Am I aiming too high?

[AjjA]

Hi everyone, 

 

I'm applying to Molecular Medicine PhD programs. My credentials : ( MD from foreign school, graduated with excellent and honor, my name is on two publications, a third was just submitted, my impact factor is 7, three years of lab experience at two different labs, both at top schools, US citizen, two very good LOR ). 

Now the bad news, not very well prepared for GRE, which I'm taking it in a couple of weeks, I'm not expecting good scores. Although I graduated with the level of excellence and honor which is the way my school grades, when it comes to the US GPA, it looks like I'm falling into 3.1 ( My cumulative percentage is 87%)

I was aiming high until this evening, my boss started to upload his recommendation and for some reason sent me an email suggesting a mid-tier school (ranked in 50s in life science grad-school.usnews) saying it's good and practical for me. 

As I feel very upset by his suggestion, I'm worried that I'm aiming too high ( applying for 12 programs, 11 of them are top 20 ). 

 

Edited November 4, 2015 by AjjA

[MonstersU-Terp]

You're not aiming too higher but you absolutely need to have some "safe" schools that you would enjoy and be a good fit for. 

[Knitster]

No need to be upset over school rankings bud. Especially for a PhD, selecting the mentor (and committee members) that you want receive training from is very important. 

Best of luck!