What are my chances for PhD application in Chemistry?

[hollyhockvn]

I'm an international student and I'm applying for PhD in Chemistry . Some schools I'm looking for are USC, Rice, Cornell, WashU and one or two more. I have taken GRE gen twice, the first with V147, Q164, W3.0. I want to raise the verbal a little bit more so I took it again recently, but something oods... The new score V143, Q170, waiting for W. I also took GRE subject but it is only 720, so I decide not sending this score. I'm so sad because I haven't taken them seriously and did not practice them much (just practice for 5 days).

However, I got overall GPA 3.78 with 3.86 in major (OU), and have a published abstract and a paper submitted (is revising) as a second author.

Do I have any chance to get into any of above school? Should I take GRE again?.

Thank you.

[theoretician]

From what everyone else on here says and I agree (eventhough I asked people to rate my chances as well), it is almost impossible to give chances on an application process that is such a crapshoot in many regards. The GRE scores aren't that important at all, as long as they meet the minimum requirements for these schools. The most important parts are probably LOR and research experience, so you would have to give some information on these as well as research fit with the schools you're applying to before anyone could really give you their opinion of how competitive your application is.

Hope this helps somewhat.

[hollyhockvn]

Thank you for your reply.

I did some research about biomass conversion using heterogeneous catalysis, and want to continue to work on some thing related to renewable energy, sustaniable system, biomass conversion or catalysis. One main research for grad student in Cornell is sustaniable energy (with geothermal, biomass conversion, etc). For USC and Rice, I would apply for hydrocarbon or heterogeneous catalysis for biomass conversion. One LOR is from my research adviser and two from my professors in which I'm in top 10% of their class, and I'm just sure one of these profs will give me a very strong LOR. I'm also minor in Math and second major in Geology.

I'm an international student graduating from a public university in the US.

As I saw on the web of USC, it requires GRE of 1000 (old scale?) and I don't know how much it would be in new scale.

Could these increase my chances any more?

Edited December 16, 2012 by hollyhockvn

[synorg]

it would be a good idea for you to have a friend who is a native english speaker to proofread your essays. the things you mentioned should make you competitive but it's not an exact science so the only way to know is to apply and find out.