Help! Former bad student needs help getting into a medical research school.

[ramennoodlescats]

I will start my question with a little background about myself so you have an idea of where I am coming from.

I graduated with a BA in Biology back in 2011 with a GPA of 3.0.

I am currently finishing up my Biology MS (will be done in December ’13) with a GPA of 3.87. I will be publishing my thesis results soon thereafter.

I have taken the GRE twice and have done very poorly in the past. The first time I did not study, but the second time I studied for three months and still did poor.

 

I have been working full time at a clinical research outsourcing company since July, which has made me interested in doing medical research. Normal applicants have known for a large portion of their lives that this is what they wanted to do, and have therefore prepared. I have not, but maybe you guys could help me out.

 

What should I do to prepare myself? Should I retake some of my trouble classes from my undergrad or just explain my poor grades in my personal statement? I will obviously need to retake the GRE, but should I study for six months instead of three? Does anyone know of a good GRE study schedule? Will publications help me get into a school like KU Medical Center?

 

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

[tspier2]

I will start my question with a little background about myself so you have an idea of where I am coming from.

I graduated with a BA in Biology back in 2011 with a GPA of 3.0.

I am currently finishing up my Biology MS (will be done in December ’13) with a GPA of 3.87. I will be publishing my thesis results soon thereafter.

I have taken the GRE twice and have done very poorly in the past. The first time I did not study, but the second time I studied for three months and still did poor.

 

I have been working full time at a clinical research outsourcing company since July, which has made me interested in doing medical research. Normal applicants have known for a large portion of their lives that this is what they wanted to do, and have therefore prepared. I have not, but maybe you guys could help me out.

 

What should I do to prepare myself? Should I retake some of my trouble classes from my undergrad or just explain my poor grades in my personal statement? I will obviously need to retake the GRE, but should I study for six months instead of three? Does anyone know of a good GRE study schedule? Will publications help me get into a school like KU Medical Center?

 

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

Unfortunately, I don't personally know much about the hard sciences. But it would help if you let us know what your GRE scores were for both instances. It might be worthwhile to make a note of the poor grades, but don't spend an exorbitant amount of time discussing it; you don't want to give them a reason to reject you.