Genetic Counseling Fall 2018 Applicants

[freckledgenes]

So does anyone know anything about the programs listed as "affiliate" members on the GC Program Director's website? Are these schools and medical centers all considering opening programs? Do they become affiliate members very early in the process, or when they're seriously moving towards becoming a new program?

There are a few there that I'd be really interested in attending if they opened a genetic counseling program in the coming years.

[hfj23]

10 hours ago, WFUGC said:

Hi everyone!

Reading this forum has been so wonderful thus far- I’ve never actually met anyone else who wanted to be a genetic counselor!

I graduated in 2017 with a Spanish major (concentration in medical Spanish) and biology and psychology minors. I did well in all my pre-reqs (mostly A/A- with my lowest being a B+) and my cumulative GPA was a 3.85 with Phi Beta Kappa. My GRE scores were 165V/156Q/4.5AW. I’ve done short term shadowing with genetic counselors at 4 places, was a student advisor/peer mentor at my university, interned in a molecular diagnostic laboratory for a summer, was a volunteer medical interpreter at a free clinic, interned at a residence house for AIDS patients in Spain, and am currently living in Argentina and interning at a cancer NGO for six months. I plan on coming home mid-February to be back in time for interviews (hopefully!!!).  I am planning on applying to eight schools, but my top ones are USC, UAB, Emory and Stanford. Are there any other non-science majors that are worried about their science background? I took the clinical embryology course online through University of Cincinnati, but don’t know if that was enough. I want to be a bilingual genetic counselor so my Spanish major was very important to me, but I am worried now that not being a science major might hurt me in this process. I am also worried about my advocacy experience- none of it has been the traditional crisis hotline, shelter volunteering, or Planned Parenthood work.

I am currently working on my personal statements. I have never enjoyed writing about myself, and am struggling a little bit! Does anyone have any advice for getting out of their own head a little bit? Also, how many people do you think is a good number to ask to edit the personal statements?

I am super excited/nervous for the future and am very glad that I have found this forum and people going through the same thing!

You seem super qualified lol I feel like I need to take a gap year cause i haven't done half as much as you have!! I read a lot of accepted student bios and many of them weren't science majors so I think you're okay.

 I'm still in college and one of the grad students in my lab works for the writing center so she's helping me and I'll probably turn it over to the head of the writing center and my research professor to look at. If you're still near your university maybe you can ask them? Or a professor you worked with? I think having 2-3 experienced people look at it is a good idea. 

[Nefelibata]

On 9/26/2017 at 8:39 AM, WFUGC said:

Hi everyone!

Reading this forum has been so wonderful thus far- I’ve never actually met anyone else who wanted to be a genetic counselor!

I graduated in 2017 with a Spanish major (concentration in medical Spanish) and biology and psychology minors. I did well in all my pre-reqs (mostly A/A- with my lowest being a B+) and my cumulative GPA was a 3.85 with Phi Beta Kappa. My GRE scores were 165V/156Q/4.5AW. I’ve done short term shadowing with genetic counselors at 4 places, was a student advisor/peer mentor at my university, interned in a molecular diagnostic laboratory for a summer, was a volunteer medical interpreter at a free clinic, interned at a residence house for AIDS patients in Spain, and am currently living in Argentina and interning at a cancer NGO for six months. I plan on coming home mid-February to be back in time for interviews (hopefully!!!).  I am planning on applying to eight schools, but my top ones are USC, UAB, Emory and Stanford. Are there any other non-science majors that are worried about their science background? I took the clinical embryology course online through University of Cincinnati, but don’t know if that was enough. I want to be a bilingual genetic counselor so my Spanish major was very important to me, but I am worried now that not being a science major might hurt me in this process. I am also worried about my advocacy experience- none of it has been the traditional crisis hotline, shelter volunteering, or Planned Parenthood work.

I am currently working on my personal statements. I have never enjoyed writing about myself, and am struggling a little bit! Does anyone have any advice for getting out of their own head a little bit? Also, how many people do you think is a good number to ask to edit the personal statements?

I am super excited/nervous for the future and am very glad that I have found this forum and people going through the same thing!

