2017 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

[prospectivegrad1]

Undergrad Institution: Top ranked school in Canada
Major(s): Molecular Biology
Minor(s):
GPA in Major: A bit above 3.93
Overall GPA: 3.93
Position in Class: Near top
Type of Student: International, male

GRE Scores (revised/old version):
Q: 162
V: 153
W: N/A (waiting)
B:

(verbal score is a bit worring!) 

TOEFL Total: N/A

Research Experience: (At your school or elsewhere? What field? How much time? Any publications (Mth author out of N?) or conference talks etc...)

A total of around 1.5 years of research at my undergraduate institution. Hoping to get a manuscript submitted before application deadline but no guarantee... 

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: (Within your school or outside?)

- Dean's list throughout undergrad career

-Awarded for top student in laboratory class, worth $100

-Obtained two grade-based scholarships from university, valued at $1000 each

-3 poster presentations at undergraduate research symposiums 

-2 poster presentations at two separate conferences 

-> Poster finalist at both of these conferences 

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: 

-Wrote science articles online at one point but not sure if this holds any value now

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help:

Special Bonus Points: 

- PI is well-recognized at some of the institutions I'm interested in.

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter:

Applying to Where:

UMass Med School - GSBS

Case Western Reserve University - BSTP

Stanford - Biosciences

UC Denver

Ohio State University

Yale - BBS

(I'm still thinking of more but these are my top picks as of right now)

Is my application strong for these schools? I'm particular interested in UMass and Case. Any other recommendations for schools?

[Bioenchilada]

14 hours ago, prospectivegrad1 said:

Undergrad Institution: Top ranked school in Canada
Major(s): Molecular Biology
Minor(s):
GPA in Major: A bit above 3.93
Overall GPA: 3.93
Position in Class: Near top
Type of Student: International, male

GRE Scores (revised/old version):
Q: 162
V: 153
W: N/A (waiting)
B:

(verbal score is a bit worring!) 

TOEFL Total: N/A

Research Experience: (At your school or elsewhere? What field? How much time? Any publications (Mth author out of N?) or conference talks etc...)

A total of around 1.5 years of research at my undergraduate institution. Hoping to get a manuscript submitted before application deadline but no guarantee... 

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: (Within your school or outside?)

- Dean's list throughout undergrad career

-Awarded for top student in laboratory class, worth $100

-Obtained two grade-based scholarships from university, valued at $1000 each

-3 poster presentations at undergraduate research symposiums 

-2 poster presentations at two separate conferences 

-> Poster finalist at both of these conferences 

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: 

-Wrote science articles online at one point but not sure if this holds any value now

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help:

Special Bonus Points: 

- PI is well-recognized at some of the institutions I'm interested in.

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter:

Applying to Where:

UMass Med School - GSBS

Case Western Reserve University - BSTP

Stanford - Biosciences

UC Denver

Ohio State University

Yale - BBS

(I'm still thinking of more but these are my top picks as of right now)

Is my application strong for these schools? I'm particular interested in UMass and Case. Any other recommendations for schools?

What field do you want to got into? And who's writing your letters?

[prospectivegrad1]

2 hours ago, Bioenchilada said:

What field do you want to got into? And who's writing your letters?

I'm interested in the regulation of gene expression (ex. epigenetics, post-transcriptional regulation, transcriptional regulation). My letter writers are: my PI (strong reference), another PI who I worked closely with via collaboration (an okay reference; I worked with him but he hasn't really seen my critical thinking process) and a professor from one of my undergrad courses (I think this one will be pretty strong; he knows about me quite well so he'll probably have some things to say).

Edited October 2, 2016 by prospectivegrad1

[biotechie]

43 minutes ago, prospectivegrad1 said:

I'm interested in the regulation of gene expression (ex. epigenetics, post-transcriptional regulation, transcriptional regulation). My letter writers are: my PI (strong reference), another PI who I worked closely with via collaboration (an okay reference; I worked with him but he hasn't really seen my critical thinking process) and a professor from one of my undergrad courses (I think this one will be pretty strong; he knows about me quite well so he'll probably have some things to say).

