U.C. Berkeley Plant and Microbial Biology

[auxin6911]

Hi I just had some questions about the program (plant bio specifically) at U.C. Berkeley. I am interested in the PhD program for obvious reasons and even more interested in a certain professor's research there. I wish to attend in fall 2013, so I am applying to grad school this fall. I attend a large, well respected public university. I have a 3.5 GPA with scores of 155 on both sections of the GRE and a GRE writing score of 5. (I know the scores are low for Berkeley, but I'm taking it again before I apply!) I started working in a research lab in the middle of my junior year, and have been working there ever since (so for about 18 months now) and I am continuing my work in the lab during my year off. I have already talked to the professor there on the phone who said that he will have an opening and an available PhD project in his lab during the second year I would be enrolled there (due to lab rotations during the first year).

I was wondering if anyone had any insight into my chances of getting in and more importantly any idea of what the program is like. Thanks!

[auxin6911]

Well it seems that no one knows much about this specific program at Berkeley, but maybe someone can give me some insight into their admissions process. I've heard that the more difficult universities will cut down their applicant pool simply by cutting off everyone who has GRE scores below a certain percentile. Especially in the sciences, I have heard of schools cutting down their applicant pool just by looking at your GRE quant score percentile.

That being said, do you think admissions committees for smaller programs like plant bio (which may have 100-150 applicants tops) cut down their applicant pool by this method? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

[virion]

I think you're right that few people will be familiar with the program specifically (I'm not familiar with the field and their typical admissions process).

I would speculate that this kind of bulk screening would not be necessary for a program receiving fewer applications. I doubt the big programs do it because they're 'super elite'. It's more likely that they simply can't look at every application in detail.

[auxin6911]

Thank you. That is what I was thinking too. There are just descriptions on some grad program's websites which say things like, "our successful applicants consistently have above the 70% percentile in every category of the GRE." I know that experience trumps GRE scores almost every time, but that little mention of the consistently high GRE scores scares me a bit.