@WFUGC , I wouldn't worry about being a non-science major as long as you have all the pre-reqs in. It looks like you've researched the schools pretty well, but something else to consider (if you haven't already) are the schools who have high interest in bilingual people. I know Sarah Lawrence and UC Irvine are both especially interested in bilinguals - I also have a Spanish background and it was suggested to me by the director of the program nearest to me that I should apply to those schools. I'm not sure if it was through the school or what, but I do know that someone who graduated from Sarah Lawrence did get some special certification that lets them do their genetic counseling in two different languages without an interpreter present.

[AspiringGC]

Oh gosh, I have a big dilemma. I received a call yesterday for a job interview from a position I applied to in February.. It's a position at the Access and Disability Resources as a support tech/program coordinator at the local CC. I set up an interview for next Tuesday. It technically pays more than my current position at a Client Manager at a home care agency, but it only 30 hours/week, so annually comes to $6k less than I make now. I could always get a part time job to make up that difference, but still. 

I'm not exactly sure what it entails, but I would obviously get some good hands-on experience with people with disabilities. At my current job, I work mainly with elderly people and their families to provide assistive care for them to stay after in their homes. I get really great almost health care experience, some clients have dementia/Alzheimer's which is good exposure too. I am learning lots of good counseling skills as well, but I don't love it. When it's good, it's good, but bad is bad too. A majority of my job is spent staffing shifts, which isn't always easy or fun. 

Basically, my question is: If I were to be offered the other position, is the pay cut worth it for the disability experience? Is it worth it to change jobs after 3 months and ideally (if I were to get into grad school), leave in 9 months. Depending on the hours I could volunteer more/shadow more with the GCs I'm with. It's also a further drive from my home.

[TAGC]

1 hour ago, AspiringGC said:

Oh gosh, I have a big dilemma. I received a call yesterday for a job interview from a position I applied to in February.. It's a position at the Access and Disability Resources as a support tech/program coordinator at the local CC. I set up an interview for next Tuesday. It technically pays more than my current position at a Client Manager at a home care agency, but it only 30 hours/week, so annually comes to $6k less than I make now. I could always get a part time job to make up that difference, but still. 

I'm not exactly sure what it entails, but I would obviously get some good hands-on experience with people with disabilities. At my current job, I work mainly with elderly people and their families to provide assistive care for them to stay after in their homes. I get really great almost health care experience, some clients have dementia/Alzheimer's which is good exposure too. I am learning lots of good counseling skills as well, but I don't love it. When it's good, it's good, but bad is bad too. A majority of my job is spent staffing shifts, which isn't always easy or fun. 

Basically, my question is: If I were to be offered the other position, is the pay cut worth it for the disability experience? Is it worth it to change jobs after 3 months and ideally (if I were to get into grad school), leave in 9 months. Depending on the hours I could volunteer more/shadow more with the GCs I'm with. It's also a further drive from my home.

Those are both really awesome sounding opportunities!  I know that some of the genetic counseling programs like to see commitment, so showing that you have spent more time at your current position might look favourably.  How much further would your commute be?  If you're spending a big chunk of your time commuting, then it might not be that easy to find a part time job on top of the new position.  That being said, if you're okay with taking the pay cut, then you'll have more free time, so the extra commute won't be so bad.  Personally, I think it's worth it to take a pay cut for more free time (more time to work on your applications), but it might be tough if you have student loans to pay down.

I think that no matter what you decide you'll  have some great experiences to talk about in your applications.

[AspiringGC]

20 hours ago, TAGC said:

Those are both really awesome sounding opportunities!  I know that some of the genetic counseling programs like to see commitment, so showing that you have spent more time at your current position might look favourably.  How much further would your commute be?  If you're spending a big chunk of your time commuting, then it might not be that easy to find a part time job on top of the new position.  That being said, if you're okay with taking the pay cut, then you'll have more free time, so the extra commute won't be so bad.  Personally, I think it's worth it to take a pay cut for more free time (more time to work on your applications), but it might be tough if you have student loans to pay down.

I think that no matter what you decide you'll  have some great experiences to talk about in your applications.

Exactly, that's what I'm afraid of. I don't want to look wishy-washy and have only spent time for 3 months in my current position. I think it might be worth it for me to just suck it up another 9 months. My commute would change to around 30 minutes one way, only 10 more minutes than now. I could live on the paycut, but it would be really really tight. I'd have just enough to pay all my must have expenses and my car loan/student loans, but not enough to save any money for grad school or anything. I know my mom is will to help if I get in a bind and need some money here and there, but I really don't want to rely on that. 

