needs infooooooo

[ellawaty]

i'm undergrad. student from egypt and i need more information about PHD in the US...when to apply and whens the dead line?and the requirements?????

[jayeyesee]

Applications for the biosciences (including biomedical sciences) usually open in mid-September to mid-October. Grad school applications are not like med school applications where there is a central system for handling all of the applications (AMCAS). Each individual grad school will open their applications when they decide to open it (which is usually mid-September to mid-October) and they will establish their own deadlines. Most schools usually enforce a deadline of December 1st. Some schools have deadlines as late as January 1st. It is important to remember that most schools will require that you have everything submitted BY the deadline... Meaning official GRE scores and transcripts must arrive in the school mail by the deadline. I believe there is more leniency with letters of recommendations. As for requirements, most schools do not set official GRE and GPA cutoffs. Grad school adcoms look for more than just stellar numbers such as research experience and letters of recommendation. Remember, they are looking to see if you are not only capable but ready to handle the demanding nature of graduate school and doing well in your undergraduate coursework is not necessarily the best indicator of that. However, some would argue that top programs may set unofficial cutoffs and your application may not be looked favorably if you don't meet a certain GRE/GPA. (e.g. UW MCB this year sent an e-mail saying they were looking for applicants with GPAs above 3.5 and GRE scores above the 88th percentile).

With that said, you should start looking into the programs you are interested in. Start going through school websites and their department pages. Look for faculty members you might want to work with. How many international students they accept. (Remember that it is even tougher for international students to get into US grad programs because of funding issues). Look into research areas of interest and how abundant or limited those areas are in the schools you are looking at. You want to ultimately see if the school will be a good fit. Do not be blinded by the name or prestige.

Edited May 18, 2012 by jayeyesee