ALL Life Sciences Applicants for Fall 2011

[Mrs. Bio]

Hey everyone,

I thought I'd broaden the topic posted earlier about plant biology applicants to ALL biology applicants that find themselves on this part of the forum. Who is applying to begin graduate school in the Fall of 2011 in biology related areas (biology, genetics, plant biology, biochemistry etc.)?

Feel free to post your stats, ask questions, give feedback, and keep everyone posted on your application processes!

Mine are as follows:

GPA: 3.81 with baccalaureate (top 10% of class) and departmental honors (biochemistry) from a major public university in the northwest (Go Huskies...)

GRE General: Q: 710 (72%); V: 550 (75%); Writing: 4.5 (67%)

GRE Subject (Biochemistry): 570 (67%)

1 summer internship at a national lab resulting in a poster at a national undergrad research competition

1.5 years undergrad research resulting in scholarship from university for a written research proposal and presentation at undergrad symposium (no pubs)

Currently working (received my BS in June 2010) at a national lab doing mass spectrometry-based proteomics (writing a paper currently as a first author and am a co-inventor on an invention currently being reviewed by the lab for a patent). My intended field of study is mass spectrometry-based proteomics and systems biology.

LOR's from PI for 1.5 years undegrad research, my PI at the national lab now, and a world leader in mass spectrometry.

Applying to (or applied..still in the process of submission): Harvard BBS, UCSF Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Stanford Biosciences (Chemical and Systems Biology), MIT Bioengineering, University of Virginia (Chemistry), The Scripps Research Institute, and Princeton Molecular Biology

Good luck everyone and feel free to participate!

[reverdy]

Just submitted my apps today. And now the wait begins...

GPA: 3.5 from top 10 USNWR school

GRE General: Q: 790 (91%); V: 690 (94%); Writing: 4.0 (45%)

GRE Subject (BMB): 540 (55%) (submitted only to Scripps)

1.5 years in Immunology lab. One 5th author publication in a high-impact journal. Rec from this PI and from my grad student mentor (now a prof).

Summer internship at a Japanese company working in R&D.

TA'd a chemistry lab for three terms.

Applied to:

UCSD (Biomedical Sciences)

Scripps Research Institute (CA Campus, Immunology)

UCLA (ACCESS)

MIT (Biology)

WUSTL (DBBS)

Gerstner Sloan Kettering

[labrat-t]

Reverdy, you have great stats! I applied to MIT and Stoony Brook, and my GPA is nowhere near yours. And I'm international, which puts me in great disadvantage.

Good luck!

[labrat-t]

........ from a major public university in the northwest (Go Huskies...)

Haha, go huskies!! I was an exchange student there last year! Had a great time!

[PhysbeaM]

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?

Edited December 6, 2010 by PhysbeaM

[alleycat393]

My stats are posted here:

Sadly no one had any input...would still love some though!

[laurend]

Can't really comment on other people's fields since I do not know how competitive those programs are for those fields.

I submitted my apps a LONG time ago and am still waiting to hear back. Some places have started reviewing apps already so I am hoping to hear before the holidays for at least a couple of schools, but not sure about the rest. Of course I want to hear today (or last week) but know it will be another week or two realistically.

Applied to:

UMich Ann Arbor

Indiana University

Boston University

WashU

Wake Forest University

Emory University

UNC Chapel Hill

Here are my stats!

GPA: 3.67 from a small, private college

GRE: 610 V, 790 Q, 5.0 AW

I worked in an unrelated psychology lab in college for many years (3 co-author posters at international conferences), and 2 years in a more related Neuro lab (one 3rd author paper, one co-author paper at SFN which is big for neuro).

Did a summer full-time at NIH in a Neuroscience lab, and returned to a different section of that lab for post-bacc work. I am half way through my second year and should come out with one buried authorship and 2 first authors: one to be submitted soon, and one to be submitted closer to my end date.