I'm going to go to the interview, see what the hours are and what exactly I'll be doing and then see if it's worth it/if I even get offered the job. Thanks for the feedback!

[trp111]

On 9/25/2017 at 3:33 PM, AspiringGC said:

If you can afford to apply twice, and really don't want to take a gap year, it is definitely for your benefit to apply this year. If you can't afford/don't want to pay twice, you may benefit from a gap year to gain that experience. Really think hard about what is best for you. Maybe this year only apply to your top 2 or 3 schools to get a feel of the process and see what happens instead of all 6 or 8 you might be interested in. If you get in, great, if you don't at least you know how the process works a bit more, saved some money, AND you can get direct feedback on your application from directors at your top choice schools and use that to your advantage for next cycle.  

So I just had my meeting with the program director, so I will be very thorough with what she told me. If you've looked, the application is half up. So, definitely still expecting to take applicants and the deadline is going to be January 1st. You can enter your basic info and pay the fee (and technically submit, but don't do that), but there isn't areas for the specific items, such as your Personal Statement or references. They are in the process of finishing up the specifics on the application and should have that up within the next couple of weeks (the program coordinator has been on maternity leave). Second, they hope to have the website up within the next month. It is basically completed on their side, with just the FAQ section that needs to be put together before it goes live. Third, the director is hoping to have the application submitted to ABGC in a week. She is completely done with the application and is only waiting on her supervisor to read and sign off. 

Unfortunately, many schools have reaccreditations coming up, plus the other new programs that have submitted their application already. She was told it could take up to 8 months for the application to be reviewed and accreditation to be given. This deadline puts getting accredited very close to or after the Match deadline. If Arizona is not accredited by that deadline, they CANNOT participate in the Match. They would be allowed to participate in the Unmatched process and extend acceptances to students then.

These programs work really hard on the back end to get everything needed for accreditation and need a lot of support. To get to the point of accreditation, I feel most schools will almost always get it, unless some big glaring problem comes up. Arizona thankfully used to have a well run program, has tons of support from the school and administrators, and a director who has put everything into this to make it a possibility. I have no doubts that accreditation will be give, but the when is the biggest factor. Let's say for example Arizona is your top choice, but they aren't accredited in time and you go ahead with match. You get matched with Program B (your second choice), but then Arizona gets accreditation and wants to extend you an offer. Your Match with Program B is binding. You cannot go to Arizona if Program B doesn't withdraw their offer. You are stuck going to Program B or not going at all. This would be the same scenario for ANY school that is pending accreditation come Match..

It puts students in a kind of tricky spot, especially if their top choice is one of those schools waiting, do you wait and risk the school not getting accreditation or do you do Match and risk not getting your top choice if you are Matched and then they get accredited? This is kind of the spot I will be in.. It's still a ways off, so I'm not going to stress over it until interviews, which will really show me which school is the right one for me. If that means I don't participate in Match and hold out a chance, then I will or vice versa. 

The director did give me a draft of the student handbook, which is basically what is on the website. If anyone is interested/looking into Arizona, feel free to PM me your email and I can scan and send it to you. It has information about pre-reqs, where rotations will be, tuition, etc. 

Thanks so much for the detailed reply! It's a little unfortunate that we could spend time applying and pay the fee to then find out they weren't accredited on time and that time/money is a waste though. 

[AspiringGC]

1 hour ago, trp111 said:

Thanks so much for the detailed reply! It's a little unfortunate that we could spend time applying and pay the fee to then find out they weren't accredited on time and that time/money is a waste though. 

Yeah, that is true. I really think they'll get accredited no problem, I'm not going to stress until interviews. I'm sure it will be discussed in detail what to expect for Match. I'll keep everyone updated if I hear anything more. 

[GC12018]

Hi everyone! I love all the information and help everyone on the forum is providing, it really helps us prospective students!

I was wondering if anyone had any information on how much GRE scores are weighed in an application? I know schools say they look at your app holistically, but if two candidates had similar extracurricular experiences and GPAs, but one scored higher on the GRE, would they be more likely to get in? I'm worried since my percentiles for one of the sections is not near the "average of 70th percentile" and am considering retaking it, but am feeling is it a little late to retake it this far into the application cycle when we all have personal statements and recommendations to lock in!

