2015 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

[lilbert5]

got into UPenn CAMB and Hopkins pharmacology!! At this point the novelty and excitement of getting accepted has pretty much worn off. 

 

I'm 99% sure that I'll end up going to Mount Sinai. Anyone else think they're gonna attend Sinai?

[person5811]

I was accepted at MIT Biology today! I have been to NYU, Berkely, UCSF, Harvard and I have to say there is no place like MIT. I am 100% sure I'm going, and I'm 100% sure this is the right decision. I am so happy I finally found the place I will call home for the next 5-7 years

[Le prospective grad]

Got accepted to UCLA molecular biology IDP, UCSD BMD, Northwestern IBis, and University of Michigan PIBS, all in one week! It's been quite a journey!

[signalmytransduction]

Undergrad Institution: Good state school
Major(s): Cell and Molecular Biology
Minor(s):
GPA in Major:3.15
Overall GPA: 3.065
Position in Class: 
Type of Student: Domestic female 

GRE Scores (revised/old version):
Q: 155
V: 155
W: 4.5
B:


TOEFL Total: (if applicable, otherwise delete this)

Research Experience: Microbiology 1 year, Biochemistry lab with cell culture 1 month

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Dean's list- 2 semesters

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: TA for upper level biology course

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: Editor of an on-campus science journal

Special Bonus Points: 

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: interested in signal transduction and kinases

Applying to Where: 

Drexel

Rutgers- rejected

U Mass Amherst

U Mass Med- rejected

Rockefeller- rejected

Stony Brook

Carnegie Mellon

Einstein

Princeton

 

Do you guys think I have a shot at any of the schools I wasn't rejected at yet?  If not, what should I do to improve?

 

Thanks!
 

Edited February 13, 2015 by signalmytransduction

[poweredbycoldfusion]

I was accepted at MIT Biology today! I have been to NYU, Berkely, UCSF, Harvard and I have to say there is no place like MIT. I am 100% sure I'm going, and I'm 100% sure this is the right decision. I am so happy I finally found the place I will call home for the next 5-7 years

Boston and Cambridge are both pretty nice places. The people I know who've gone to MIT feel the same way you do about it.

Edited February 13, 2015 by poweredbycoldfusion

[kimmibeans]

 

Applying to Where: 

Drexel

Rutgers- rejected

U Mass Amherst

U Mass Med- rejected

Rockefeller- rejected

Stony Brook

Carnegie Mellon

Einstein

Princeton

 

Do you guys think I have a shot at any of the schools I wasn't rejected at yet?  If not, what should I do to improve?

 

Thanks!

 

 

 

Hi signalmytransduction,

 

I know this isn't want you want to hear, but I don't know if you'll be able to get into a PhD program with your current stats. Your GRE scores are okay and your GPA isn't very competitive. You have some research experience, which is good and definitely helps, but I'm not sure if it will be enough. Definitely take a couple of years off and get some research experience or a thesis-based Master's. You need to show that you can handle the work load that comes with research, and it doesn't look like that right now. People with your stats have gotten in before, but it isn't all that common. However, with a little bit of work, you will be able to rock the application process! 

Edited February 13, 2015 by kimmibeans

[nutellarain]

Got accepted to UCLA molecular biology IDP, UCSD BMD, Northwestern IBis, and University of Michigan PIBS, all in one week! It's been quite a journey!

 

That's awesome, congrats! You leaning towards any particular school?

 

Random question, how long did your shuttle take to go from LAX to UCLA? I'm trying to figure out if I can make the dinner..

[signalmytransduction]

Hi signalmytransduction,

I know this isn't want you want to hear, but I don't know if you'll be able to get into a PhD program with your current stats. Your GRE scores are okay and your GPA isn't very competitive. You have some research experience, which is good and definitely helps, but I'm not sure if it will be enough. Definitely take a couple of years off and get some research experience or a thesis-based Master's. You need to show that you can handle the work load that comes with research, and it doesn't look like that right now. People with your stats have gotten in before, but it isn't all that common. However, with a little bit of work, you will be able to rock the application process!