University of Utah has a good group of epigenetics labs. I was invited to interview there, but I had already accepted the offer at my top choice. They seemed like they would be a really good place to study.

[prospectivegrad1]

8 minutes ago, biotechie said:

University of Utah has a good group of epigenetics labs. I was invited to interview there, but I had already accepted the offer at my top choice. They seemed like they would be a really good place to study.

 

 

I just took a look at University of Utah--great suggestion, thanks!!

Do you have any other suggestions for schools that, say, have a strong focus on RNA?

[biotechie]

5 hours ago, prospectivegrad1 said:

I just took a look at University of Utah--great suggestion, thanks!!

Do you have any other suggestions for schools that, say, have a strong focus on RNA?

Unfortunately, I don't. I know a few PIs, but I don't think I know enough at any institution to make it worth applying for that reason, only.

You should also not be afraid of moving outside of your comfort zone or what you think you want to do. I liked epigenetics, cancer, and immunology, but now I do metabolism. I still like epigenetics, but I would have never figured out I liked metabolism if I didn't join an interdisciplinary program with lots of options. There are several really good interdisciplinary programs in the US.

[bioapplerobot]

Undergrad Institution: Large private school in the US
Major(s): Neuroscience
Minor(s):
GPA in Major: 3.4
Overall GPA: 3.36
Position in Class: Not sure
Type of Student: White male

GRE Scores (revised/old version):
Q: 156
V: 166
W: N/A (waiting)
B:

Research Experience: 3.5 years of research experience. 1 year in a biophysics lab looking at hippocampal interneurons and how beta-amyloid affects them. 1 year, which overlapped by 6 months with the first year, doing biomedical engineering research focused on the development of a device for frontal lobe cooling to treat insomnia and cluster headaches - required a decent amount of work with MRI thermometry and GSR. 2 years of translational virology which was a joint-project between a startup I founded and a couple different labs on campus. I have 1 publication (1st author out of 14), and two invited presentations which included a poster/abstract in one case.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Lots of things to do with business. Not sure if any of them are pertinent.

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: I'm currently a part-time intern for my university's technology transfer office, and I also run a pharmaceutical startup. I previously interned at a biotechnology company doing financial analysis.

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: Business stuff. Again, not sure if it's pertinent.

Special Bonus Points: (Such as connections, grad classes, famous recommenders, female or minority status etc...) I think my LORs should be good? 

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter:

Applying to Where: *all of the below are either neuroscience or pharmacology, in both cases I'm angling towards neuropharmacology*

• Brown
• Dartmouth
• Cornell
• Northwestern
• Columbia
• WashU
• UPenn
• Stanford

So, any recommendations for how I should position myself in my applications? I'm going to address my grades in the SOP, and I'm hoping that my verbal on the GRE helps to balance out the quant. Any thoughts or advice at all would be appreciated!

[Bioenchilada]

I feel like your GPA and GRE might affect your application a bit given the caliber of the schools you're applying to, and because your quant score is the lower one. Is there a reason you're applying to more than half of the Ivy league? It's really easy to get lost in the name game, so just make sure that you ACTUALLY have good reason to go to the schools you listed. With your credentials, you're going to need an incredibly well crafted SOP that really tells the adcom that you're an amazing fit. You have really good research experience so I'm confident that you'll have good LORS. However, the competition at the schools you listed will be intense and there will be a LOT of people with higher GRE scores and GPAs. 

Note:

If it helps, the average scores at UPenn were 159 for quant and ~157 for verbal with a 3.73 avg GPA for the Neuroscience graduate group. The Cell and Molecular Biology group has an avg GPA of 3.5 and 157Q/156V (probably  slightly lower due to much higher amount of students 45 v. 6). 

