A few questions about experience and school ranking.

[Josh70]

Hey all new here and glad found this site has had a lot of good info.

I got a couple of odd questions first one is how and if I should try and use pharmacy experience. What I mean is I have been a licensed pharmacy technician for the past 4 years I have worked both retail and clinical settings. In the clinical stetting we did work with new drugs being developed and helped a bit in testing them out. So I wonder do you think my pharmacy experience is valuable to me in applying for graduate school.

My second question is I hear all the time people say they want to get into a good program. I really don't have a great understanding how people figure if something is a great program or not. A few of the schools I want to apply to aren't considered great I guess like Wyoming and Utah state university. What is the disadvantage of going to one of these "lesser" schools? Just harder to find a great job or will get paid less? In the same boat are these schools generally easier to get into?

Thanks for any help you can give me.

[singlecell]

Welcome!

The clinical pharmacy experience sounds very relevant to research in biology, so I would include it.

I don't know much about the schools you mentioned. A lot of people say "fit" is the most important thing in finding a grad program. Do you like the research being done there, do you like the people, the culture of the program, do you feel you can do what they expect of you, is the emphasis more of teaching, or research, or some mixture of both, and so on.

Do you know what subfield of biology you want to study? Letting us know might solicit more specific responses about particular schools.

[Josh70]

Ah thanks for getting back to me. I know I should be much more focused then I am right now. I am a biotechnology major at my school and getting a minor in biochemistry. I really like biochemistry and molecular biology and I also like the biotechnology side and modifying bacteria for things like bio fuels. At Utah state University I plan on applying to their toxicology program. I want to apply to lots of schools I am worried about getting in I have a crappy GPA only like 3.3 and maybe a 3.5 biology GPA. I have done much research and worried won't be able to get more in before applying and I figure I probably will do above average on GRE but nothing spectacular. Oh and as far as research or teaching goes I think I would like teaching a bit more I have done a little bit of tutor work and I really love that I hope to become a college professor one day.

[singlecell]

I also like the biotechnology side and modifying bacteria for things like bio fuels.

This is exactly what I am into

I should have asked before, but are you a junior or senior? If you are not ready to graduate yet and you have one more summer as an undergrad I highly recommend getting into a summer REU at the school you like the best at this point. I did one, and I got into that school, and I have another friend currently doing one and she is going to get in as well. It is a great way to get an "in" by showing them what you can do, so they don't look only at your statistics.

Are you going to take a subject GRE, like biochemistry? If you can rock a great score on that it should help a ton.

other tips to boost your application have been mentioned in other threads so I won't go on and on but there are ways to set yourself apart, other than GPA and GRE scores.

[Josh70]

This is exactly what I am into

I should have asked before, but are you a junior or senior? If you are not ready to graduate yet and you have one more summer as an undergrad I highly recommend getting into a summer REU at the school you like the best at this point. I did one, and I got into that school, and I have another friend currently doing one and she is going to get in as well. It is a great way to get an "in" by showing them what you can do, so they don't look only at your statistics.

Are you going to take a subject GRE, like biochemistry? If you can rock a great score on that it should help a ton.

other tips to boost your application have been mentioned in other threads so I won't go on and on but there are ways to set yourself apart, other than GPA and GRE scores.

Thanks for getting back to me sorry for such a delayed response have been on a trip for school. I am a senior this year so will be applying for schools this winter. I am pretty sure just secured another research spot with a pretty well known professor at my school so think that might help me out a bit. I am planning on taking both the biology and biochemistry subject tests I think I should do decent on both of them.

[Johndg2]

Don't worry too much about rankings, look more towards what the POI is doing. "Fit" as described above will be way more important than anything else. I have actually just started at U of Wyoming and the lab I'm in is top-notch.

[ImmunoXX]

Definitely use the pharm experience! As for fit, my understanding is that you should have a general area of interest in mind, and then make sure there are around 2-3 professors at the schools you apply to. I learned a lot of applying watching a coworker apply, interview, and get in last year. Research experience, LOR's and the SOP are the "heavyweight" components. GRE's and GPA aren't as impactful. My coworker got in to several schools without a subject test, which I didn't think would be possible. I didn't want to risk it, so I took the biology one last year and i still have scores from psychology from the year before I got my BS (I'm applying for neuroscience). Try to have a good range of schools and you should be fine!