I have this horrible fear...

[noodles.galaznik]

This spring, one of my friends was admitted to my dream school. She got accepted to the PhD program right out of undergrad, and she's already been offered some fellowships. She has a 4.0, is a double major, has done about 5 field schools, professors love her, and is so academically insanely awesome that she was asked to carry the gonfalon for Liberal Arts at graduation in a few weeks.

I worry that I'm not even that close to amazing. Here are my stats: 3.626 GPA overall, 3.9 in both my majors, I've done research for the past two years, and my senior honors thesis was just approved. And I didn't even get accepted to an MA program.

Looking back, it was probably all for the best. My application did not turn out so great. I started thinking about grad school really late (and by late, I mean the thought of applying occurred about mid October), I have an abysmally sparse background in bioanth, I didn't study hard enough for my GRE, I didn't take the time to know my LORs a little better, and my SOP wasn't something that was carefully crafted and labored over so it was really vague and unfocused. So, in short there was a lot that I screwed up.

But I get a second chance now. I've kept in touch with my POI, and she's been incredibly kind and helpful. My fiancée and I are moving to that city in a few weeks so he can finish his doctorate, and I get the opportunity to fix things (sort of). I'll be taking some classes related to my interests, possibly working in her lab, and definitely volunteering at a museum and a research lab.

My question is, is this enough? What else should I do? I was rejected from there once. I'm afraid that even if I do all this work, it won't do any good and I'll get another crappy rejection letter in the mail. When I meet up with her in a few weeks, I want to have a game plan. I don't want to be the bumbling idiot that I was in my SOP. Any advice?

(Sorry, I'm just having some major, "I'm about to graduate and I'm lost and my life is nothing" panic attacks)

[skazoo]

Hey don't be so upset, you have awesome GPA and research experience. Your stats is much much better than mine. I graduate with barely 2.9 GPA with couple failing classes. GRE is 1300 (800Q 520V 4.5AWA) - Q is good but not enough to make up the failed classes and GPA. I didn't publish undergrad thesis but I worked for 1.5 years on three projects with grad students and professors - I will have my name at two papers as co and 2nd author but I don't think they take this into account since I haven't publish anything yet.

Surprisingly I got offers in couple top 15-30s, decided to go into top 15-20 phd program with full funding in one of biosci major (not bioanth) with two great potential faculties (for my stats that's awesome! although TBH I don't think rank matter in grad school since faculty matters more for publications, funding, interest, and future postdoc position, although I agree that the higher rank, the univ will be more saturated with more-publication-with-awesome-impact-factor-journal faculties)

What I've found in phd app in life science major is this: adcoms don't view GPA and GRE as very important. GRE is least important as long as you have >85%Q, GPA is slightly more important as long as you have >3.3, and these two usually serve as cutoff. Also, they have point system and these two hold some ~30% points. The other 50% is research experience and LOR. The rest 20% is interview.

You can see my GPA is horrid, my transcript is even more horrid, my GRE is probably alright, my research exp is barely average. With that kind of stats my applications is downright rejection if you ask me (especially the GPA).

The most significant factor that I think got me in is my LOR. I had one burning LOR from very influental figure in the field and the other two are less influental but are up there as well. At interview they all asked "oh we're very excited that you have worked with this [very influental] professor that said you're good bla bla bla".

So if I were you, I'll play the connection game - make sure that my LOR will be shining and from someone influential that knows you, maybe the dean, or professor that you've worked with and make sure that they WILL give good LOR. Ask them directly, "Hi, (-insert explanation that you're going to go to grad school-). Anyway, are you able to give a GOOD letter of recommendation for me?". Just this alone will get you far!

Secondly, SOP is also very important. Make sure SoP very clearly, directly and indirectly shows you have the skill to go to grad school (you worked before/publish paper/experiences you had from there, but don't get too technical, i.e. "I made mutant protein with this certain primer with sequence AGCGC bla bla"- nobody cares about this) and the reason why (you want to teach, or want to find solution for XX problem). These advices were told by said prof. My SoP was reviewed by said professor, 2 postdocs, 2 grad student, and this also significantly improves my chance.

If my horrid stats can get me into top 15-20 with those LORs and experiences, I'm sure you can get into top 10. XD