PhD program and low GRE but experience

[xandergonzalez]

Hi guys,

What do you think about my profile?

I have this:

GRE:

math:640

verbal:320

GPA:3.63

International student

publications: 3 (one as a first author, Veterinary Parasitology, Genome Research and Science)

experience: 3 years as a Research Assistant at TSRI

further education: MS with honors in Microbiology,

Drug discovery certificate at UCSD (grades A's)

Graduate courses at TRSI (grades: A's)

4 years in a row rejected by many universities (Life sciences programs) even the ones that are not even ranked.

Could you give me any advice on how to proceed this year? I will not take the GRE revised, other than GRE suggestion is very welcome, someone with better luck and similar scores?

Thanks

[jblsmith]

Your transcripts and CV are strong and you said you didn't want the obvious "retake the GRE" suggestion so I have to ask: how are your SoP and LoRs? You're not a native English speaker so I would definitely suggest going through multiple revisions of your SoP (and CV) with someone who is fluent. Who is writing your LoRs? How well do you know them? Are they well known in their field? If you feel that this is a source of weakness in your application I would suggest working on building relationships with possible referees.

[eklavya]

i get that you don't want to retake the gre but hear me out: one of my friends (engineering student) had excellent credentials - gpa, research experience, couple of papers out, sop and such. but his gre was not that great. he still managed to score 700+ on the quant, but that wasn't enough and he didn't get into any school. not saying that you will go through the same thing, but it is wise to cover all your bases before the game starts.

if you absolutely don't want to take gre, start emailing professors at schools whose research area interests you. if they like what you've accomplished so far and what goodies you will bring to their table, they will very likely initiate 2nd round of conversation with you. also see if your current advisor has connections where you want to go. i've seen some people with average credentials get into pretty good grad schools via this route.

[BassAZ]

So obviously the verbal section of the GRE is a little low. The quant could be better. That's the last I'll say about that.

When you apply to these schools, are you emphasizing individuals that align with your interests? More and more fit and experience seem to be dictating where people are accepted - many people will look at your CV and say "well, they're a great applicant but no one at this school does RNAi in hummingbirds" or whatever it is you're interested in. By identifying what you're interested in and who you would be interested in working with, you're showing you've done your homework and THAT particular school is your best-fit.

As Jbl said, your Letters of Recs should be glowing about how any researcher needs 4 students just like you working in their lab. If they aren't that glowing, the administration might red-flag you even with published papers and good grades.

Lastly, is your background what you're interested in researching at school? I ran into a possible problem in that my background and papers have all been in cancer research but I came to school to look at microbiology in the vascular system, which is slightly different. It shouldn't be a problem in general, but I haven't a clue if that could've been another reason some schools didn't invite me to matriculate.

[emmm]

The competition is incredible, and it's even worse for international students. I would be afraid that your scores are eliminating you before anyone even reads your application.

[xandergonzalez]

thanks guys for all your comments, I should say that I am a permanent resident now. I will retake the GRE ( I really hate this) and now I am trying to get LoRs form my previous employers, not from Postdocs as I did before. My Sop will be reviewed by my current boss since he was a graduate student at TSRI before. Thanks again for all your recommendations!