Is This School List Way Too Ambitious?

[longdaysahead]

Posted Today, 06:41 AM

Hello,

I was wondering if you could take a look at my profile and tell me what you think

B.S Chemistry         AA Mathematics          AA Persian-Farsi             AA Intelligence operations

308 gre (150V 158Q)

3.91/4.0 CGPA

2 years research experience in physical chemistry at UCSD

        -Putting together a paper right now.

3 month internship at a National Laboratory in the US.

        - Submitted paper for publication

1 Poster-board presentation

1 Seminar

3 strong LOR from coauthors and teachers I've worked for.

Been a tutor for 5 years in all sciences.

6 years military service linguist/military intelligence

 

I'm looking for a PhD program in theoretical chemistry:

 

1)UCLA

2)USC

3)UC Davis

4)Stanford

5)UCI

6)University of Washington

7) University of Oregon

8) University of Arizona

9) Northwestern

10) Berkeley

 

Do I even have a chance at any of these schools or should I aim for lower schools? Thank you very much for your help!!

 

 

• 
•  
• 
•  
• 0

• Quote
• MultiQuote
•  
•  

[Cookie]

What topics in theoretical chemistry are you applying for? Some theo. profs have plenty of fundings, when others have very little (and wont take new students). It is something to think about when you apply to these programs. PM if you have specific q's.

Edited November 25, 2014 by Cookie

[MONKEYMAN]

Stanford, Northwestern, and Berk are hard to get into. Your math is good but you might want to mention your strength in mathematics, if you have more ways of showing it and if there's a section in the application for it. Otherwise, I'd say you're a strong candidate for most of those programs.

[ChemSet]

My suggestion would be to not worry so much about the cookie-cutter numbers. You don't have any glaring holes, at all. You have a great GPA, tons of research, and solid LoR's, which I'm pretty sure is the consensus trifecta around here. I would think if you just put enough thought into conveying who you are both in chemistry and in the rest of your life, you would be an incredibly appealing applicant. I mean, Military Linguist/Intelligence? To me, that brings to mind that you're incredibly bright, focused, dependable. I think something we all fall victim to with these apps sometimes is being so particularly concerned with selling the things we've already done - which in the end don't contribute to your grad school at all - and forgetting that (I would hope) these schools are looking for those who haven't only lived up to some impressive potential, but still have a great deal of potential left to fulfill once they get to their program. I'd say your profile embodies a lot of potential and you should apply anywhere you want. At the end of the day there's only so many ways to differentiate between a dozen applicants with similar GPA/GRE/X Years research, and it'll really just be up to a couple individuals at a school liking who you are on top of that. Best of luck!