Reach and safety?

[8081123]

Hi all,

I'm graduating this year and am thinking about applying next year.

Here's my stats:

 

Undergrad Institution: Top 25 big state school
Major(s): Biochemistry
Minor(s): Computer Science
GPA in Major: 4.0
Overall GPA: 4.0
Position in Class: uh.... top 2% I assume?
Type of Student: International
GRE Scores (revised/old version): Studying for it now!

Research Experience: 

one plant bio lab for 2 years,

one for a summer 

and another lab for 2 years.

1 second author publication and presented in 2 undergraduate national conference

Awards/Honors/Recognitions:

summa cum laude,phi beta kappa, provost honor and was in one of the summer scholar program

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: 

TA for more than a year,

writer for school science journal for 2 years

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help:meh

Special Bonus Points: PI of both labs I worked in are super big in their field, and I'll get awesome recs from them based on my work there.

 

I'm trying to sort out a list of school to apply but I'm having a hard time to see which one is safety and which one is reach. and I was wondering you guys can help me out a bit on this. Thanks!
 

[ilovelab]

What do you want to study??

[8081123]

Lol sorry I can't believe I forgot to put that down. Probably biochemistry

[eeee1923]

You could look at computational biochem/bioinformatics programs since someone with your background would be looked at quite positively.

[ilovelab]

Lol sorry I can't believe I forgot to put that down. Probably biochemistry

That's pretty broad. Can you narrow it down anymore. If its just Biochem, every major university will have a great Biochem program (for the most part). Figuring out what is a reach and what is a safety (if that even exists for grad programs) depends on what specifically you want to study in biochem. That's how you going to find the right programs.

[person5811]

Hi all,

I'm graduating this year and am thinking about applying next year.

Here's my stats:

 

Undergrad Institution: Top 25 big state school

Major(s): Biochemistry

Minor(s): Computer Science

GPA in Major: 4.0

Overall GPA: 4.0

Position in Class: uh.... top 2% I assume?

Type of Student: International

GRE Scores (revised/old version): Studying for it now!

Research Experience: 

one plant bio lab for 2 years,

one for a summer 

and another lab for 2 years.

1 second author publication and presented in 2 undergraduate national conference

Awards/Honors/Recognitions:

summa cum laude,phi beta kappa, provost honor and was in one of the summer scholar program

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: 

TA for more than a year,

writer for school science journal for 2 years

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help:meh

Special Bonus Points: PI of both labs I worked in are super big in their field, and I'll get awesome recs from them based on my work there.

 

I'm trying to sort out a list of school to apply but I'm having a hard time to see which one is safety and which one is reach. and I was wondering you guys can help me out a bit on this. Thanks!

 

If you have a great 3rd letter then I think you're going to be in a great place. If I were you, I would apply to the most competitive schools that match your research interests. Since you're an international student, I would apply to private academic institutions because they don't depend on NIH funding (as much) to fund their grad students and that makes it easier for them to accept international students (they have private money for them). For example, compare MIT Bio's incoming class vs. UC Berkeley MCB. Usually around 1/3 of MIT Bio students are international while UC Berkeley only takes 2-3 students (out of idk 30?) per year. This is based on anecdotal information from people I know in both programs, and people that have applied to both programs, so I think it's fairly accurate. Also, I think if you apply to molecular biology programs rather than biochemistry (which I know is not the same, but perhaps in line with what you'd like to study) your chances could be even better. Compare Stanford's Biochemistry Home Area vs. their Biology Home Area. Biochemistry has a total of 38 students while Biology has 164. It is very reasonable to conclude from those numbers that they take in more students in Biology than Biochemistry. I also know very qualified people who applied to Biochemistry and Biology, and the Biochemistry person got rejected (while she was admitted to 10 other top schools) while the person that applied to Biology got accepted (while he was only admitted to half of the schools he applied to). Alright, that's my advice, good luck.