What big name schools did you apply to? Also, I mainly agree with what you're saying. However, you can't fully disregard the relevance of name and it's effect on prospective careers, especially if you want to go into academia. This is not because of the name itself, but because of the networking and opportunities you'll be exposed to at schools with "brand name" and lots of resources. 

[bioapplerobot]

9 hours ago, Bioenchilada said:

I feel like your GPA and GRE might affect your application a bit given the caliber of the schools you're applying to, and because your quant score is the lower one. Is there a reason you're applying to more than half of the Ivy league? It's really easy to get lost in the name game, so just make sure that you ACTUALLY have good reason to go to the schools you listed. With your credentials, you're going to need an incredibly well crafted SOP that really tells the adcom that you're an amazing fit. You have really good research experience so I'm confident that you'll have good LORS. However, the competition at the schools you listed will be intense and there will be a LOT of people with higher GRE scores and GPAs. 

Note:

If it helps, the average scores at UPenn were 159 for quant and ~157 for verbal with a 3.73 avg GPA for the Neuroscience graduate group. The Cell and Molecular Biology group has an avg GPA of 3.5 and 157Q/156V (probably  slightly lower due to much higher amount of students 45 v. 6).

Thanks for your response. When I started the process of evaluating graduate programs I actually didn't have many from the Ivy league on my list, but as my priorities became clear, and my spouse's graduate school plans firmed up, that's the direction everything was pulled.

So, I'm interested in knowing if anyone has any thoughts on the following programs:

• Brown Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology
• Dartmouth Experimental and Molecular Medicine
• Columbia Pathobiology and Molecular Medicine

These are all smaller programs with a focus on mechanisms of disease and translational research. I really like that 1. they're smaller 2. they hit all my favorite parts of research 3. they all have faculty from a broad group of disciplines (cancer, neuroscience, immunology, toxicology) despite their small size 4. the program directors and faculty have all been very approachable. Are there any redflags associated with smaller programs like these, as compared to larger programs like, say, Stanford Neuroscience or Upenn Pharmacology?

[Bioenchilada]

17 minutes ago, bioapplerobot said:

Thanks for your response. When I started the process of evaluating graduate programs I actually didn't have many from the Ivy league on my list, but as my priorities became clear, and my spouse's graduate school plans firmed up, that's the direction everything was pulled.

So, I'm interested in knowing if anyone has any thoughts on the following programs:

• Brown Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology
• Dartmouth Experimental and Molecular Medicine
• Columbia Pathobiology and Molecular Medicine

These are all smaller programs with a focus on mechanisms of disease and translational research. I really like that 1. they're smaller 2. they hit all my favorite parts of research 3. they all have faculty from a broad group of disciplines (cancer, neuroscience, immunology, toxicology) despite their small size 4. the program directors and faculty have all been very approachable. Are there any redflags associated with smaller programs like these, as compared to larger programs like, say, Stanford Neuroscience or Upenn Pharmacology?

Lol the average class size for the UPenn Pharmacology group is like 10 people, so I really don't know what you mean by "larger program". In my opinion, there's no much benefit to going to a smaller program since that sometimes translates to fewer faculty, which might in fact end up increasing the amount of overlap between students in terms of rotation. Also, it might also be risky if, for some reason, a PI can't take students for X/Y/Z reason. I think you should aim for large umbrella programs since you have more freedom with respect to the fields you can explore (i.e you can rotate with anyone within the Biomedical Graduate Studies department regardless of your program affiliation) and you have WAY more faculty to choose from within and outside your field, which decreases the amount of stress with respect to a faculty member not being able to take students. For example, I REALLY wanted to rotate with a PI this semester but they couldn't take students since they were still setting people into their lab. Tried another PI and also wasn't able to rotate there; however, though it still sucked that I wasn't able to rotate with my "top choices", there are plenty of labs here to choose from. 

I don't know about the Dartmouth Experimental and Molecular Medicine program since I decided to apply to MCB due to more people doing what I wanted but, again, I felt like I was very limited due to the amount of professors in the department.  This made choosing who to interview with VERY difficult, but this might have been because I applied to the wrong kind of program. 