Not that nervous to hear about interviews. I am a second time applicant and got 4/8 interviews last time, but am concerned about a few small deficiencies in coursework.

Oh well! Nothing to do now but wait!

[eklavya]

I am a second time applicant and got 4/8 interviews last time...

So despite of landing in the interviews, you decided not to enroll last year? Lets hear the story!

[laurend]

Not much of a story. I didn't get in anywhere. I was right out of undergrad and really wasn't sure what kind of researh I wanted to do specifically. Therefore I just chose

schools with good programs and chose some research that seemed interesting but I don't have much of a poker face so when I interviewed I think it was pretty obvious I wasn't that interested. I didn't ask a lot of questions and such things. This year I was very careful, have lots of questions and am positive I will be able to talk intelligently about my/ their science with my POIs and other faculty.

[cogneuroforfun]

Not much of a story. I didn't get in anywhere. I was right out of undergrad and really wasn't sure what kind of researh I wanted to do specifically. Therefore I just chose

schools with good programs and chose some research that seemed interesting but I don't have much of a poker face so when I interviewed I think it was pretty obvious I wasn't that interested. I didn't ask a lot of questions and such things. This year I was very careful, have lots of questions and am positive I will be able to talk intelligently about my/ their science with my POIs and other faculty.

Your stats and research look very solid, so I think you can shoot for a couple top neuro programs if they have interesting research for you. Any reason you decided not to do that?

[laurend]

I applied where the research was. If there weren't 2-3 people I was very interested in I didn't bother. Didn't work out for me last time so I focused on what I want to be doing the next 6 years.

People get very focused on "big names". A lot of the schools I applied to aren't big names but are awesome and very competitive neuro programs.

[alleycat393]

I applied where the research was. If there weren't 2-3 people I was very interested in I didn't bother. Didn't work out for me last time so I focused on what I want to be doing the next 6 years.

People get very focused on "big names". A lot of the schools I applied to aren't big names but are awesome and very competitive neuro programs.

I completely agree with you about names...I've applied to the big names in the US but only because there are people doing research I'm interested in and I'm very focussed on what I want to do. There are some big names I haven't applied to because they weren't doing what I'm interested in researching. Also I'd probably take an offer from a less know institute if it interested me more than what a big name offered me.

[Mrs. Bio]

I applied where the research was. If there weren't 2-3 people I was very interested in I didn't bother. Didn't work out for me last time so I focused on what I want to be doing the next 6 years.

People get very focused on "big names". A lot of the schools I applied to aren't big names but are awesome and very competitive neuro programs.

I completely agree. The best professor in a certain field could be hiding at "No Name University" in the middle of nowhere. Just because a school isn't USNWR Top 10 doesn't mean there isn't great research going on there...however, for what I want to do I was able to find people at all the schools I listed in my first post above that would be interesting to work with as well as being told by people in the field that I should apply there. Unfortunately, they're almost all at VERY good schools which makes me much more nervous about being accepted/getting an interview!

[cogneuroforfun]

I applied where the research was. If there weren't 2-3 people I was very interested in I didn't bother. Didn't work out for me last time so I focused on what I want to be doing the next 6 years.

People get very focused on "big names". A lot of the schools I applied to aren't big names but are awesome and very competitive neuro programs.

Sounds good. Yeah, you didn't apply to unknown programs, so I wouldn't worry about the prestige of those programs being a hindrance or anything. But if you can find interesting labs at Stanford/Berkeley/Harvard or wherever, I think you'd have a shot at getting in. Just don't shy away from the big name programs either, you don't want reverse-snobbery or whatever to get in the way of you working with a great PI who happens to be at a prestigious program

[BlueRose]

I'll post mine. I'm a re-applicant, switching from synthetic biology to systems biology / bioinformatics.

GPA: 3.5 from top school, Bioengineering major (less than a 3.3 in-major, though).

GRE: 800 Q, 800 V, 5.0 AW

Lots of research experience. Worked in labs throughout undergrad and since graduating in 2008.