[hfj23]

3 hours ago, GC12018 said:

Hi everyone! I love all the information and help everyone on the forum is providing, it really helps us prospective students!

I was wondering if anyone had any information on how much GRE scores are weighed in an application? I know schools say they look at your app holistically, but if two candidates had similar extracurricular experiences and GPAs, but one scored higher on the GRE, would they be more likely to get in? I'm worried since my percentiles for one of the sections is not near the "average of 70th percentile" and am considering retaking it, but am feeling is it a little late to retake it this far into the application cycle when we all have personal statements and recommendations to lock in!

When I went to Wayne state's open house I asked one of the current students how important it was to have a great score. This was before I took the GRE and i was pretty concerned  about the math section. The student said that it didn't play a huge role at Wayne and their math score hadn't been that good (however they had also been waitlisted and ended up getting in after someone dropped the spot soo...) 

I think that experience is the most important thing to these schools. I feel like gpa and gre matter but they really want people who have taken a couple years to work in the field (this is what I picked up from reading student bios and talking to current students). Anyways I could be wrong but if you have a lot of experience to make up for the not so good score I think you'll be fine!

[AspiringGC]

21 hours ago, GC12018 said:

Hi everyone! I love all the information and help everyone on the forum is providing, it really helps us prospective students!

I was wondering if anyone had any information on how much GRE scores are weighed in an application? I know schools say they look at your app holistically, but if two candidates had similar extracurricular experiences and GPAs, but one scored higher on the GRE, would they be more likely to get in? I'm worried since my percentiles for one of the sections is not near the "average of 70th percentile" and am considering retaking it, but am feeling is it a little late to retake it this far into the application cycle when we all have personal statements and recommendations to lock in!

The Stanford director mentioned that it's important only for the fact that upon graduating from a GC program you have to pass another standardized test to become a CGC. There's no point to put in the training and schooling if you can't pass the test. So for Stanford, that was really the main reason they looked at the GRE scores for. Typically the 50th percentile in the GRE proves this enough. It may not make you stand out or anything, but 50th + is enough to show you can pass a standardized test when the time comes. 

For reference, I scored closer to 50-60th percentile for two sections on my GRE  and 75-80th percentile on the other section and only one school mentioned that retaking it might be helpful (out of 7 that gave me feedback). Most were more interested in me getting more experience or retaking a class or two. And if your scores are really that bad and you don't have the experience or grades to make up for the as @hfj23 mentioned above, then go ahead and retake. Otherwise I think it's a waste of money and unnecessary stress added on to you. 

[hfj23]

Does anyone know if Thomas Jefferson's program is still primarily online? Awhile ago I checked and noticed their curriculum was almost completely online but now when I open their website they don't even have it listed anywhere (or maybe I just can't find it). 

I'm planning to not apply there if their program is mostly online because i have a feeling it is, but i'm wondering if any of you had been to an open house or had any knowledge about it?

[Nefelibata]

On 9/30/2017 at 1:36 PM, AspiringGC said:

The Stanford director mentioned that it's important only for the fact that upon graduating from a GC program you have to pass another standardized test to become a CGC. There's no point to put in the training and schooling if you can't pass the test. So for Stanford, that was really the main reason they looked at the GRE scores for. Typically the 50th percentile in the GRE proves this enough. It may not make you stand out or anything, but 50th + is enough to show you can pass a standardized test when the time comes. 

For reference, I scored closer to 50-60th percentile for two sections on my GRE  and 75-80th percentile on the other section and only one school mentioned that retaking it might be helpful (out of 7 that gave me feedback). Most were more interested in me getting more experience or retaking a class or two. And if your scores are really that bad and you don't have the experience or grades to make up for the as @hfj23 mentioned above, then go ahead and retake. Otherwise I think it's a waste of money and unnecessary stress added on to you. 

I'll second @AspiringGC that the GRE isn't critical as long as you are over the 50th percentile in each category. I was 60% in two and 80% in one and the schools I applied to last year told me in my feedback that my GRE scores were acceptable to the admissions committees. 

[KM94]

On 9/13/2017 at 4:11 PM, GeneDawg said:

Looks like Boise state university submitted letter of intent/ Does anyone know when the program will be opening?

@Nefelibata I am not going to conference this year, but I went last year. Most people were wearing business casual!

Hi! I live in Boise! As far as I've heard their goal is Fall 2019. It will also be an online program. 

