international friendly programs in microbiology

[klaues]

I am an international student interested in a PhD in microbiology with emphasis on microbial ecology and/or plant microbe interactions. I have been looking all over for programs in microbiology that aren’t too immunology oriented and found some that I like in NYU, Cornell, MIT, Texas A&M and UC Berkley. I don’t know if I would be over reaching if I only apply to those schools since I know some of them don’t admit that many internationals a year, so I was wondering if any of you know of other programs that I could apply to that don’t make so much of a distinction between internationals and citizens (like for instance Rockefeller, only problem is I don’t like any of their programs).

Here are my stats if it helps, it would be great if you could chance me for the schools I listed too:

BS in biotechnology engineering from a top Latin American school, working on my MSc at the moment in the same school (will be done by December). I’m not sure how to translate my GPA but I graduated in the top 5 of my class with honors from the BS and I am doing pretty much the same on my masters.

GRE: 630 V, 670Q, 3 AW (took it 2 years ago and will be retaking it next month)

Toefl iBT: 110

3 years of research in microbiology related projects (1 as an undergrad and 2 while doing my masters, no publications yet but I expects to have something by January next year)

Expecting great LORs and working on my SoP.

Thanks a lot to anyone who bother to read such a long post and I hope someone can help me.