One paper, 4th author in mediocre journal, in chemistry, from my first lab job in high school.

One real poster (2nd author, in aerospace, so also not related) and two retreat posters (sole author, somewhat related).

LORs: Unfortunately I made the mistake of working for raging procrastinator PIs, so I have a few letters conspicuously absent. The letters I actually have: one from my current PI (not in my field, but a big name), a former boss in industry (in my field, but now a second-year grad student), and one from the head of a biology outreach program (not a scientist at all, but she likes me).

American student, with no diversity elements to speak of.

I have more red flags than a Communist soccer game.

Was planning to re-apply after doing another year of school, but decided at the last minute to give it a shot this year. (It costs HOW much to do a postbac?!? Do not want. Not unless I absolutely have to.)

[laurend]

Sounds good. Yeah, you didn't apply to unknown programs, so I wouldn't worry about the prestige of those programs being a hindrance or anything. But if you can find interesting labs at Stanford/Berkeley/Harvard or wherever, I think you'd have a shot at getting in. Just don't shy away from the big name programs either, you don't want reverse-snobbery or whatever to get in the way of you working with a great PI who happens to be at a prestigious program

Thanks for the note! I definitely looked at some of the "big name" schools: Harvard, Yale, Columbia and Brown, but there were only 1 maybe 2 (as a stretch) people doing something I was really interested in so I figured why waste the funds! Thanks for your vote of confidence in my credentials though! Thats nice during this stressful time!

[laurend]

What are these postbacs everyone keeps speaking of that cost money? I am doing a postbac IRTA at NIH and I receive a stipend. I guess this must be something different and they just go by the same name! It was really starting to confuse me..

[reverdy]

Reverdy, you have great stats! I applied to MIT and Stoony Brook as well, and my GPA is nowhere near yours. And I'm international, which puts me in great disadvantage.

Good luck!

Thanks! Good luck to you as well!

I received my first interview invite today: UCSD Biomedical Sciences! It's my first choice so I'm really excited.

[eklavya]

Those who got interview offers - when was the deadline in the schools you heard from? And how many days/weeks in advance did ALL the materials reached the grad office? Although my field is different, perhaps I can guestimate my situation and start tenting my fingers Mr Burns style!

[reverdy]

Those who got interview offers - when was the deadline in the schools you heard from? And how many days/weeks in advance did ALL the materials reached the grad office? Although my field is different, perhaps I can guestimate my situation and start tenting my fingers Mr Burns style!

The deadline was Dec. 1st and my application was submitted (complete, with transcripts, scores and recs) on Nov. 29th.

[Mrs. Bio]

The deadline was Dec. 1st and my application was submitted (complete, with transcripts, scores and recs) on Nov. 29th.

Wow! Very fast. Congratulations! Especially with that being your first choice!

[laurend]

I also got an interview invitation yesterday afternoon! To UNC Chapel Hill BBSP.. I am super excited! As for the question before, the deadline was the 7th, all of my materials were in around the beginning/middle of November though.

[neuro enthusiast]

would love input.

GPA: Neuroscience BS - 3.8 Biology BS - 3.6 Both degrees from Indiana University

GRE: 650v 740q 4aw

Experience:

Post Baccalaureate Fellow, National Institutes of Health, two years

Undergraduate research lab assistant, Indiana University. 4yrs

Publications

* 3 in J. Neuroscience, and two pending (1 for PNAS (pretty good journal) 2nd Author, and one for less known journal as first author, fingers crossed on that one)

Applied to

UCSD

Emory

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

Ohio State

UNC Chapel Hill

[neuro enthusiast]

(It costs HOW much to do a postbac?!? Do not want. Not unless I absolutely have to.)

[neuro enthusiast]

Thanks! Good luck to you as well!

I received my first interview invite today: UCSD Biomedical Sciences! It's my first choice so I'm really excited.

Congrats!