They do take in people with non-cancer backgrounds and I think a good percentage of internationals each year. They just became GRE optional recently I think. (Anecdotally though, when I interviewed there one professor had my app materials printed in front of him and apparently had circled out my GRE scores when he read it before the meeting.)

I didn't look into UC Davis, but I would check their international student numbers and what their funding situation looks like (UC schools typically have a harder time funding international students).

[daspyki]

On 7/30/2019 at 12:52 AM, BabyScientist said:

So long as there are at least 3 faculty at each institution that you'd be excited to work with, I think your list is fine. 

On 7/30/2019 at 3:39 AM, cephalexin said:

I would look at Wisconsin as I remember seeing cancer bio as an option when I applied for molecular bio. 

On 9/1/2019 at 2:10 AM, DRMF said:

If you're not dead set on cancer bio, I'd suggest you look at more "true" umbrella programs, ie programs that make everyone interview and do lab rotations together and let you pick a subfield after you've started the PhD.

Thank you all for your feedbacks. Cancer biology was my second choice of programs, neuro being the first. Neuro seemed to be more competitive for international students compared to Bioscience programs. Thats why I initially thought about applying to biosciences with a focus on cancer biology. But after giving it much thought, I have decided to apply for Neuroscience programs. Most of the uni in my mentioned list would remain with few changes, I think. Are there any universities with neuroscience programs I should look into? 

Edited September 11, 2019 by daspyki

[cephalexin]

A friend of mine is at Mayo Clinic for neuroscience.