(Same thing happened with UChicago, so make sure you choose your programs very well. It kinda sucks to interview at a place where you already know you don't fit in well, or feel very constrained.) 

Edited October 3, 2016 by Bioenchilada

[blc073]

@bioapplerobot No Harvard, huh? I see how it is. 

[Edotdl]

9 hours ago, bioapplerobot said:

Thanks for your response. When I started the process of evaluating graduate programs I actually didn't have many from the Ivy league on my list, but as my priorities became clear, and my spouse's graduate school plans firmed up, that's the direction everything was pulled.

So, I'm interested in knowing if anyone has any thoughts on the following programs:

• Brown Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology
• Dartmouth Experimental and Molecular Medicine
• Columbia Pathobiology and Molecular Medicine

These are all smaller programs with a focus on mechanisms of disease and translational research. I really like that 1. they're smaller 2. they hit all my favorite parts of research 3. they all have faculty from a broad group of disciplines (cancer, neuroscience, immunology, toxicology) despite their small size 4. the program directors and faculty have all been very approachable. Are there any redflags associated with smaller programs like these, as compared to larger programs like, say, Stanford Neuroscience or Upenn Pharmacology?

From my (limited) experience, much of your graduate experience will be shaped by your peers. I believe there is a benefit to having a sizeable number of other students doing research in the same general area so you can share ideas and talk with. It might also be better to look at the size of the program relative to the number of faculty too. I personally do not really prefer small programs.

[bioapplerobot]

@Edotdl and @Bioenchilada, thanks for your advice and perspectives. You've both given me a lot to think about. But first, I'll have to see if anyone wants to interview me in the first place!

Edited October 4, 2016 by bioapplerobot

[CozyEnzymes]

Hey y'all. Thanks for having this thread, it's really helpful. I made an account here just so I could talk with y'all! I guess I'm struggling to decide which programs to apply to... or how competitive I am for grad school in the first place.

Undergrad Institution: State school, decent research output/environment (R2)
Major(s):  Concurrent degrees in (1) Biochemistry (chemistry-intensive) and (2) Cell Biology
Minor(s): None
GPA in Major: ~3.95
Overall GPA: 3.98
Position in Class: Near top
Type of Student: Domestic white female

GRE Scores (revised/old version):
Q: 163
V: 168
W: 4.5
B: 

Research Experience: I've worked for 4 academic years and 2 summers in the same biochemistry/enzymology lab. I've worked on two projects that are significantly different but have some similarities between them. The first project is being included in a paper - I may be third author but a good bit of my data had to be redone after I left the project (booooo, lab protocol changes!), so I would be behind the grad students who contributed to the work. I've had two funded research fellowships from my university (one for a summer+full year, one for just a summer.) About the first project, I published a short article in the undergraduate journal at my university and presented a poster at my university's research symposium. I did an REU at a moderately respected program and had a poster at that university's symposium as well. I want to continue the same or similar field of research as what I did for my projects/REU.   

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Lots of scholarships/awards from my school. Phi Kappa Phi award/scholarship sponsored by my school. Recognized as the top junior in my department last year.  

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Teaching assistant for four years in general chemistry and biochemistry labs. I'm the only undergraduate teaching assistant for biochemistry lab and I've written an experiment for the class that might be published in J Chem Ed eventually. In-class teaching assistant for organic chemistry and biochemistry (one course of each.) Departmental tutor for chemistry/biochemistry - I tutor around 4-5 students per semester, usually meeting once a week or so with each. Helped to start "Research Ambassadors" program to help other students learn about research and find research projects (two years of involvement.) Leadership position in student American Chemical Society chapter with a good bit of volunteering. Volunteering through other science-based outreach in my college (open houses for elementary/middle school, "science fair" stuff, etc.) 