[TAGC]

Has anyone started the application for the University of Colorado - Denver?

I started their application first to see what their admission questions were since the brochure says that the application will have "several list and essay questions addressing your past achievements, past experience relevant to your proposed study in the field of genetic counseling, and future plans for graduate study and a professional career in genetic counseling."  Then it goes on to say "Do not substitute a previously prepared standard “personal statement” document in place of these individual essay questions, as each is asking you for somewhat different information.  Together, your responses to all of these questions constitute your personal statement to the Admissions Committee."  But in the application there's just a section for uploading the personal statement that says "Describe your motivation and plans for graduate study and a professional career, and discuss how this program will contribute to them."

I'm worried that this might be the generic graduate school application instructions and I'm missing the list of questions from somewhere else in the application.  Has anyone else come across this?

[AspiringGC]

23 hours ago, TAGC said:

Has anyone started the application for the University of Colorado - Denver?

I started their application first to see what their admission questions were since the brochure says that the application will have "several list and essay questions addressing your past achievements, past experience relevant to your proposed study in the field of genetic counseling, and future plans for graduate study and a professional career in genetic counseling."  Then it goes on to say "Do not substitute a previously prepared standard “personal statement” document in place of these individual essay questions, as each is asking you for somewhat different information.  Together, your responses to all of these questions constitute your personal statement to the Admissions Committee."  But in the application there's just a section for uploading the personal statement that says "Describe your motivation and plans for graduate study and a professional career, and discuss how this program will contribute to them."

I'm worried that this might be the generic graduate school application instructions and I'm missing the list of questions from somewhere else in the application.  Has anyone else come across this?

I sent this email last year "I am currently working on my Genetic Counseling application for the Fall 2017 admission; however I am having issues finding the essay questions that will be used for the Personal Statement as noted in the Genetic Counseling Brochure. Could you point me in the right direction for these questions? I did notice that the brochure is from 2004, has this requirement changed?"

To which I got a response of "The personal statement information is explained in the application itself. The brochure is up to date, for some reason the Tab description is wrong."

Honestly didn't help me much, but it's the response I got. 

23 hours ago, KM94 said:

Hi! I live in Boise! As far as I've heard their goal is Fall 2019. It will also be an online program. 

Hmmm I'll be interested to see if this actually gets accredited. Even getting the hybrid Bay Path program accredited took a while. I know many people are hoping for an online program to accommodate their needs, but I just don't see how that's feasible if you aren't near GCs that you can do rotations with. 

[TAGC]

1 hour ago, AspiringGC said:

I sent this email last year "I am currently working on my Genetic Counseling application for the Fall 2017 admission; however I am having issues finding the essay questions that will be used for the Personal Statement as noted in the Genetic Counseling Brochure. Could you point me in the right direction for these questions? I did notice that the brochure is from 2004, has this requirement changed?"

To which I got a response of "The personal statement information is explained in the application itself. The brochure is up to date, for some reason the Tab description is wrong."

Honestly didn't help me much, but it's the response I got. 

Thanks, that's really helpful! I guess that means I should just answer the question as written.

[GC12018]

In your opinion, how long should a CV be? I know some programs want you to highlight certain things in your CV (shadowing experience, exposure to persons with disabilities, advocacy experience etc) but is it a good idea to put other things or should it be strictly limited to what they ask for?

The reason I ask is because one of my counseling positions was a direct result from a position I held within the same office, but the first position had nothing to do with counseling/advocacy, so is it relevant?

[Nefelibata]

8 hours ago, GC12018 said:

In your opinion, how long should a CV be? I know some programs want you to highlight certain things in your CV (shadowing experience, exposure to persons with disabilities, advocacy experience etc) but is it a good idea to put other things or should it be strictly limited to what they ask for?

The reason I ask is because one of my counseling positions was a direct result from a position I held within the same office, but the first position had nothing to do with counseling/advocacy, so is it relevant?

From what I have learned/been told, it depends on how old you are. If you will be a new college grad/recent college grad, typically you should include any job/experience you have had since starting college. If you are 3-5 years out, you should typically include what you have done since college, and only relevant things that were done when in college. Once you start reaching 6+ years out of college, what you did in college is not really relevant anymore.  As you get older from there, it is common to only include what you have done the last 5ish years, and only relevant experience further back from those 5 years.

