Computational Biology PhD, Masters degree first?

[108878203032291081]

Hi, I'm hoping to get a sense of how competitive of an applicant I am for computational biology PhD programs (hope this is the right place). I'm trying to sort out if it makes sense for me to do a masters program first (recently accepted to a small state school for computer science), or try to go straight into a PhD. If you've read this far, thanks for taking the time to help me out!

Profile:

Undergrad: Bachelors in Computer Science from UC Berkeley (took 90% of classes for a Molecular and Cell Biology double major, just missing two upper divisions)

GPA: 3.5

GRE: haven't taken (masters program waived requirement due to covid)

Research: After graduating I took a job as a bioinformatics programmer in a lab at UCSF. Worked there for around a year with my name on a handful of papers in medical journals (nothing earth shattering).

Recommendations: One from my PI, one from a CS professor, and one from a humanities professor. All three will probably be fairly standard for PhD applicants

Thanks!

[Boolakanaka]

Without the GRE hard to say. D is going straight from undergrad  to U of Washington for her PhD this fall, was also accepted at Harvard, Yale, Duke, U of I and CMU-Pitt. Her GPA from a fairly selective liberal arts/engineering school was .3.7 and GRE Quant score was 168 and writing 164.

[opalgreen]

On 4/20/2020 at 2:43 AM, Boolakanaka said:

Without the GRE hard to say. D is going straight from undergrad  to U of Washington for her PhD this fall, was also accepted at Harvard, Yale, Duke, U of I and CMU-Pitt. Her GPA from a fairly selective liberal arts/engineering school was .3.7 and GRE Quant score was 168 and writing 164.

Thanks for your answer. It helped me a lot.

[likere]

So I took a graduate level bioinformatics class last semester. I concluded this is the field I need to go into. I simply graduated with a B.S. in sub-atomic science. Bioinformatics is interdisciplinary, yet the critical step is software engineering and math stuff. I have the science down. My concern is that I would prefer not to take out further credits. It would appear that individuals with less C.S. also, math foundation complete an experts degree first to get them up before PhD. Is that valid? Kodi nox

[complexgenome]

Can the small state university allow you to continue into the PhD later? If so that wouldn't be bad if you like program, find an advisor. I

n my understanding anywhere (in the US) the first 18 months or so, even 24 months are dedicated in lab-rotation, MS coursework. If you do an MS at any university then seek PhD, probably you'll end up doing the ground work which you already did. 

 

 

 

[Shukla182]

Thanks for your answer

[Shukla182]

Thanks for your answer.  Dale Hollow News

 

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Edited January 11, 2021 by Shukla182