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: My PI is not extremely famous but I think she's respected in the field! All my letters (one from my PI, one from REU supervisor, and one from lab TA supervisor) should be solid and complimentary. My personal statement / SOP should be good - I'm going to have lots of professors/friends/other people review it to make sure. I'm applying for the NSF-GRFP this year. I have a TON of breadth in coursework: upper-level chemistry, bioinformatics, genetics, immunology, microbiology, etc. I have taken some graduate courses as well.     

Special Bonus Points: I have a lot of enthusiasm/charisma in person and interview fairly well. I would guess that at this level everyone has this so it probably doesn't make a big difference.  

Applying to Where:

University of Wisconsin Madison (IPIB program)

University of Michigan Ann Arbor (Biological Chemistry) (they have a lot of cool flavoprotein studies, which is an interest of mine!)

UNC Chapel Hill (BBSP Program)

Duke (School of Med, Biochemistry)

Stanford

UT Dallas

University of Washington (particularly for their peptide design research)

University of Toronto (undecided on this one, I just visited the campus and liked it and there are some cool projects)

 

Thanks in advance for any feedback on this. I guess I just struggle to see my strengths when I think about my application! A lot of my research background is not that varied and I don't have a publication aside from my undergraduate journal article... I'm wondering if that makes me a poor candidate for top-tier programs. It's my dream to become a professor because of how much I love to teach and see others succeed in chemistry/biochemistry. I don't want admissions committees to think that I only care about teaching and not about research. Should I dial back my expectations and apply to different places? 

Any suggestions for where to apply are also welcomed. I'm mostly interested in enzymology or non-computational peptide design, especially as it relates to studying cell signalling or the immune system. Sometimes I feel like I might miss out on cool universities in my areas of interest because I don't know about some secretly-really-great programs or how to decide if a PI is respected and productive in research - just general guidance for figuring that out would also be much appreciated! 

Thanks for reading!

Edited October 5, 2016 by CozyEnzymes
adding more details I forgot

[bkim346]

Undergrad Institution: Top 5 Engineering School in the US (Strong in research)
Major(s): Biomedical Engineering
Minor(s): N/A
GPA in Major: 3.13
Overall GPA: 3.01
Position in Class: N/A
Type of Student: Asian Male, Domestic

GRE Scores (revised/old version):
Q: 162
V: 155
W: 5.0

Research Experience:  

A year and half of research at my school in an electrophysiology lab focused on the periphery. The work I have done focuses on neural electrode fabrication and conduction block with electrophysiological measurements. I have 4 publications (1 first author, 3 second author all in respectable journals.) and 2 poster presentations at a major conference. 

Awards/Honors/Recognitions:

President's Undergraduate Research Award (Within School)

Dean's list twice - most recent year and 1st junior semester

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: 

Teaching Assistant for heavy engineering course

Special Bonus Points: 

Strong LORs from on campus veterinarian, famous PI  and prof for TA  class.

.All experiments for publications done by me. 

Writing a thorough undergraduate thesis based on the work on the publications.

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter:

Invited to student panel and visit NSF funded Engineering Research Center -  Center for Autonomic Neural Engineering 

Applied to GRFP

Mentoring - freshmen BME students - BME department

Mentoring - Potential freshmen - Admissions department

Applying to Where: 

Johns Hopkins - Neuroscience

 Janelia research Campus  - Joint Program with JHU 

George Town Univeristy - Neuroscience

University of Maryland - Neuroscience

CalTech - Neurobiology

UC - Irvine - Neurobiology and Behavior

UC - Berkely - Neuroscience

 

I'm interested in investigating the perception of sensory information in the CNS and move on from the periphery. 

I plan on taking the GRE again as my quant score fell short of what I expected from practice tests(165 - 170).

Anyway thank you so much for your time and I know I fall very short with my GPA, so I wanted to get some different views on my prospects.

Edited October 5, 2016 by bkim346

[jasss_]

Hello! Feedback appreciated. Thanks.

