Reapplying after my first year in a Biology PhD program

[catsandscience]

Hi everyone,

I am a first year PhD student in an umbrella Biology and Biomedical Sciences program at a major research university who hasn't found a lab to join and is thinking about reapplying elsewhere. My program's size was double what it normally is because of admission cuts at other schools that my school did not partake in. Additionally, because of Trump funding cuts, a lot of faculty took less students or none at all. I came in with very broad interests in biophysics and some chemical biology. After rotating, I know I want to do protein engineering and proteomics. I want to apply to only chemical biology programs like at Tri I and UCSF. (I was actually admitted to Tri I last cycle but the offer was rescinded because of funding issues).

I rotated in three labs and was not given a spot in any of them but the competition was steep because of the large cohort size. In retrospect, I should have rotated in less popular labs. I did a decent job in my rotations though and had good results and final presentations. I came in with less experience than other people though since I didn't do a post bac and came from a small liberal arts college with limited research. I also have one publication that just came out from undergrad and was given an Honorable Mention for my NSF GRFP grant this year. I majored in biochemistry, have a 3.97 GPA, and did protein biochemistry research all four years of undergrad.

Is it possible to successfully reapply given that my interests have changed and how crazy admissions was the year I applied?

Thanks everyone for your help!