Admissions chances and other programs to consider

[aspal24]

I'm applying this year to biology/biomedical doctorate programs, I've worked as a research tech in a cancer biology lab for the past 2 years.  My undergraduate degree was in Biology with a molecular biology concentration, overall GPA 3.24, 3.31 in upper division science courses. I have 3 years of undergraduate research experience, along with summer research internships at Mayo and Vanderbilt. GRE: 165 V, 153 Q, 5.0A 

So far I've applied to the following programs:

Mayo
Vanderbilt IGP
Baylor
Case Western BSTP
U. Kentucky Biology
Louisville
Marshall University BMS
West Virginia
Penn State
Virginia Tech

Do I have a decent shot of getting an interview/admission to those programs?  What other schools do you recommend, considering my GPA?  

 

[brainsandeggs]

To give you some hope, my undergraduate GPA was 2.46 from an ivy. So...yeah. Personal stuff on so on. I graduated about 5 years ago, and in that time i've been doing full time research, worked my way up to director of neurohist research at an ivy lab, writing grants etc. I also went to get a Master's and have a steady 4.0. You can see how my apps are going in my signature, but things are going really well - I think with your GPA and research experience you will be just fine at these schools, especially if you carefully wrote your SOP and got good letters. 

The most important thing to keep in mind is that you are applying for a job - bidding for a contract, and the critical things any employer needs to see in a candidate employee is experience. If you were looking to hire someone for a 5-year job contract, what would be the thing you would want to see the most in those people? Given that many Ph.Ds these days apply from undergrad, and may not have much experience doing the type of research you would need to execute at the graduate level, many programs must use stats as a predictor of their performance and potential success in graduate school - but if you can demonstrate solid experience and have strong corroboration in the form of LORs, publications etc., you will be O.K. Knowing that relevant job experience is the most important factor, the best thing YOU can do is make sure that you've done due diligence in finding programs with faculty that match up with your skills and experience PERFECTLY. One thing I did that helped alot I think was instead of looking at prospective POIs publications to help find good matches, I looked at their funding applications -- that is, I searched what they were trying to get money to study in the upcoming year, which is more reflective of their future interests. If you can find faculty that have grants in that will require your certain skills, then you are golden. Google them, find their ted talks, their pod cast interviews, see what THEY think is the most important aspect of their work and where its going in the future, and emphasize how good you are at THAT - how convenient for them, here you are on a silver platter! This is the most time consuming part of the application process, and cannot be understated. 

For myself, I really shot for the moon with my applications. I had the luxury of one safety school that I knew I could get into due to PI connections, and then was able to use the rest of my slots to aim pretty high. Your list of schools looks very smart and well put together, but you never know - throw in some of the big ones if you can. 

Good luck!

 

[onceinalifetime]

I think your aim is right on target for you stats. If anything, throw in a couple higher tier schools, cus from what you listed it seems like all of those are right on par with what you're bringing to the table, so a stretch school or two could be a good idea. I'm not talking top 10, but like a couple top 50's. Your biggest asset is your massive research exp! Damn. For me, research is easily my weakness