Undergrad Institution: Top public school
Major(s):  Biochemistry
Minor(s):  Math
GPA in Major:  3.86
Overall GPA:  3.89
Position in Class: High
Type of Student: Domestic female

GRE Scores (revised/old version):
Q: 170
V:  169
W:  4.0
B:  

Research Experience:

2years in a biochemistry lab at school, focus on NMR and then modeling of biochem pathways. Small lab, no publications produced. PI will write rec

Summer work in a biophysics lab at BU medical school. NMR focus. PI will write rec

leader of iGEM (genetic engineering competition) research group at my school this past summer. Will culminate in a synthetic biology conference in october. again, advisor will write rec.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: 

Dean's list, intermediate honors (top 20%), phi eta sigma honor society 

Pertinent Activities or Jobs

iGEM project leader, peer advisor to freshmen, TA for general chemistry lab for a semester.

Special Bonus Points: 

My recommenders all are enthusiastic about writing letters. One of them has told me that i could 'get in anywhere i wanted' although I am hesitant to believe that - would like to get an outside opinion!

I know I have strong GPA+GRE, but my question is whether or not my research experiences are strong enough?

Applying to Where: 

Here comes my very long preliminary list.. Definitely have a lot of top/"big name" programs here, my issue is finding more targets. One criteria i am dedicated to is location: East coast or west coast. Other criteria i am slightly more flexible on. 

• Harvard bbs
• MIT biology
• UCLA biochem
• Scripps
• Cornell Weill
• UCSF BMS
• Stanford biochem
• UC Berkeley biochem
• UC Davis BMCD
• UCSD biological sciences
• Tufts BMCD
• Others i'm considering: rockefeller, mt. sinai, upenn, columbia, uc irvine, yale, johns hopkins

I know this is too many schools so I would appreciate advice on how to narrow it down! 

Edited October 5, 2016 by jasss_

[Bioenchilada]

7 hours ago, bkim346 said:

Undergrad Institution: Top 5 Engineering School in the US (Strong in research)
Major(s): Biomedical Engineering
Minor(s): N/A
GPA in Major: 3.13
Overall GPA: 3.01
Position in Class: N/A
Type of Student: Asian Male, Domestic

GRE Scores (revised/old version):
Q: 162
V: 155
W: 5.0

Research Experience:  

A year and half of research at my school in an electrophysiology lab focused on the periphery. The work I have done focuses on neural electrode fabrication and conduction block with electrophysiological measurements. I have 4 publications (1 first author, 3 second author all in respectable journals.) and 2 poster presentations at a major conference. 

Awards/Honors/Recognitions:

President's Undergraduate Research Award (Within School)

Dean's list twice - most recent year and 1st junior semester

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: 

Teaching Assistant for heavy engineering course

Special Bonus Points: 

Strong LORs from on campus veterinarian, famous PI  and prof for TA  class.

.All experiments for publications done by me. 

Writing a thorough undergraduate thesis based on the work on the publications.

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter:

Invited to student panel and visit NSF funded Engineering Research Center -  Center for Autonomic Neural Engineering 

Applied to GRFP

Mentoring - freshmen BME students - BME department

Mentoring - Potential freshmen - Admissions department

Applying to Where: 

Johns Hopkins - Neuroscience

 Janelia research Campus  - Joint Program with JHU 

George Town Univeristy - Neuroscience

University of Maryland - Neuroscience

CalTech - Neurobiology

UC - Irvine - Neurobiology and Behavior

UC - Berkely - Neuroscience

 

I'm interested in investigating the perception of sensory information in the CNS and move on from the periphery. 

I plan on taking the GRE again as my quant score fell short of what I expected from practice tests(165 - 170).

Anyway thank you so much for your time and I know I fall very short with my GPA, so I wanted to get some different views on my prospects.

Why are you asking a veterinarian for a letter?...

[bkim346]

20 minutes ago, Bioenchilada said:

Why are you asking a veterinarian for a letter?...

