Where should I apply.. Help!

[CleClimber]

I plan on applying to Biochemical and Molecular Biology programs in the next cycle (Fall 2016) and I really have no clue where to apply. My undergraduate institution is a fairly respectable, top 40, research university with a strong Biochemistry program. I am a double Major in Biochemistry and Evolutionary Biology with a 3.5 GPA, but I have a 4.0 for the entirety of junior year, during which I took exclusively difficult STEM classes and maintained a loaded schedule. I can also attribute my earlier and less than optimal grades to personal family strife that occurred during my first year and half in College.

I have wet bench experience from even before I attended College, working at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories doing research with the Postdoc of a prestigious PI and working as a paid Technician with a PI from whom I can get a very strong letter of recommendation, and with whom I worked the summer of Freshman year. I have a summer of research experience at UC Berkley preforming evolutionary biology research characterizing a new species of flying lizard, during which I taught my self a fair deal of statistics and the computer programming language R. Then Junior year I worked for with a PI at my University who is very well respected in his field and from whom I can get a very strong letter of recommendation. This summer I will be working at Cambridge University with a very, very famous PI (as in knighted for his research famous), who I also hope to get a decent letter from. Fortunately I'll have many opportunities to chat with him outside of the lab due to family friends who know him reasonably well I hear, so may know me on a more personal level, outside of the Laboratory environment. I intend to do fairly well on the GRE and will have the entirety of the summer to prepare for it. I don't have any publications but It's possible I will have a first author publication with my current PI at my University if a project I came up with comes to fruition. It is also possible I will be able to publish a paper from my summer research. 

 

Any thought on where to apply? I think that the letter of recommendation from the PI in Cambridge will be very helpful, because as I previously stated, he is extremely well known. I was thinking of programs like:

Dartmouth

University of Wisconsin

University of Washington

University of San Diego

University of British Columbia 

 

But is it reasonable to apply to programs like?

MIT

Stanford 

NIH OxCam

Cal Tech 

UC Berkley

Would I have a shot at these programs with my research pedigree and good LORs? I should also mention that my father is quite an influential PI in a related field and can provided very good advice on writing a strong Personal Statement. Any and all advice is appreciated, I really need some guidance!

Edited May 6, 2016 by CleClimber

[BeakerBreaker]

You're fine. Just do a decent job on the GRE and you have a good shot at any of those schools you listed.