Can an astrophysics major with 810 GRE Biology get into Environmental Science?

[InquilineKea]

My main problem is that I don't think I'll be able to make admissions deadlines until late December.

I believe that I will have some extremely strong LORs from some notable professors. My main problem is my GPA (and my ADD), but it has been okay for the last 2 years. Also, I have an extremely unusual profile (no one has ever seen an applicant like myself ever before - which could result in some pretty interesting decisions). My main strength is my sheer interdisciplinarity (which some biology programs might value) - I've taken graduate level courses in at least 5 different departments, and am a triple major in astro+physics+math.

I'm definitely applying to Caltech's program anyways, but I'm wondering if there are any other options for those with a computational bent.

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Anyways, here are my stats:

Undergrad Institution: University of Washington (top-5 in atmospheric science, where I'll be getting most of my LORs from)

Major(s): Astronomy, Physics, Math

Minor(s): Applied Math

GPA in Major: 3.77 Astronomy, mid-3's in Physics, Math is unmentionable

Overall GPA: 3.58 for last two years (as for overall - suffices to say that it's between 3.1 and 3.5)

Type of Student: Domestic Asian Male.

GRE Scores:

Biology: 810 (89th percentile), completely self-studied without taking any courses asides from a grad-lvl neurophysiology course

(still waiting on others)

Research Experience:

Several years. Two publications (although in papers with numerous coauthors where my role wasn't that significant). Latest research is exoplanetary atmosphere research

Awards/Honors/Recognitions:

- National AP Scholar (8 self-studied APs)

- Early Entrance @ University of Washington

Pertinent Activities or Jobs:

- Attended a grad-student program (CASS 2011 - http://www.ifa.hawai...UHNAI/CASS2011/) as an undergrad last summer

- Quora Reviewer (have really built up the science sections on Quora up over the last few months), and am a top answerer on Astronomy, Biology, Neuroscience, Scientific Research, and Academia

- Panelist on Reddit AskScience, Supporting member on Physics Forums, and also active on Astronomy Stack Exchange (and several others).

Special Bonus Points:

- Professors at Chicago and MIT (both famous in their fields) seem to be quite interested in me (I've already been in personal contact with them), and my research is already very similar to that of 2 Chicago profs.

- LORs might be interesting. One of my profs said that I will probably be "great" someday (although I'm not sure how common that message is)

- Grad-lvl courses in Neurophysiology, Planetary Atmospheres, Objective Analysis (aka Digital Signal Processing), High-Performance Scientific Computing, Numerical Linear Algebra, Causal Modelling (in statistics), Chinese Geography, and Ice/Climate (atmospheric science) - all with 3.4 GPA or above

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter:

- Probably the most unusual applicant anyone has ever seen in a very long time, if not their lifetime (I really don't want to brag, but the truth has to come out)

- GPA *really* tanked down by 3 0.0's I got when I was a retarded teenager and went for grad-lvl applied math courses

- I have fairly severe ADD that I only addressed with meds 2 years ago.

- I also have a very high profile on the Internet (some people find it, but many people don't find it since they forget to google my middle initial), especially on Quora

Applying to Where: (this is probably a preliminary list that needs to be expanded)

Dec. 31st: harvard EPS, princeton AOS

Jan 1: Caltech Planetary, Caltech Environmental, Caltech Biology/CNS (huge reach here)

Jan 3: Columbia Astro (may switch to EES depending on PGRE score)

Jan 5: MIT EAPS, UCSC (astro or earth science - still pending)

Jan 8: Arizona Planetary

Jan 9: Chicago Geophysical Sciences

Jan 14: Arizona Astro (probably wont apply)

Jan 15: Boston U, Colorado, UCLA ESS, Washington Atmos

Jan 20: Penn State Astro

Feb 1: Cornell Atmos

Edited November 21, 2011 by InquilineKea