Of course, there are always exceptions to this as well. If you are changing careers you want to give a little more detailed history, or if you have moved up/changed positions within a company over time you want to indicate that as well.

Part of what they are looking for on a resume/CV is just job consistency. They want to see that you have work experience and that you didn't quit/get fired from all your jobs within a couple months. I will be two years out of college and while it is not very relevant to genetic counseling, I worked in retail at the same store for 4 years (and moved up in positions) during college so I will still be including that on my resume because it shows that I was committed to my job.

[freckledgenes]

14 hours ago, GC12018 said:

In your opinion, how long should a CV be? I know some programs want you to highlight certain things in your CV (shadowing experience, exposure to persons with disabilities, advocacy experience etc) but is it a good idea to put other things or should it be strictly limited to what they ask for?

The reason I ask is because one of my counseling positions was a direct result from a position I held within the same office, but the first position had nothing to do with counseling/advocacy, so is it relevant?

From my understanding, a traditional Curriculum Vitae should have everything relevant on it-some will therefore end up being many pages (though probably not for recent grads and/or those without an extensive publication and/or presentation list). However, a lot of programs have specifications of what they want on their submitted CVs or resumes. I've even seen a few that want it limited to one page!

So I think it is probably relevant to put what the program specifies, though I think putting work experience that is related to genetic counseling (or perhaps shows other traits or skills you want to highlight, like job consistency), could work. I personally would not put completely unrelated roles on there, especially without any obvious tie-in into GC.

Edited to add: UBC was the program I was thinking of that limited their CV/resume to one page. Others might have limits or specifications as well, of course.

Edited October 6, 2017 by freckledgenes

[JN212]

I was wondering if anyone knew for a fact that there was a specific page length for our resumes/Cvs for applications. Even though this is my second time applying you would think I would know this by know. But, I was curious if anyone knew for a fact that there was a definite page max.  I figured most resumes are 2 pages and Cvs are anything over 2 pages however, I wasn't sure if most programs would prefer it only be 2 pages long. Last year I had no problem keeping it down to 2 pages but this year I have a lot more experience to list and describe and wasn't sure if 2 pages was still recommended. North Carolina's program wants you to include so much detail about your experience and education but still lists their paper as a resume. Sorry for the rambling but any thoughts?

[Blizzard]

On 10/4/2017 at 10:26 AM, KM94 said:

Hi! I live in Boise! As far as I've heard their goal is Fall 2019. It will also be an online program. 

Elaborate on this! I'm so curious now!

[saidawg]

Hi guys! I'm an international junior in college right now and have just decided that I want to pursue Genetic Counseling in the future so I was wondering if you could look at my stats and give me some advice about areas that I could improve/ should be worried about lol.

I'm getting a B.S in Biotechnology at Penn State. I have a 3.2 cgpa right now but am very sure that I'm going to graduate with at least a 3.4 (is a 3.4/3.45 any good, honestly?), and my major gpa is going to be around 3.6/3.7, if that matters. I've gotten As/Bs in all the courses that most programs require (chemistry, organic chemistry, biology, biochemistry, genetics, statistics) but need to take another Psych class since I have a C+ in the only one I took freshman year. I basically started college with a 2.8 gpa, but show gradual improvement in my transcript over the years (3.0 in sophomore year, going to end junior year with 3.3, will hopefully graduate with 3.4).

Things that I've done/ have signed up to do soon:

- Learning assistant for an organic chemistry class - hold weekly workshops and office hours to help students with homework + help students with questions during class as well ( have done 6 months)

- Active member of Science Lionpride Ambassadors club - I basically represent the college of science at alumni events and orientation events for new students, give special science tours to prospective science students and raise money for THON (largest student run philanthropy in the world. (will have done 2 years)

- On site coordinator for Student Red Cross club - I mentor and supervise student volunteers during blood drives and engage with blood donors ( will have done 60 hours over 2 years)

- Bio behavioral health research - I'm working at a lab that is studying the effects of nicotine on learning an memory. Right now I'm being trained in lab techniques, will start assisting the grad students next semester (will have done 2 years)

- Best buddies - I've applied to this organization to be paired with a student with a disability and help him/her with homework and just college life in general (will do for 1.5 years)

- Centre helps - I've applied to volunteer at this crisis hotline for people struggling with alcohol, drugs and emotional support (will do for 1.5 years)

- Geisinger - I'm going to shadow a genetic counselor at a Geisinger Hospital next summer for a month-ish

Apart from all that, I'm planning on taking the GRE as soon as I graduate (Spring '19), and apply to programs at the end of 2019. i'm looking into UMich (#1 choice), Thomas Jefferson, Sarah Lawrence, UPitt, Indiana, Brandeis, UBoston, Emory and John Hopkins.

