Chances for Top 10 BioE/ChE

[beserkerolaf]

Hey everyone, just wanna gauge how I look for the schools I'm applying to based on my stats. Please give me your thoughts and I'll update as I get further acceptances. 

Undergrad Institution: SUNY University at Buffalo

Major(s): Chemical Engineering
Minor(s): Biotechnology
GPA in Major: 3.921
Overall GPA: 3.907

Length of Degree: 4
Position in Class: Probably top 10%.
Type of Student: White male, second-generation college.

GRE Scores:
Q: 160 (84%)
V: 158 (71%)
W: 4.5 (80%)


Research Experience: 

• 4 school years plus 1 summer in protein engineering at home institution, 2 publications (1 first author and 1 second author) with a 3rd in preparation, 3 poster presentations at home institution and 1 at AIChE Regional Conference.
• 1 biophysics/structural biology research experience at Rutgers University during summer of 2012.
• 1 NSF REU at Pittsburgh in computational systems biology in summer, presented poster at 2014 AIChE National Conference in Atlanta

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: 

• Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship (won as a sophomore)
• AIChE Donald F. and Mildred Topp Othmer Scholarship
• Departmental Academic Excellence Award
• 3 University Merit Scholarships (won in freshman, sophomore, and junior year)
• Applied to NSF GRFP for next fall.
• University Honors College Scholar

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: 

• Undergraduate Student Instructor/TA position for freshman engineering classes - 3 years
• University STEM Outreach Volunteer in local inner city schools - 2 years
• Executive board position in school's AIChE chapter since freshman year, developed outreach program for the chapter

 

LOR: Current advisor & PI / NSF REU PI / Outreach Program Founder/Coordinator

Applying for PhD at:

Stanford (Bioengineering)

UT Austin (Chemical Engineering) - Accepted

MIT (Bioengineering)

MIT (Chemical Engineering)

UCLA (Bioengineering)

Johns Hopkins (Chemical Engineering)

UC Berkeley - UC SF (Bioengineering)

Caltech (Bioengineering)

 

I know my GRE is weakest part of my app, but I'm hoping my scholarships and research experience makes up for it. Please give me your thoughts on how I look for these schools. Thanks and good luck everyone!

 

[Argon]

You'll find out soon enough, I suppose. I don't have much to say, but I hope you have a good chance because we have very similar stats and backgrounds  I, too, hope that the GRE doesn't weigh me (and you) down. It's very frustrating that such a meaningless examination could carry such weight...

 

Best of luck!

Edited January 14, 2015 by argon214

[beserkerolaf]

SAT was never my strong suit either, I had to take 10 practice exams to get above a 700 on the math. I can do math well......just not quick. Didn't have the same amount of time to commit to GRE that I did SAT unfortunately. Good luck to you too man!

[madbiochemist]

Hey cmdundas! We have similar stats as well and applied to several of the same schools. I thought my application was pretty solid too (Goldwater HM, 3 pubs, an REU, and international research), but my quant GRE is my big concern (159). I haven't heard a word yet, so I'm not really sure. Most of the professors I talked to said that they never look at test scores or GPA, but the committees might screen the applications before the faculty get to see them.

I think your chances are pretty good of getting in to a few more, as long as they don't do a quantitative GRE cutoff. Best of luck!