summer before my senior year - what should I be doing right now? (to apply for PhD in BME)

[violinist21]

Hello all,

I will be a senior in Biomedical Engineering and am planning on applying to PhD programs for Biomedical Engineering.

I have a GPA of 3.97, rank#2 in my class, with 3+ years of research experience. I have a general idea of my field of interest. I am not sure where I want to apply yet but my advisor thinks I should aim for the top 10 ranked schools (Harvard, MIT, Georgia Tech, Johns Hopkins, Washington University in St. Louis etc...)

That said I am currently freaking out that I don't even have a shot at these schools...I just took a free practice GRE from Kaplan. I wasn't able to see the total score but I saw that in general for both math and verbal sections I was only getting about 60-70% of questions right. This seems really low for the competitiveness of the top 10 programs ...

So I have a few questions:

1) Does ETS offer a timed practice exam for the GRE so I can get a more realistic idea of the difficulty of the exam? If so can anyone direct me to it? I am having trouble finding anything...

2) I know my vocabulary is not strong at all since English is not my first language, so I absolutely need studying and practice with vocab. I am currently working (slowly) with the Kaplan GRE flashcards. Anyone have any suggestions on how to retain these thousands of big words the majority of which I have never seen before?

3) Most importantly, what is the best way to spend my time right now? Should I focus on GRE alone for a few weeks and get that out of the way first or should I start working on personal statements/proposals. I feel like I am late on the application process...I haven't started writing anything...I am currently working 2 jobs, 1 full time 1 part time so I haven't had a lot of time on my hands but with these recent Kaplan results I think I may have to quit 1 job and start spending more time studying and writing...

Thank you for any feedback.

[abdefghijkl]

Howdy,

You should apply to top schools and that means spending the summer on both the GRE and your statement of intent. Your GPA is awesome, so professors looking at your application will want to see that the rest of your application package delivers the same message about you. A low GPA or badly written statement of intent is the anomaly that sets off alarm bells for admissions committees. So, this summer:

1. scrape the money together to take the GRE test prep. course from Kaplan or someone, and they'll give you a timed exam to try and also give you strategic tricks that help you figure out/guess the right answer on questions (I did this myself and it's amazing how well you can do on the exam even with limited vocabulary). Since you are in the sciences, your verbal score need not be in the top 5% (as for Humanities grads), but it needs to be in the top 15% if you expect to compete for a spot at places like MIT and get money from them to help pay for your degree.

2. persuade or hire someone to help you write your statement of intent and then show it to a couple of profs you know and trust and tell them you want their HONEST opinion of whether it is enough to really compete at the big schools you are interested in.

Summer is a great time to do these things, don't make the mistake of waiting till fall - you'll be too busy then!

[Usmivka]

I'd buy the big book of old tests from ETS, then sit down with a timer if you want practice in a timed setting. There are also two free timed tests, with adaptive response, on ETS's website. You may need to register for the test to get access to them and other materials (like a complete vocab list of everything that can show up on the test), so register plenty early. For study guides, I liked Barron's book, I thought it did a very nice job covering both material and time-saving techniques. I think test prep courses won't give you any more than this, but if you have lots of money to spend they may guilt you into studying at certain times (if you spend that much money, you might as well go to the classes...).

I think studying for 4 hours a day or so for a month will give you plenty of prep. No need to quit your job unless you are working 12 hour days. You still have months, so you can spread out the study more if needed. Don't worry about vocab you will never remember, concentrate on what you think you can learn and especially on things you thought you knew but actually have wrong--that is important for life, not just a test. If English is not your first language, you may be able to take a TOEFL and rock it, which would count more for you than the vocab section.

There are several threads here on the forum which go into great detail about the personal statement. Look around. Many people have asked exactly the same questions, and there are hundreds of good answers.

[Sigaba]

MOO, in addition to studying for the GRE and working on your SoP, I think you would benefit from putting in the time to make your "general idea of your field of interest" more specific. I also recommend doing background reading on the state of your field in terms of professional issues.

My 0.02.