I'm thinking about getting letters of recommendation from the professor that i was a learning assistant for for 6 months, the professor whose lab I work in and the genetic counselor that I'm going to shadow. (I can send in the letters on my own when I'm applying to programs, right?)

SOOOOOOOOOOO, what do you guys think?????!!!!!

Any advice/ opinion would be greatly appreciated! <3

Edited October 10, 2017 by saidawg

[hfj23]

3 hours ago, saidawg said:

Hi guys! I'm an international junior in college right now and have just decided that I want to pursue Genetic Counseling in the future so I was wondering if you could look at my stats and give me some advice about areas that I could improve/ should be worried about lol.

I'm getting a B.S in Biotechnology at Penn State. I have a 3.2 cgpa right now but am very sure that I'm going to graduate with at least a 3.4 (is a 3.4/3.45 any good, honestly?), and my major gpa is going to be around 3.6/3.7, if that matters. I've gotten As/Bs in all the courses that most programs require (chemistry, organic chemistry, biology, biochemistry, genetics, statistics) but need to take another Psych class since I have a C+ in the only one I took freshman year. I basically started college with a 2.8 gpa, but show gradual improvement in my transcript over the years (3.0 in sophomore year, going to end junior year with 3.3, will hopefully graduate with 3.4).

Things that I've done/ have signed up to do soon:

- Learning assistant for an organic chemistry class - hold weekly workshops and office hours to help students with homework + help students with questions during class as well ( have done 6 months)

- Active member of Science Lionpride Ambassadors club - I basically represent the college of science at alumni events and orientation events for new students, give special science tours to prospective science students and raise money for THON (largest student run philanthropy in the world. (will have done 2 years)

- On site coordinator for Student Red Cross club - I mentor and supervise student volunteers during blood drives and engage with blood donors ( will have done 60 hours over 2 years)

- Bio behavioral health research - I'm working at a lab that is studying the effects of nicotine on learning an memory. Right now I'm being trained in lab techniques, will start assisting the grad students next semester (will have done 2 years)

- Best buddies - I've applied to this organization to be paired with a student with a disability and help him/her with homework and just college life in general (will do for 1.5 years)

- Centre helps - I've applied to volunteer at this crisis hotline for people struggling with alcohol, drugs and emotional support (will do for 1.5 years)

- Geisinger - I'm going to shadow a genetic counselor at a Geisinger Hospital next summer for a month-ish

Apart from all that, I'm planning on taking the GRE as soon as I graduate (Spring '19), and apply to programs at the end of 2019. i'm looking into UMich (#1 choice), Thomas Jefferson, Sarah Lawrence, UPitt, Indiana, Brandeis, UBoston, Emory and John Hopkins.

I'm thinking about getting letters of recommendation from the professor that i was a learning assistant for for 6 months, the professor whose lab I work in and the genetic counselor that I'm going to shadow. (I can send in the letters on my own when I'm applying to programs, right?)

SOOOOOOOOOOO, what do you guys think?????!!!!!

Any advice/ opinion would be greatly appreciated! <3

You seem to have great experience going for you! Your gpa is lower than the average accepted student (3.5) but if you've shown improvement and done well in the pre-reqs you should be fine. Also if you do good on the GRE it should help! Being able to shadow a GC for a whole month will look really good especially if they agree to write a recommendation as well. However, you're not allowed to send recommendations yourself they must be submitted directly to the programs. I'm a first time applicant so I can't give you much advice bc I'm struggling myself lol but your wealth of experience really stands out to me   

[lex94]

On 9/21/2017 at 4:18 PM, AspiringGC said:

 

@lex94 was accepted and is attending this year. I know she doesn't get on here too much anymore. She posted something on the second page of this thread and in last years. Maybe shoot her a PM and see if she has more insight into this!

sorry guys, been inactive on here for a little bit. i have info, message me if you wanna know more @AspiringGC @GCApp1522 @GCTripi