I was afraid of that. I had a rough start to college which is still hurting me with my gpa. I love what I do and I hope to eventually go to grad school. Do you think I would be better off going for a masters or working in an academic lab as a tech? Thank you for your honesty and response.

[poweredbycoldfusion]

I was afraid of that. I had a rough start to college which is still hurting me with my gpa. I love what I do and I hope to eventually go to grad school. Do you think I would be better off going for a masters or working in an academic lab as a tech? Thank you for your honesty and response.

Even if you gain more experience, your GPA is still going to hurt you. I picked experience over Master's and paid the price for that a bit. The list of schools you applied to shouldn't be unmanagable with your GPA, though (except Princeton). As a lower GPA applicant, the struggle is real but that doesn't mean you can't get interviews/acceptances. You should probably retake the GRE, too, which won't minimized your GPA but it'll make it look more of a fluke in an otherwise strong application.

[future.grad.student]

I was afraid of that. I had a rough start to college which is still hurting me with my gpa. I love what I do and I hope to eventually go to grad school. Do you think I would be better off going for a masters or working in an academic lab as a tech? Thank you for your honesty and response.

 

If you go for a Master's you can just make sure your GPA is really good. From what I've seen on this board a good Master's GPA trumps an average undergraduate GPA. 

[ilovelab]

That's awesome, congrats! You leaning towards any particular school?

 

Random question, how long did your shuttle take to go from LAX to UCLA? I'm trying to figure out if I can make the dinner..

 I did my undergrad at UCLA so I know the horrors of FLYAWAY. It depends on the time of day. It can take as long as 20-90 minutes depending on how backed up the 405 is. Estimate it to take 45 minutes. If you are arriving in the afternoon than its probably closer to 45-60 minutes. If there's an accident on the 405... send a prayer to baby jesus, b/c you will be there a while.

[ss2player]

I was afraid of that. I had a rough start to college which is still hurting me with my gpa. I love what I do and I hope to eventually go to grad school. Do you think I would be better off going for a masters or working in an academic lab as a tech? Thank you for your honesty and response.

 

You can also do what I did: work as a tech and use benefits to take free/cheap graduate classes. Worked for me!

[bsharpe269]

I was afraid of that. I had a rough start to college which is still hurting me with my gpa. I love what I do and I hope to eventually go to grad school. Do you think I would be better off going for a masters or working in an academic lab as a tech? Thank you for your honesty and response.

 

 

If you take a couple years to improve your application then you can do really well in the application process. My uGPA is 3.27 and scinece uGPA is 3.0. I am doing a MS and applied to PhD programs half way through the program (so after only 1 year of grades). My MS GPA is 4.0 and I studied hard for the GRE and ended up with 168Q, 162V. I have tons of research at this point which resulted in very strong LORs. My research experience includes about 5 years total between undergrad and MS and 1 middle author paper, 1 first author in prep, and a few conference presentations.

 

You can see how my application season is going in my signature but to summarize, its fantastic. I have interviews at schools like WashU, Univ of Washingotn, and even Hopkins. I am saying all of this to show that if you can put together a stellar applicaiton then your uGPA need not hold you back at all. Since you are only at 1 year of research experience right now, my advice is to get into a lab full time and kick butt. I second the advice to go this route and take a class each semester (and get As in them!) to show you can handle the material. This route would be cheaper than an MS and probably just as effective. If you prefer the MS option though then I think that will also give you experience you need. I would also put effort into getting your GRE scores high enough to prove that the your GPA isnt reflective of your intelligence.

 

Good luck... if youre willing to put some work into improving your application then you can shoot for schools even more competetive then the ones you applied to this round. If you have any questions then please feel free to ask because my application looked very similar to your a couple years ago.

[nutellarain]

 I did my undergrad at UCLA so I know the horrors of FLYAWAY. It depends on the time of day. It can take as long as 20-90 minutes depending on how backed up the 405 is. Estimate it to take 45 minutes. If you are arriving in the afternoon than its probably closer to 45-60 minutes. If there's an accident on the 405... send a prayer to baby jesus, b/c you will be there a while.

