How does my profile look for PhD Admissions in Chemistry

[process chemist]

Here is my profile

Undergrad GPA: 3.20

GRE: Taking it in three weeks, will update later

Research Experience: 7 years (3 in Undergrad, 4 in Industry)

Research in: Organic synthesis of RTM processable resins, Analytical Chemistry, Physical Chemistry (Academic). Process Analytical Chemistry (Industrial).

Pubs: None, but I have eight (8) technical reports from my job (5 first authors).

Posters: 2 (1 @ NSF Conference, another at Global symposium for my company)

Interest: Bioorganic Chemistry. Specifically, drug delivery targets for cancer and neurodegenative diseases, structure based drug design for more effective cancer therapies.

LORs: Strong from supervisors and co-workers

Schools (All Chemistry unless indicated otherwise):

1) Michigan State

2) Stony Brook

3) UMass Amherst

4) Syracuse

5) Northeastern

6) Tufts

7) UMICH PIBS - Pharmacology/Biochemistry

8) Stony Brook - Pharmacology

9) Wayne State - Cancer Biology

10) Wayne State - Pharmacology

11) Northeastern - Pharmecutical Sciences/Drug Discovery and Delivery

Will my industry experience overcome my low GPA? I went straight from college to industry working for a leader in consumer goods. I sent in a preliminary application to Syracuse last year and they seemed interested, but I decided against applying. I am applying this year, but I don't expect to kill the GRE. At best I am hoping for a 1200 (700Q/500+V). Am I reaching in these choices?

[Eigen]

I would say you'd be a fine candidate at most schools with that profile. You just need to package your application to show off your skills. You meet most minimum requirements with your GPA and expected GRE score, so you need to then put forward your research experience as the main reason they want to take you on.

The area is competitive, but I know we'd much prefer additional research experience than grades when we're taking in new students (I'm in a bioorganic cancer research group working on drug delivery, so very much the same area).

Edited June 30, 2011 by Eigen

[Amirhossein B]

I am an international applicant, applying for PhD in Organic/Bio-organic Chem. My stats:

B.Sc. in Chemistry

GPA: 18.5 /20.0 (on the 4.00 scale: 3.96) -- ranked 1st among my class

GRE Chemistry: 920 (98th percentile rank)

GRE General: Verbal 157(=560), Quantitative 166(=800), A/W: 4.0

TOEFL iBT: 107 /120

Strong LORs

No Papers

How do you think about possible grad schools for me? I am thinking about UCLA, GTech, MIT, and UC Irvine.

[Eigen]

The main thing you don't mention is how much research experience you have- and that's really important.

[Amirhossein B]

I am currently doing a research as my senior project course. my supervisor is mentioning that in his LOR but there have been no papars yet!

The main thing you don't mention is how much research experience you have- and that's really important.

[Eigen]

But will you have 6 mos of experience in a Chen research lab? 4 years?

Can you walk into a lab in graduate school and run a project in your area of interest? How fluent are you in common techniques and instrumentation? Those are the kind of things that an adcom will want to know, and it's hard to rank competitiveness without them.

[Amirhossein B]

my undergrad project began September 2011 and will last until around May 2012. Since there have been no publications yet, the only thing that can reflect this component of my resume is the LOR from the professor who I am working with!

But will you have 6 mos of experience in a Chen research lab? 4 years?

Can you walk into a lab in graduate school and run a project in your area of interest? How fluent are you in common techniques and instrumentation? Those are the kind of things that an adcom will want to know, and it's hard to rank competitiveness without them.

[Eigen]

It's not about publications- those are reasonably rare as an undergrad. It's about how well you can talk about your research and what skills you can lay claim to.