She is in charge of assisting with animal procedures, has worked close with me regarding acute and chronic procedures and she has a neuroscience Ph.D.herself.

[Bioenchilada]

39 minutes ago, bkim346 said:

She is in charge of assisting with animal procedures, has worked close with me regarding acute and chronic procedures and she has a neuroscience Ph.D.herself.

Hmm, okay. I think your GPA will hurt you a lot in this round of applications, especially considering the schools you are applying to. Although you don't really have a lot of research experience, you published a lot in your lab, so I really don't know how that'll impact your application. Lots of applicants don't have publications, so maybe positively? You're already retaking the GRE, so I'm not really commenting in that, though this is one of the least important parts of your app. I'm concerned about your letters since only one of them comes from a PI. There's a limit to how much a person that didn't mentor you can talk about your performance in a lab, even if they have a PhD. I think you have too many reach schools in you list based on your credentials. I'm not by any means saying that you shouldn't apply to them, but you could benefit from diversifying your list. 

[bkim346]

46 minutes ago, Bioenchilada said:

Hmm, okay. I think your GPA will hurt you a lot in this round of applications, especially considering the schools you are applying to. Although you don't really have a lot of research experience, you published a lot in your lab, so I really don't know how that'll impact your application. Lots of applicants don't have publications, so maybe positively? You're already retaking the GRE, so I'm not really commenting in that, though this is one of the least important parts of your app. I'm concerned about your letters since only one of them comes from a PI. There's a limit to how much a person that didn't mentor you can talk about your performance in a lab, even if they have a PhD. I think you have too many reach schools in you list based on your credentials. I'm not by any means saying that you shouldn't apply to them, but you could benefit from diversifying your list. 

 

 

Regarding research, I should have mentioned that I have taken summer and this Semester off in order to pursue full-time research. Would that be a beneficial factor? 

And for the LOR, do you think my mentor who has worked very close with me, a PhD student, might be a better Idea then?

Thank you so much for your time!

Edited October 5, 2016 by bkim346

[Bioenchilada]

10 minutes ago, bkim346 said:

Regarding research, I should have mentioned that I have taken summer and this Semester off in order to pursue full-time research. Would that be a beneficial factor? 

And for the LOR, do you think my mentor who has worked very close with me, a PhD student, might be a better Idea then?

Thank you so much for your time!

Yeah, the fact that you did research full time for half a year will definitely be beneficial. I might have to retract my statement about you not having enough experience. However, letters are still an issue, which is the problem with only working in one lab.

DO NOT ASK A PHD STUDENT FOR A LETTER. It's really not okay lol

[bkim346]

5 minutes ago, Bioenchilada said:

Yeah, the fact that you did research full time for half a year will definitely be beneficial. I might have to retract my statement about you not having enough experience. However, letters are still an issue, which is the problem with only working in one lab.

DO NOT ASK A PHD STUDENT FOR A LETTER. It's really not okay lol

 

 Thank you. I figured, but thought I'd ask still. 

[Bioenchilada]

9 minutes ago, bkim346 said:

 Thank you. I figured, but thought I'd ask still. 

Did your lab work closely with any other labs whose PI might vouche for you? 

[bkim346]

10 minutes ago, Bioenchilada said:

Did your lab work closely with any other labs whose PI might vouche for you? 

Unfortunately, not. The closest person I have is the veterinarian who also conducts her own research and publishes, but is still technically not a PI.

I realized a little too late that I should try and work with more than one lab. But I was able to get the publications out for working long in one lab at least. 

[Kinetic Isotope Defect]

21 hours ago, CozyEnzymes said:

Hey y'all. Thanks for having this thread, it's really helpful. I made an account here just so I could talk with y'all! I guess I'm struggling to decide which programs to apply to... or how competitive I am for grad school in the first place.