Sweet babyjesus of LA traffic. Thanks, I might just be able to make it. We like to complain about traffic in the bay, but I know it is nothing compared to socal! 

[mikef522]

I was afraid of that. I had a rough start to college which is still hurting me with my gpa. I love what I do and I hope to eventually go to grad school. Do you think I would be better off going for a masters or working in an academic lab as a tech? Thank you for your honesty and response.

 

My GPA closed a lot of great doors for me during my undergrad right at the very start, so I can relate when you say it's "still hurting me". It's a shitty feeling, if not downright depressing. The good news though is that, for a PhD program, grades mean next to nothing if you can demonstrate your outstanding research abilities in other ways.

 

For future applications, if your GPA was great after your rough start (which was hopefully not very long; perhaps ideally only a semester), you could try to emphasize your GPA when calculated to not include the rough start. My overall GPA is 3.072 and I was recently accepted to UPenn, with upcoming interviews to UCSD and Stanford.  I completely failed my first semester of undergrad due to a severe illness. My GPA without my first semester was 3.51 and I explicitly stated this in my application. I did have a lot more than 1 year of research experience though, which from what I've heard is FAR more important than grades. I spent 3 years working in an iGEM lab (I worked a good amount throughout classes as well) and 2 years in an unrelated lab (2 years of which I worked in the two labs simultaneously). Throughout this work, I gave presentations, co-authored 2 papers, and I earned 3 stellar letters of recommendation. I also submitted 1 extra letter that talked about my classroom abilities (probably not stellar, but good).

 

In my Stanford application, they had extra questions asking about computer/programming and mathematics experience (which I had a lot of, especially for a biology major). I explained how these extra skills will help me in my research. They also asked what diversity I would bring to the school. As a white male, I said that I would be able to share my experience with overcoming obstacles (my illness, failing, bad GPA/closed doors) and said that my advice would help others overcome their obstacles. I think this extra information was key to getting me the invite. I didn't include this extra information in my applications to UCSF and Harvard and I was rejected from those places (the other schools are a better fit anyways though).

 

I guess my advice is to emphasize the good stuff so much that your grades become insignificant. Just make sure between now and the next time you apply (if you do), you add a lot of extra good stuff: research experience (do more than asked of you), superior grades, and whatever else is relevant to conducting research you're interested in or your career. 

 

Also, persistence counts for something! There's a professor at Harvard named George Church. He repeated 9th grade, failed out of his graduate studies at Duke, and nearly failed out of graduate school at Harvard. He became a huge biology pioneer (DNA sequencing/synthesis, human genome project, genome engineering tech[including CRISPR], founded multiple companies). A friend of mine talked to Dr. Church recently and he asked him about his experience failing. One of the things he said at the end was that he really likes the people who apply to the PhD programs a 2nd time because it shows they are determined. You're going to fail so much in science. If you can't handle failure, you'll never succeed.

 

That was more than I was planning on writing. Anyways, hope that helps signalmytransduction. Best of luck! Don't give up!

Edited February 14, 2015 by mikef522

[signalmytransduction]

My GPA closed a lot of great doors for me during my undergrad right at the very start, so I can relate when you say it's "still hurting me". It's a shitty feeling, if not downright depressing. The good news though is that, for a PhD program, grades mean next to nothing if you can demonstrate your outstanding research abilities in other ways.

 

For future applications, if your GPA was great after your rough start (which was hopefully not very long; perhaps ideally only a semester), you could try to emphasize your GPA when calculated to not include the rough start. My overall GPA is 3.072 and I was recently accepted to UPenn, with upcoming interviews to UCSD and Stanford.  I completely failed my first semester of undergrad due to a severe illness. My GPA without my first semester was 3.51 and I explicitly stated this in my application. I did have a lot more than 1 year of research experience though, which from what I've heard is FAR more important than grades. I spent 3 years working in an iGEM lab (I worked a good amount throughout classes as well) and 2 years in an unrelated lab (2 years of which I worked in the two labs simultaneously). Throughout this work, I gave presentations, co-authored 2 papers, and I earned 3 stellar letters of recommendation. I also submitted 1 extra letter that talked about my classroom abilities (probably not stellar, but good).

 

In my Stanford application, they had extra questions asking about computer/programming and mathematics experience (which I had a lot of, especially for a biology major). I explained how these extra skills will help me in my research. They also asked what diversity I would bring to the school. As a white male, I said that I would be able to share my experience with overcoming obstacles (my illness, failing, bad GPA/closed doors) and said that my advice would help others overcome their obstacles. I think this extra information was key to getting me the invite. I didn't include this extra information in my applications to UCSF and Harvard and I was rejected from those places (the other schools are a better fit anyways though).

 

I guess my advice is to emphasize the good stuff so much that your grades become insignificant. Just make sure between now and the next time you apply (if you do), you add a lot of extra good stuff: research experience (do more than asked of you), superior grades, and whatever else is relevant to conducting research you're interested in or your career. 

 

Also, persistence counts for something! There's a professor at Harvard named George Church. He repeated 9th grade, failed out of his graduate studies at Duke, and nearly failed out of graduate school at Harvard. He became a huge biology pioneer (DNA sequencing/synthesis, human genome project, genome engineering tech[including CRISPR], founded multiple companies). A friend of mine talked to Dr. Church recently and he asked him about his experience failing. One of the things he said at the end was that he really likes the people who apply to the PhD programs a 2nd time because it shows they are determined. You're going to fail so much in science. If you can't handle failure, you'll never succeed.

 

That was more than I was planning on writing. Anyways, hope that helps signalmytransduction. Best of luck! Don't give up!

Thank you for your support and kind words.  That's a great point that failure is part of science.  I am not going to give up.  Thanks to all of the help and advice I have received for everyone on this post I am going to try to get a job as a research tech in an academic lab.  Then I will apply either this upcoming Fall or the Fall after, depending on what my final uGPA is.  How much time in a research lab should I work in until reapplying?

[ballwera]

I did three years and took a couple grad level courses. I had a sub 3.0 gpa and I have 3 interviews. You really need to be realistic with where you choose to apply, that's the key imo.

[kimmibeans]

I was afraid of that. I had a rough start to college which is still hurting me with my gpa. I love what I do and I hope to eventually go to grad school. Do you think I would be better off going for a masters or working in an academic lab as a tech? Thank you for your honesty and response.

It's not a problem, I'm glad that what I said was helpful. A lot of great advice has been given to help you out. You have passion and you can definitely get into grad school with some hard work. Good luck!

[Annik]

Hi, I wonder if anybody has heard from NYU Sackler yet. I interviewed 3 weeks ago and haven't heard back.

[insaneinthemembrane]

Hi, I wonder if anybody has heard from NYU Sackler yet. I interviewed 3 weeks ago and haven't heard back.

 

I interviewed a month ago today and I've yet to hear back from them, they did say the middle of February which is now so I guess we shall find out. I think person5811got accepted but that's the only one i've seen. Nothing in the results page from them yet

[insaneinthemembrane]

To anyone who's waiting on Mount Sinai or University of Minnesota, I received acceptance offers from both on Friday afternoon so check your emails!

[ballwera]

Made my last attempt at contact with my remaining programs today. Have heard very little from them at this point, so I'm assuming rejections. 

Edited February 16, 2015 by ballwera

[ballwera]

Rejected from Illinois. 

[stygldbby]

Congrats to everyone getting acceptances! Everything about this process is so stressful. This post-interview waiting is killing me... especially since my top choice told us the adcom won't meet until late Feb/early March:(

[bhammerson]

If anyone can help me at all I'd greatly appreciate it. If you've got any solid info about interview invites being all sent out, for Duke Microbiology, UCLA Biosciences Microbiology IDP, or UT Austin, please let me know what you know,here or by PM. It seems so late in the game but I've heard nothing from any of these places.....Feeling super discouraged.