Undergrad Institution: State school, decent research output/environment (R2)
Major(s):  Concurrent degrees in (1) Biochemistry (chemistry-intensive) and (2) Cell Biology
Minor(s): None
GPA in Major: ~3.95
Overall GPA: 3.98
Position in Class: Near top
Type of Student: Domestic white female

GRE Scores (revised/old version):
Q: 163
V: 168
W: 4.5
B: 

Research Experience: I've worked for 4 academic years and 2 summers in the same biochemistry/enzymology lab. I've worked on two projects that are significantly different but have some similarities between them. The first project is being included in a paper - I may be third author but a good bit of my data had to be redone after I left the project (booooo, lab protocol changes!), so I would be behind the grad students who contributed to the work. I've had two funded research fellowships from my university (one for a summer+full year, one for just a summer.) About the first project, I published a short article in the undergraduate journal at my university and presented a poster at my university's research symposium. I did an REU at a moderately respected program and had a poster at that university's symposium as well. I want to continue the same or similar field of research as what I did for my projects/REU.   

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Lots of scholarships/awards from my school. Phi Kappa Phi award/scholarship sponsored by my school. Recognized as the top junior in my department last year.  

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Teaching assistant for four years in general chemistry and biochemistry labs. I'm the only undergraduate teaching assistant for biochemistry lab and I've written an experiment for the class that might be published in J Chem Ed eventually. In-class teaching assistant for organic chemistry and biochemistry (one course of each.) Departmental tutor for chemistry/biochemistry - I tutor around 4-5 students per semester, usually meeting once a week or so with each. Helped to start "Research Ambassadors" program to help other students learn about research and find research projects (two years of involvement.) Leadership position in student American Chemical Society chapter with a good bit of volunteering. Volunteering through other science-based outreach in my college (open houses for elementary/middle school, "science fair" stuff, etc.) 

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: My PI is not extremely famous but I think she's respected in the field! All my letters (one from my PI, one from REU supervisor, and one from lab TA supervisor) should be solid and complimentary. My personal statement / SOP should be good - I'm going to have lots of professors/friends/other people review it to make sure. I'm applying for the NSF-GRFP this year. I have a TON of breadth in coursework: upper-level chemistry, bioinformatics, genetics, immunology, microbiology, etc. I have taken some graduate courses as well.     

Special Bonus Points: I have a lot of enthusiasm/charisma in person and interview fairly well. I would guess that at this level everyone has this so it probably doesn't make a big difference.  

Applying to Where:

University of Wisconsin Madison (IPIB program)

University of Michigan Ann Arbor (Biological Chemistry) (they have a lot of cool flavoprotein studies, which is an interest of mine!)

UNC Chapel Hill (BBSP Program)

Duke (School of Med, Biochemistry)

Stanford

UT Dallas

University of Washington (particularly for their peptide design research)

University of Toronto (undecided on this one, I just visited the campus and liked it and there are some cool projects)

 

Thanks in advance for any feedback on this. I guess I just struggle to see my strengths when I think about my application! A lot of my research background is not that varied and I don't have a publication aside from my undergraduate journal article... I'm wondering if that makes me a poor candidate for top-tier programs. It's my dream to become a professor because of how much I love to teach and see others succeed in chemistry/biochemistry. I don't want admissions committees to think that I only care about teaching and not about research. Should I dial back my expectations and apply to different places? 

Any suggestions for where to apply are also welcomed. I'm mostly interested in enzymology or non-computational peptide design, especially as it relates to studying cell signalling or the immune system. Sometimes I feel like I might miss out on cool universities in my areas of interest because I don't know about some secretly-really-great programs or how to decide if a PI is respected and productive in research - just general guidance for figuring that out would also be much appreciated! 

Thanks for reading!

I'm a current student at UMich (chemical biology, which is a similar program to biological chemistry). Which professors are you interested in? I know most of the enzymology professors here so I can give you an idea of who has productive/good labs, who isn't taking students, etc. IDK about how the admissions committee for biological chemistry looks at applications, but you would be a very competitive applicant for my program.

Edited October 6, 2016 by Kinetic Isotope Defect